Kopitiam breakfast and drinks: kaya toast, kopi and teh decoded
By the Food Hunter team · Updated October 2026
A plain-language guide to coffee-shop drink codes and the classic kaya toast breakfast set.
What a kopitiam is
A kopitiam is a traditional coffee shop: an open-fronted shop with a drinks stall run by the owner and several food stalls renting space inside. It is a neighbourhood place for breakfast, a cheap lunch or a late supper, and is often open earlier than hawker centres.
The drink codes
Kopi is coffee with condensed milk. Kopi-o is black coffee with sugar. Kopi-c uses evaporated milk and sugar. Add 'kosong' for no sugar, 'siew dai' for less sugar and 'gah dai' for extra sweet. 'Peng' means iced. The same codes work for teh (tea): teh-o, teh-c, teh peng.
Example: 'kopi-o kosong peng' is iced black coffee with no sugar.
The kaya toast set
The classic breakfast is toasted bread with kaya (coconut and egg jam) and a slab of cold butter, served with two soft-boiled eggs and a hot drink. Crack the eggs into the saucer, add a dash of dark soy and white pepper, and dip the toast.
Other kopitiam favourites
Look out for economy rice (choose your own dishes over rice, priced by what you pick), wanton mee, nasi lemak, roti prata and zi char stalls that cook dishes to share in the evening.
Finding stalls inside
Because one kopitiam may hold six or more different stalls, Food Hunter shows a 'stalls inside' list for coffee shops when open map data records them, so you can see what is there before you walk over.