Roast & Coffee - No Pork, No Lard @ Johore Bahru [Malaysia]

After a hiatus of more than two years, I finally stepped foot on foreign land and the first thing we sought after clearing Malaysian immigration at Johore Bahru, was breakfast!

Singaporeans' favorite Hua Mui was too crowded and we decided to check out Roast & Coffee, which appeared new and located very near to the famous Hiap Joo bakery (signature: banana cake).

With such a nice, retro facade, I was expected an over-the-top heritage interior design within but it was pretty sparse with non-fanciful tables and chairs that served a basic, practical need.

I am a traditional at heart and the Hainanese breakfast, popular in both Malaysia and Singapore, is the kind that I would crave from time to time, especially when I am overseas! 

Order made! 

Payment after you are done. 

 

Kopi Gao Siew Dai - what makes a good cup of nanyang style coffee? The enticing aroma, a flavor that was strong yet not to the extent of being overly bitter, and a muted sweetness. That's for me by the way and this sure didn't disappoint, and was a positive sign to the start of the day! 

Double Butter Kaya - as the name suggest, this is double butter, not double kaya; latter of which would be preferred personally. The butter-kaya combination was tasty; only issue was the toasted bread. While it was crispy (I should have loved it honestly) but it didn't have that nice, bready fragrance. 

Kampong Egg - eggs to me are really just eggs, even though there were hypes about 1st born egg, eggs with added carotene etc. In this case, the eggs were kampong eggs, which I assumed eggs were from free roaming kampong chicken. Active hens equate to better, healthier eggs I guess.

The soft-boiled level was just right and with the pepper and soy sauce; this is yet again another classic breakfast that Malaysian / Singaporeans enjoy! Of course, the lazy bug and the clumsy monster in me would have liked it more if the operator breaks the eggs for me. 

Salted Egg French Toast - frankly, I wasn't very keen to order this but out of the 10 top best reviewed dishes, this was the only one that appealed more to me that day as the majority of the rest seemed to incur a huge calories intake. 

I wasn't that enthusiastic as the last time I had something similar, at Chau Kee Dim Sum in Hong Kong, it overwhelmed my taste buds, in a manner that was overly cloying. 

This, however, was surprisingly good!  The French toast was pan-fried perfectly, with a nice, crisp eggy exterior but more importantly was the salted egg sauce hidden within. It had that delicious flavor from salted egg crabs / prawns, not insanely sweet and with familiar bits of chili padi and curry leaves!

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A satisfactory first meal for my first overseas trip in over two years! 

Shall give the toast a miss in the future as there are nine other dishes on the top ten reviewed list that I had yet to check out. Maybe salted egg kampong chicken rice next time? 

Address

62&63, Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Bandar Johor Bahru, 

80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Map

As above.

Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/roastandcoffee/

Pricing

Kopi Gao Siew Dai - RM 2.60

Double Butter Kaya - RM 3.20

Kampong Egg - RM 3.00

Salted Egg French Toast - RM 8.90

(Subject to Tax) 

To know more about my day trip to Johore Bahru, the first since border closure in April 2020, click here!