Located at Cairnhill Circle on the outskirts of Orchard Road, the Cairnhill Hotel had a troubled beginning. Work began on the property, which was then known as the Regency Hotel, in the late 1960s during the hotel construction boom but came to an abrupt halt in 1970 due to financing problems. The half-built hotel was eventually acquired by a group of Singaporean, Malaysian and Hong Kong businessmen in 1978. The new owners renamed the property Cairnhill Hotel and provided the funds for construction work to be completed. One of the hotel’s new co-owners was Malaysian housing developer Tan Kim Hai, whose family would later become the sole owners of the property. In the 1980s, the hotel’s coffee house, Coffee Garden, became known for its buffet spread that featured signature dishes such as drunken prawns and ‘bak kut teh’ (pork rib soup). In 1990, the Crystal Jade Chinese restaurant chain started its first outlet in the hotel. Property developer Wing Tai Holdings bought the hotel, along with three adjoining terrace houses, in 1996. The hotel closed its doors three years later and was eventually demolished to make way for the Light @ Cairnhill condominium project.
