Don Pie and Chicken Pie Kitchen: how the names relate

Two names, one chef. That is the shortest way to explain Don Pie and Chicken Pie Kitchen. The longer way needs a little history, a table and one important limit on what we will say.

What does each name mean?

How do the names connect?

Through Chef Don Lim and his recipe. He created the pie recipe (in 1983, by the brand’s account), opened Don Pie in 2000, sold the Don Pie brand around 2014 to 2015, and kept cooking under other names. When he opened at Tyrwhitt Road in 2021 with his nephew, the restaurant took a plain, descriptive name: Chicken Pie Kitchen, joined to the crab business he had built in Toa Payoh, Don Signature Crab.

Food writers made the connection immediately. One 2022 headline framed the restaurant as Don Pie’s founder returning to bake his pies. In 2023 another simply said the Don was back.

Why is the restaurant not just called “Don Pie”?

Because the Don Pie name was sold around 2014 to 2015 and, by the brand’s own account, changed hands afterwards. A new name was the straightforward choice. In 2025 a relaunched “DON: Your Personal Pie Club” website appeared, with online orders that go to the same Tyrwhitt Road kitchen, so the old name and the new kitchen now meet online too.

Which name should I look for?

If you want DonChef’s pies today, look for Chicken Pie Kitchen & Don Signature Crab. That is the name on the Tyrwhitt Road restaurant, on the four kiosks, and on the official ordering site. The menu describes the Original Chicken Pie as “Singapore’s original Chicken Pie, since 1983”, which is the brand’s tagline.

The ordering site’s FAQ also says the business has no franchise outlets and no ongoing partnerships to supply its pies to others. So the five outlets listed in our outlet guide are the places to buy. For how the business sits among other Singapore pie sellers, see Pie Singapore’s seller profile.

Does the pie taste the same as the old Don Pie?

The brand says it is the same recipe “since the China Square days”. A 2022 food writer said one bite took them straight back to childhood, and customer reviews quoted on the brand’s site say the pie tastes as it did twenty years ago. Taste memory is not a lab test, but on this point the brand and its regulars agree. The kitchen explains what “original” means for the recipe at more length. Read more in what reviewers say.

Does Chicken Pie Kitchen only sell pies?

No, and that is the other difference between the old shop and the new one. Chicken Pie Kitchen & Don Signature Crab is a full restaurant: pies, cakes and kueh lapis on one side, crab bee hoon soup and seafood on the other. Crab is sold at the flagship and the AMK Hub kiosk; the other kiosks sell pies only. The brand sums it up as “West meets East”.