Products and Stores
Ya Kun Kaya Toast have over thirty Singaporean outlets, about half of which are franchised, and over twenty overseas outlets, all franchised, across five countries: Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Taiwan; they plan to expand to Malaysia and Brunei next. The stores have a retro ambience, with wooden tables and stools, Chinese calligraphy of the company name, posters about their history, traditional methods of preparing food and customer service reflecting Chinese family values. Unlike their main competitors, they have a limited menu that revolves around their core product, kaya toast, with cheese, peanut butter and ice cream as alternative spreads for their thin, brown, crispy bread. To appeal to a wider demographic, Ya Kun also sell French toast and Toastwiches (their Asian alternative to sandwiches); set meals combine any type of toast with soft-boiled eggs and a beverage, usually coffee or teh tarik.
Prices at local Ya Kun stores are slightly higher than those at kopitiams, but lower than prices of comparable products at Western coffeehouse chains operating in Singapore, while food at overseas Ya Kun outlets is relatively expensive. All outlets obtain their ingredients from the same suppliers and some ingredients, notably the kaya and coffee powder, are made at the Ya Kun factory in Bedok, using recipes that only a few of the Loi family know. The chain are "widely regarded as an institution of good kaya toast" and "a Singaporean cultural icon" that the Singapore Tourism Board has promoted as a tourist attraction. A Ming Pao review praised the "crispy but not hard, fragrant but not burnt" toast and fresh kaya, while a Straits Times review described the toast as "evenly sliced" and of "the right texture", the eggs as "cooked to perfection" and the teh tarik as "not too milky and not overpoweringly sweet either".
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