GCI Places

Curated collection · Coffee & walk

Coffee Before the Cafés

Singapore drank kopi in shophouses for a century before specialty coffee arrived, and both are still trading — sometimes on the same street. These four run from the older tradition to the newer one.

Assembled and reviewed by Global City Intelligence on 2026-09-08. The order below is a suggested route, not a ranking.

The route

  1. Ya Kun Kaya Toast Far East Square

    Outram

    From a Telok Ayer coffee stall of 1944, now in the restored Far East Square shophouses.

  2. Chin Mee Chin Confectionery

    Marine Parade

    A Katong kopitiam of 1925, kept as a working bakery.

    A two-storey blue shophouse on a street corner with a striped awning over the shopfront
    The blue corner shophouse Chin Mee Chin Confectionery occupies on East Coast Road. Chainwit. · CC-BY-4.0

  3. Chye Seng Huat Hardware

    A 1940s hardware shophouse on Tyrwhitt Road turned into a roastery.

  4. Nylon Coffee Roasters

    Bukit Merah

    A roastery in an Everton Park housing block, which is where much of the city actually lives.

4 of 4 places shown on the map. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.