Breakfast in Singapore of Kaya Toast and Kopi For a Quintessential Singaporean Experience

A breakfast in Singapore of kaya toast and kopi must be one of the most quintessential Singaporean experiences and it’s hard to resist an opportunity to participate in a local morning ritual that involves sipping, dunking and crunching.

We’ve long loved a good strong kopi (coffee) since we first sipped the inky brew on our inaugural trip to Malaysia 21 years ago. But we were ambivalent about kaya toast – kaya coconut jam slathered on toasted white bread with a slab of butter – which we first tried on a trip to Malaysian Borneo. The sickly-sweet kaya we sampled in Sabah did not make an impression at the time.

That was soon set to change after our first breakfast in Singapore of kaya toast and kopi and soft-boiled eggs with white pepper and soy sauce, where the savoury and salty offset the sweetness of the kaya. Little did I realise, but I would quickly become addicted to what would become a quintessential Singaporean experience for me – breakfast of kaya toast and kopi and eggs.

Breakfast in Singapore of Kaya Toast and Kopi For a Quintessential Singaporean Experience

Kaya Toast and Kopi

Kopi is the Malay-Hokkien name for the smooth, thick, syrupy coffee made from sweetened condensed milk found all over Singapore, Malaysia, parts of Indonesia, and in Cambodia and Thailand where there are Cambodians and Thais of Chinese heritage.

Kaya is a sweet coconut jam or spread that can sometimes be creamy and dense and at other times be almost custard-like, concocted from coconut, sugar, eggs, and either pandan, when it’s greenish-yellow, or palm sugar, when it’s a brownish colour.

Kaya toast is simply kaya spread over thick slabs of margarine or butter, sandwiched between two pieces of toast. Traditionally toasted over fire, so it had a smokiness about it, the bread is often twice toasted and can be very dry and crispy.

It’s thought that Hainanese immigrants who worked as cooks for the tea and toast-loving British during the colonial period, replaced European-style jams with this Southeast Asian equivalent, thereby inventing what would become a quintessential breakfast in Singapore and Malaysia.

Kaya Toast and Kopi Singapore Style

What made kaya toast and kopi more appetising in Singapore than Sabah was the addition of soft boiled eggs served in a small dish on the side into which the kaya toast is dipped. Dunking buttered toast fingers (or soldiers, as we called them) into soft-boiled eggs was a breakfast favourite of our Australian childhoods, so we got this completely.

The way they do their soft-boiled eggs in Singapore, so that the yolk is still runny and the whites soft, is perfect – and something I usually struggle to get hotels in Southeast Asia to do. Dunking the kaya toast softens the crunch a tad and the savouriness of the eggs balances out the sweetness of the kaya. The bittersweet flavours of the kopi… well, let’s just say there are few better ways to kickstart a day in Singapore.

The Kopitiam

So where do you go for kaya toast and kopi? Head to a kopitiam or kopi tiam – a term from the Chinese Hokkien and Hakka dialects for coffee shop.

These traditional coffee shops are all over Singapore, as well as Malaysia, especially Penang, and in southern Thailand, particularly in Phuket. They come in many shapes and forms, from simple old-fashioned places that have clearly seen better days to smart, contemporary cafés that have been franchised, like Ya Kun Kaya Toast, which started out as a coffee stall in 1944.

You also don’t have to limit kopi and kaya toast to breakfast time. In recent years, as part of what I like to call the ‘everything old is new again trend’, kaya toast and kopi has gone from being a quintessential local breakfast in Singapore to a popular snack at anytime of day that young Singaporeans increasingly go out to enjoy together with a group of friends. This is how to explain the flourishing of the  contemporary kopitiam franchises.

How to Order Kaya Toast and Kopi

You can order your kopi, kaya toast and eggs separately or as a set that will be presented to you on a tray. In most kopitiams you generally order at the counter and the tray is delivered to your table. The set always tends to be a little bit cheaper too.

If you want the coffee I described above with condensed milk, just order ‘kopi’. If you’d prefer it with evaporated milk, it’s ‘kopi c’. The ‘c’ comes from the Hainanese ‘xi’ meaning ‘fresh’, as in fresh evaporated milk.

If you want either of those with ice, then it’s ‘kopi peng’ (‘peng’ meaning iced) and ‘kopi c peng’ respectively. For sweet, hot black coffee, order ‘kopi o’ (‘o’ is black); with ice, it’s ‘kopi o peng’.

If you’d like your coffee hot and black but without sugar, say ‘kopi o kosong’ (‘kosong’ means zero); with ice, ‘kopi oh kosong peng’.

And if you prefer any of those options with evaporated milk instead of condensed, just add a ‘c’ after kopi, so ‘kopi c kosong’, which is hot coffee, unsweetened, with evaporated milk. You get the idea.

The Best Kopitiams for a Kaya and Kopi Breakfast in Singapore

Ya Kun Kaya Toast

For your first breakfast in Singapore we recommend the spot where we enjoyed our first experience of kaya toast and kopi and that was at Ya Kun Kaya Toast. Don’t dismiss Ya Kun Kaya Toast because it’s now a global chain. It was also one of the oldest kopitiams in Singapore. The original coffee shop has more character but this simple café in the Fortune Centre (famous for its Muslim vegetarian eateries), was recommended to us. It was some of the crunchiest toast we had, the kaya was creamy and sugary, and the kopi was syrupy and sweet. But the eggs, oh the eggs. These must be the world’s most perfect soft-boiled eggs.
18 China Street, Far East Square (original)
Fortune Centre, 190 Middle Road, Bras Basah-Bugis area, open from 7.30am

Nanyang Old Coffee

Toast that wasn’t too crunchy, kaya that wasn’t overly sweet, precisely cooked eggs, and deliciously muddy kopi. Make kaya and kopi here your second breakfast in Singapore. At the Chinatown branch of Nanyang Old Coffee, a smaller franchise than Ya Kun Kaya Toast, locals tend to sit inside in the air-conditioned cool while tourists opt for outside tables on the corner of the recently revitalised Smith Street eat street. There’s a tiny coffee museum inside with a small display of coffee paraphernalia, including a primitive roasting machine, traditional porcelain cups and antique coffee tins.
Corner Smith Street and South Bridge Road, Chinatown, open from 7am

Tong Ah Coffee Shop

Go old-school for your third kaya and kopi breakfast in Singapore. The kaya is coarse and flavoursome, the butter spread thick, and the twice-grilled toast crunchy. The coffee, half of which ends up on the saucer (presentation is not the old uncle’s strong point) is syrupy, strong and sweet. The noodles (different menu; made out back) are also very popular.
36 Keong Saik Road, Chinatown, open from 7am

Killeney Kopitiam

You can’t complete your kaya and kopi breakfast in Singapore tour without a visit to one of Singapore’s oldest Hainanese coffee shops, first known as Qiong Xin He. Expect heady, freshly-roasted coffee and creamy butter and pandan kaya on thick soft toast. French toast was also a signature dish of one of the original owners, Ah Gong, who started at the old kopitiam in 1951 before selling it in the 1990s when it became Killeney Kopitam. It’s now a chain with franchises across Southeast Asia and Australia but still worth a visit.
67 Killiney Road, near Orchard Road, open from 6am

Good Morning Nanyang Café

Your breakfast in Singapore tour would not be complete without kaya and copi at Good Morning Nanyang Cafe. Creamy aromatic coffee and pandan kaya jam and butter spread on your choice of thickly sliced white or brown toast, fresh-baked scones or Italian ciabatta. Set in a community centre, it’s largely locals sipping, dunking and crunching here.
Telok Ayer Hong Lim Green Community Centre, 20 Upper Pickering Street, Chinatown, open from 7.30am.

UPDATE: The Good Morning Nanyang cafe at Hong Lim Green has closed, but they still have outlets at Far East Plaza on Scotts Road and The Grandstand in Bukit Timah.

Published 31 May 2014; partially updated 18 January 2022. We’ll do a full and proper update when we can travel again.

Do you like kaya toast and kopi and do you have a favourite kopitiam for breakfast in Singapore? Feel free to share your recommended spots in the comments below and we’ll try them on our next trip.