The pat of butter didn’t stand a chance as it slid across the surface of the coconut-custard-slathered toast, surrendering to the warmth of the bread beneath. “This is one of the few places left where they still toast over charcoal,” my guide, Desiree Koh, told me as we crunched our kaya toasts at Chin Mee Chin Confectionery.

Opened a century ago by Hainanese immigrants, who came to Singapore to work as cooks for the British, this kopitiam ( “corner diner”) is a beloved fixture in Katong-Joo Chiat, Singapore’s most underrated food neighborhood.

Visitors often skip K-JC, as the area is called. But Koh, a lifelong resident, invites them to stay awhile and sit down to Singapore’s best breakfast: wobbling soft-boiled eggs, kaya toast, and a frosty “iced Milo dinosaur” (a popular malt-style chocolate shake).

Related: I Visited Singapore With My 3-year-old — Here’s Why It’s a Low-key Dream Destination for Kids

A food-obsessed journalist, Koh has been going to the diner since she was a kid, “when the grumpy aunties would be barking at us to eat and get out.” Despite the forces of gentrification at play in the city, many of the culinary businesses along the two main drags, East Coast and Joo Chiat roads, have been in the same families for generations. 

“People come from all over,” Koh told me. “A 30-minute road trip to eat at a particular place is one of our national pastimes—unless you live in K-JC, because why would you ever leave?”

Here are some of Koh’s top spots:

Haig Road Putu Piring

At this 40-year-old stand, in the outdoor hawker center of the same name, caramelized palm sugar is pressed into warm, aromatic rice cakes. 

Hjh Maimunah

Head here for lunch, where burbling pans of turmeric-gold curry, butterflied fish strewn with red onions and green chiles, and dozens of other vivid Malaysian dishes line the triple-decker counter. The staff will heap your picks onto a plate of rice, which you can garnish with five different fire-breathing sambals.

Kway Guan Huat Joo Chiat Popiah

Founded by Fujianese immigrants in 1938, this one of the few shops in Singapore still making popiah from scratch. They’re packed with seafood or vegetables and various condiments (sambals, peanuts, pickled pineapple), and rolled up like burritos.

Chin Mee Chin Confectionery

A classic spot for kaya toast with eggs, and other breakfast delights, open since 1925.

Soon Soon Huat

The ultra-flaky, seashell-shaped curry puffs at Soon Soon Huat are dead ringers for Italian sfogliatelle, though their actual inspiration is the Cornish pasty, from Singapore’s colonial British era. The pies have savory fillings like chicken curry and, my favorite, chili-spiced sardines.

To further explore the culinary and cultural melting pot of the city, visit the Peranakan Mansion by Straits Enclave. Set in a 1928 shophouse, it displays a collection of ornate furniture, embroidered costumes, and antiques. It offers a window into the culture of the Chinese-Malay-Indonesian people (known as the Peranakan) who settled in K-JC in the early 20th century.

A version of this story first appeared in the April 2025 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline “Savoring Singapore.”