Chin Mee Chin Confectionery

Closed in 2018, back in 2021, 100 in 2025. The buns are still round.

Chin Mee Chin is the Katong breakfast to bring someone to, whether they remember the old place or never got the chance. Order kaya toast on the round buns, soft-boiled eggs and a kopi, then more from the glass counter than you need. The compromises are small but real: it closes mid-afternoon, the best bakes go first, and the walk from Marine Parade MRT is about ten minutes in the Katong heat. Go early, ideally on a weekday.

Why it matters

It has been on East Coast Road since 1925, which makes it one of the oldest coffeeshops in Singapore. When it shut in 2018 after more than 90 years, struggling to find staff, the east took it personally, and the corner shophouse sat silent until 2021. Ebb & Flow Group revived it that year, and it now runs under the original family in partnership with the group.

The good news is that nobody tried to make it cool. The marble tables, wooden chairs, tiled floors and vintage fittings all survived; the main change outside is a coat of cyan paint and deep red lettering. Take a table on the outdoor patio and you look across Chapel Road to the Church of the Holy Family. It is still a neighbourhood bakery, and the prices still feel like one.

What to order

The thing it has always done: kaya toast on round buns, toasted over charcoal, with soft-boiled eggs and a kopi. That is the reason to come, and the reason to come early. Then the glass counter: cream horns, cherry-topped cupcakes of the old school, sugee cake, chiffon slices and savoury buns, including a hae bee hiam bun. Buy the cream horns before you sit down, not after.

The centenary in 2025 brought new dishes: a French toast trio made with shokupan, curry pork chop rice, braised pork belly with preserved greens, and pang susi, the Peranakan sweet potato bun filled with minced pork and candied winter melon. Order the pang susi if you see it. Treat the lunch plates as a bonus rather than the reason to come; nobody crosses the east for pork chop rice when there is kaya toast on the table.

How to do it well

Come in the morning, when the counter is full. It is not halal-certified. A second outlet at NEX has been announced, which will suit the north-east, but the East Coast Road shophouse is the one with the tables and the history. Order more cream horns than you need. You will eat them on the bus home.

Good to know About a ten-minute walk from Marine Parade MRT. Open daily from 8am and closes at 4pm, or earlier if sold out; sources disagree on last orders (3.30pm or 3.45pm). Not halal-certified. A second outlet at NEX has been announced; check before you go.

Chin Mee Chin Confectionery | 204 East Coast Road, Singapore 428903 | Nearest MRT: Marine Parade