In addition to eating at home or at malls, Singaporeans like to go to Chin Mee Chin, a hundred-year-old breakfast restaurant on East Coast Road.
Located at 204 East Coast Road, Singapore, the century-old Chin Mee Chin restaurant has a sky-blue facade and red Chinese signage. The store was founded in 1925, initially as a small coffee shop and gradually became famous with locals. The first owner of Tan Hui Dong shop started selling more confectionery and sweets.
For a century, the shop has welcomed many generations of diners with soft and diverse pastries. The most famous dish is toast spread with kaya and cheese and enjoyed with a glass of iced coffee or milo or tea. Soft, round bread is cut in half and spread with kaya, a mixture made from coconut milk, sugar, eggs, and pandan leaves. The cake has a fragrant, sweet, greasy flavor. Singaporeans often dip a piece of bread spread with kaya into a plate of soft-boiled eggs sprinkled with white pepper and soy sauce. A breakfast including kaya bread, two soft-boiled eggs served on old but clean enameled plates and a glass of drink costs 5.6 SGD (100,000 VND).
“The bread is soft, the kaya is sweet and fragrant, the butter is rich. When I bit into that very soft bread, I understood why there is always a long line waiting to eat at this restaurant,” Bich Ngan, traveler. Vietnamese customers shared when enjoying this famous dish at the store.
Today, the restaurant is a favorite destination for locals and tourists who want to learn about the culture and see how Singaporeans eat breakfast. Even on weekdays, there is always a long line of customers waiting for their turn.
A few years ago, the shop closed for two years. With the help of the Singapore Tourism Board to restore past heritage, the bakery was reopened in 2021. Today, the restaurant has many changes with a more diverse menu. However, kaya spread bread still retains almost the same preparation method and ingredients as it did hundreds of years ago.
The restaurant has two indoor and outdoor dining spaces to serve visitors with wooden chairs and ceiling fans, and black and white tiled floors bring nostalgia. The indoor and outdoor spaces are both small, containing more than 10 tables serving a maximum of 30-40 guests at the same time. In addition to eating on site, visitors can order takeout. The restaurant is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and accepts orders at the latest at 3:30 p.m.