Kaya Toast & Kopi-Obsessed Scotsman Shares Top 3 Breakfast Spots In Singapore
The Harvard Business School negotiation specialist’s passion is reviewing kopitiam breakfasts on IG: “I wanted to show [my videos to] some expats who’d say, ‘yuck, that’s low-grade cheap coffee,’ or ‘those eggs aren’t cooked, you’ll get salmonella’ — both completely untrue, by the way!”
Meet Scott Harrison (@scott_in_sg), a 48-year-old Scotsman who has been living his best kopitiam life in Singapore for the past 16 years. Not long after arriving here, Scott found himself falling in love with our traditional Nanyang-style breakfast. The self-professed “kopi fanatic” started posting IG and TikTok videos of his kaya toast and kopi adventures late last year, with one of those clips going viral and racking up over 395K views. With his heavily tattooed arms and animated demeanour, Scott hardly looks like your typical negotiation consultant with a cert in Advanced Negotiation Mastery from Harvard Business School.
When he’s not busy running his own consultancy, he’s cheerfully reviewing kopi and toast sets in his Scottish brogue while using local vernacular. After sampling more than a dozen kaya toast joints – from standalone kopitiams to large chains – he shares his top three picks with 8days.sg. But more on that later.
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Says videos help educate expats who think, “oh, those eggs aren’t cooked, you’ll get salmonella”
He tells 8days.sg his video reviews are to raise awareness for kopitiam culture, and support small businesses – all while just “having fun doing it unscripted, in the moment.”
Did he initially struggle to eat half-boiled eggs, like many Westerners? Scott laughs. “That’s part of the reason I did my first video, to show some expats I know who would say, ‘Yuck, that’s low-grade cheap coffee,’ or ‘Oh those eggs aren’t cooked, you’ll get salmonella’ – both completely untrue, by the way! The eggs are safe, and kopi is only less expensive because the beans are bought from Indonesia. They’re not low-grade, there’s just less logistical and import costs attached.”
He always orders his go-to combo of kaya toast, soft-boiled eggs, and kopi, and he’s made it a personal mission to spotlight these typically Singaporean breakfasts.
Aside from kaya toast, Scott says: “I also enjoy bee hoon, Hokkien mee, nasi lemak, and I love carrot cake, especially at breakfast”.
Scott makes it a point to eat a Singaporean breakfast every single day. He muses, “There is no kaya equivalent in Scotland – it’s marmalade on toast or strawberry jam.”
In case you’re wondering, Scott is married to a local. “I have a Singaporean wife, we’ve been together for 10 years and married for six,” he tells 8days.sg. Scott met his wife at a career event that they both attended. She works in cybersecurity at ByteDance, better known as the parent company of TikTok.
Rated retro joint Heap Seng Leong 20/10, but not among his top 3 picks
Though he cheekily rated the brekkie at Heap Seng Leong a sky-high 20/10, it surprisingly doesn’t make his top three picks. His enthusiastic TikTok review at the old-school North Bridge Road kopitiam – where he declared "If there's a heaven, this has got to be it" after dipping toast into soft-boiled eggs – captured Singaporeans’ hearts with his thick brogue pronouncing "kopi gu you" (butter coffee).
The video went viral partly thanks to netizens obsessing over his accent. "Your accent made it 10,000 times so much more amazing," wrote one fan, while another gushed: "I just love your enthusiasm for local food!"
Heap Seng Leong is a time capsule of a kopitiam, located at North Bridge Road. It has been around since the 1970s, and is best known for its kopi gu you, where a thick slab of butter is stirred into black coffee for a more sinful, lemak rendition of kopi gao.
The kaya toast here is charcoal-grilled, paired with no-frills canned kaya and soft-boiled eggs.
"Oh my days, that is absolutely, absolutely beautiful," Scott exclaimed after taking a bite. "Absolutely out of this world, I could eat that all day long."
But the real star moment? When he tried kopi gu you for the first time: "Kopi with butter is something else," he enthused, highlighting the coffee's "flavoursome" and "smooth" qualities, with the butter giving him a "tingle".
From Scotland to Singapore
Scott, who's from Dumbarton, Scotland, originally moved here on a work assignment to set up an office and, in his words, “never left again.”
Now a Permanent Resident applying for citizenship, the 48-year-old is a negotiation specialist, consultant, trainer and strategic advisor, and the founder of Apex Negotiations.
Here are his top three kaya toast and kopi picks:
1. Killiney (Upp East Coast Road)
"I love my local Killiney," Scott tells 8days.sg. After all, his very first Nanyang-style breakfast TikTok was filmed there, where he declared the kaya butter toast set with kopi C kosong gao peng (thick, iced) his “all-time favourite.” He raves about the kopi’s strong flavour – “the best” in his books. He says the toast comes with thicker bread and richer kaya than its rivals.
“I’ve been coming [to this Upp East Coast branch of Killiney] every single morning for years without fail,” he adds. “Every day I go inside, the auntie and uncle know exactly what I’m going to order.” While he also gives props to Ya Kun and Fun Toast, he maintains Killiney reigns supreme thanks to both the food and the relationships he’s built with the staff — at least at this outlet in the east.
Killiney Kopitiam is located at 11 Upp East Coast Rd, S455205
2. Pang Pang Kopi
Run by the Koufu group, Pang Pang Kopi, a standalone stall at Singpost Centre, also earns high praise from Scott. “Excellent breakfast, warm service – just a really good all-rounder,” Scott says.
In his TikTok review, you can hear the excitement in his voice when he spots the kopi brewing ‘sock’: “That’s where the real magic happens.” His toast assessment? "Loads of kaya jam, loads of butter. Perfect kaya toast." Followed by: "Ahhhh man, I could eat that all day, every day. That's too good, the kaya jam is just oozing out."
Then comes the “holy grail”– a kopi o kosong dilo (extra thick black kopi sans sugar) served in a ceramic cup instead of plastic. And it gets him properly caffeinated: "I can feel that the minute that I drink it, my heart's palpitating."
“Probably one of the best kaya toasts I’ve tasted in quite some time, 10 out of 10, all good,” he declares.
Pang Pang Kopi SG is located at #01-151 SingPost Centre, 10 Eunos Rd 8, S408600
“The kopi stall at” Pp146 Food House
Located at Blk 146 Potong Pasir, the kopi and toast stall at this low-key kopitiam with an unusual name makes Scott’s list.
“I think it’s called Pp146 food house. It’s basically a kopi stall at the HDB, but it’s good,” Scott tells 8days.sg. Unfortunately, he couldn’t recall the exact name of the stall.
He admits there are close rivals – namely Keng Wah Sung, Ah Koo Kopi, and YY Kafei Dian among them – but what he nicknames “Potong Pasir Kopi” (Pp146 is a mouthful, after all) wins for its nostalgia and charm.
Not on his list? Toast Box? “An absolute no-no.” For its “watered-down coffee” and “only one piece of toast.” He even hilariously declares that he is “buay song” (unhappy) with its quality.
Pp146 Food House is located at 146 Potong Pasir Ave 1, S350146
Photos: scott_in_sg, Google Maps
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