Kopitiam — Singapore and Malaysia's coffee-and-hawker shops

A kopitiam is a traditional coffee shop found across Singapore and Malaysia, typically combining a coffee stall with several independent food vendors under one roof — closer to a small food court than a single café. The name blends the Malay word for coffee (kopi) with the Hokkien word for shop (tiam).

The signature drink, kopi, is traditionally brewed through a cloth filter using beans that are often roasted with sugar or margarine, giving the coffee a dark, distinctly caramelized flavor compared with Western-style roasts. Regulars order using a shorthand code for sweetness and milk type — for example, kopi-O for black coffee with sugar, or kopi-C for coffee with evaporated milk — understood at any kopitiam.

Kopitiams function as social institutions as much as places to eat — older regulars in particular are known to spend long stretches of the morning there over coffee and toast. Newer specialty cafés have opened alongside kopitiams across the region, but the traditional kopitiam format remains widely used on its own terms.