Questions about the original Don pie

The original Don is Chef Don Lim (林德發), the Singapore cook who founded Don Pie. He created his chicken pie recipe in 1983, by his own account, while baking for the Hewlett-Packard staff cafeteria, and opened his first shop, DON: Your Personal Pie Club, at Far East Square in 2000. In 2021 he co-founded Chicken Pie Kitchen & Don Signature Crab, where the pies are baked today under the DonChef name. Read who is the original Don.

DonChef is the name Chicken Pie Kitchen & Don Signature Crab bakes under today. Every pie that leaves the kitchen is a DonChef pie, made to the original recipe that Don Pie founder and kitchen co-founder Chef Don Lim created in 1983.

The original Don pie is DonChef’s Original Chicken Pie, made to Chef Don Lim’s own recipe by the kitchen he co-founded at 39 Tyrwhitt Road. It has chunks of chicken, potato and vegetables in a spice blend, half a hard-boiled egg and a golden, flaky crust. See the Original Chicken Pie.

It is called a Don pie after Chef Don Lim. His first shop, DON: Your Personal Pie Club at Far East Square, carried his name, and customers shortened it to Don or Don Pie. The name has stayed attached to his pies ever since.

Chicken Pie Kitchen & Don Signature Crab is Chef Don Lim’s own business, and he is the founder of the original Don Pie. The Original Chicken Pie we bake is his recipe, which our product notes describe as the same recipe since the China Square days. Chef Don sold the Don Pie brand around 2014-2015; we do not speak for anyone who has traded under that name since.

The first Don Pie shop, DON: Your Personal Pie Club, opened at Far East Square in the Raffles Place area in 2000, according to our records (the pie club website gives 2001). It later grew into a restaurant across the street at China Square Central, 20 Cross Street.

Three generations of one family have fed people for a living. Chef Don’s father, a first-generation Hainanese immigrant, ran a chicken rice stall on Purvis Street. Chef Don created the pie. His nephew Kelvin Leong helped him open our Tyrwhitt Road kitchen in 2021. See the Hainanese thread.

It is our own tagline. It means our Original Chicken Pie is made to Chef Don Lim’s recipe, which he dates to 1983. The date belongs to the recipe, not to a shop, and the tagline does not claim that ours was the first chicken pie in Singapore. Read what “since 1983” means.

No. Neighbourhood bakeries were selling chicken pies in Singapore before 1983, and some bakeries still selling chicken pies today trace their histories to 1965 and 1926. Our claim is that this is the original of Chef Don’s pie, not the first chicken pie in Singapore. See who made Singapore’s first chicken pie.

The surest test is where you bought it. We have no franchises and supply no one else, so the original Don pie is sold only at our five outlets and through our official ordering sites. Then check for a golden, flaky crust, chunky chicken and potato, half a hard-boiled egg and a same-day bake. Use the seven signs of the original.

No. We do not have any franchise outlets, and we have no ongoing partnerships to supply our pies or food to others. Our pies are sold only at our flagship, our four kiosks and our official ordering sites.

The Original Chicken Pie has tender chunks of chicken, potato and vegetables in a spice blend we keep private, half a hard-boiled egg, and a creamy gravy, all inside a golden, flaky crust made from pastry dough we make in-house.

Half a hard-boiled egg is our signature, and an old-school, Hainanese-style touch many Singaporeans expect in a chicken pie. Blog posts about Chef Don Lim’s pies from 2006 and 2008 mention it. The egg adds richness and a firm contrasting bite. Read the half egg.

We describe it as golden and flaky. Food writers have called it buttery, puffy, crumbly and biscuit-like, and it does not sit neatly in either category, so we do not label it as one. Read the golden, flaky crust.

Yes. Our pies are baked in small batches in deck ovens at 39 Tyrwhitt Road, and we keep a strict zero overnight pies policy, so every pie is sold on the day it is baked. Read zero overnight pies.

Most of our pies come in two sizes on our printed menu: Personal, which feeds one, and Whole, which feeds four to six.

No pork, no lard; not Halal-certified. We use no pork and no lard in our kitchen, but our restaurant serves alcohol and welcomes pets, so we are not Halal-certified and we do not claim that any of our products are Halal. The same answer, with more on what the wording means, is on Is Don Pie halal?

Our ordering FAQ lists nuts, eggs, dairy and gluten among the allergens in our products. If you have an allergy, please ask at the counter before you buy.

For the best results, eat the pie within about four hours of buying it. Otherwise refrigerate it and eat it within three days. Our air fryer guidance is 150C for about five minutes, then 200C for about five minutes. Always reheat until piping hot in the centre.

At our flagship at 39 Tyrwhitt Road, Jalan Besar, at our kiosks in AMK Hub, Wisma Atria, White Sands and Tiong Bahru Plaza, and through our official ordering sites. Addresses, hours and links are on where to get the original Don pie.

No. Chef Don cooked in Toa Payoh North from about 2015 to 2021, first crab bee hoon at Blk 206 and then pies at 1008A Toa Payoh Food Centre II from 2019, but both stalls have closed. The nearest outlet now is our AMK Hub kiosk, three MRT stops north. Read the Toa Payoh years.

Yes. The Crab Bee Hoon Soup, which our menu calls the signature dish that started it all, is served at our Tyrwhitt Road flagship and sold at our AMK Hub kiosk. Our other kiosks sell pies only.

Yes. Delivery is arranged through our online ordering site as an advance order, using third-party drivers, with the fee based on distance. Terms change, so check the ordering site, linked from where to get the original Don pie, for current fees. For a wider view of who delivers chicken pies in Singapore and how, there is a separate buying guide.