A glossary of Don Pie names and terms

Short definitions, grouped by theme. Each one is written to make sense on its own.

The names

Chef Don Lim

The founder of Don Pie (Chinese name 林德發). By the brand’s account he created his chicken pie recipe in 1983. He is a co-founder of Chicken Pie Kitchen & Don Signature Crab, opened in 2021. See Chef Don Lim.

Chicken Pie Kitchen & Don Signature Crab

The current trading name of Chef Don Lim’s restaurant at 39 Tyrwhitt Road and its four kiosks. It is where Don pies are baked and sold today.

Don Pie

The name of the pie brand Chef Don Lim founded at Far East Square in 2000, and the everyday name for his chicken pies. Also written “don pie” or “DON pie”. See what it is actually called.

Don pies

The plural: more than one Don pie.

Don’s pie

The possessive form: the pie that Don makes.

Don’s Pie & Cake

The name of Chef Don’s own pie stall at Toa Payoh Food Centre II, 1008A Toa Payoh North, from late 2019 to 2021. See Don’s Pie & Cake.

DON: Your Personal Pie Club (Don Pie Club)

The full name of the original Don Pie shop. A relaunched pie club website soft-launched in April 2025, with orders going to the Tyrwhitt Road kitchen.

Don Signature Crab

Chef Don’s crab bee hoon business, started at Blk 206 Toa Payoh North around 2015 and now the second half of the restaurant’s name.

DonChef

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 Chef Don Lim created in 1983, as in “DonChef’s Original Chicken Pie”. See every Don Pie name.

Menu terms

Original Chicken Pie

DonChef’s signature pie: chunky chicken, potato, vegetables and a spice blend in a golden, flaky crust, with half a hard-boiled egg. $6.80 personal on the February 2026 menu.

Half egg

Half a hard-boiled egg, baked inside the Original Chicken Pie and pictured in the Curry Pie. It is the old-school Hainanese touch reviewers mention most. The kitchen explains why there is half an egg in a Singapore chicken pie, and chickenpie.net’s world atlas places the Singapore Hainanese chicken pie among the world’s chicken pies.

Personal

The single-serve pie size. The menu says a personal pie feeds one.

Whole

The large pie size. The menu says a whole pie feeds four to six.

Shepherd’s pie

A pie topped with mashed potato instead of pastry. Don Pie’s version is the Chicken Shepherd’s Pie, made with the black pepper chicken filling and served in a tray.

Kueh lapis

A Southeast Asian layered spice cake baked one thin layer at a time. On the Don Pie menu from $4.80 a slice.

The OG Crab

The menu’s heading for its crab dishes, priced by crab weight from Regular (350 to 400g) to XL (700 to 800g).

Singapore food words

Bee hoon

Thin rice vermicelli noodles, used in the crab bee hoon soup.

Dabao

Singlish for takeaway, from Cantonese. “Can I dabao two pies?” is a perfectly normal sentence at a Don pie kiosk.

Dang gui

Angelica root, a Chinese herb with a warm, slightly bitter flavour. The brand says it is one of the herbs in its crab soup stock.

Food centre / hawker centre

A building of cooked-food stalls with shared tables. Toa Payoh Food Centre II, at 1008A Toa Payoh North, is where Don’s Pie & Cake traded.

HDB

The Housing and Development Board, Singapore’s public housing authority. Toa Payoh was the first new town built entirely by HDB.

Kopitiam

A traditional coffee shop, often on the ground floor of an HDB block. Don Signature Crab began in one at Blk 206 Toa Payoh North.

Void deck

The open ground floor of an HDB block, used for walking through, waiting and community events.

“++”

On a Singapore menu, “++” means service charge and GST are added to the listed price. The Don Pie menu notes that dine-in is subject to service charge and prevailing tax.

Places and transport

Braddell (NS18)

The North South Line station nearest to Chef Don’s two former Toa Payoh North stalls.

Toa Payoh (NS19)

The North South Line station in Toa Payoh Central. Three stops from both the AMK Hub and Wisma Atria kiosks.

Tyrwhitt Road

The street in Jalan Besar where Chicken Pie Kitchen & Don Signature Crab has its flagship and kitchen, at number 39, opposite Jalan Besar Stadium.

PIE

In Singapore, “PIE” usually means the Pan Island Expressway, not pastry. That is why searches for “pie Toa Payoh” often return traffic news; adding “chicken pie” or “Don Pie” gets you food. Pie Singapore has a whole page on the expressway-or-pastry mix-up.