The Don Pie Club goes online with a soft launch

The Don Pie Club opened its doors online in April 2025. The banner on the shop site read “Soft Launch: April 2025. Online orders only. Limited sets of bakes. First come, first served.” That is the whole of the announcement, and we have kept the words close to how they were written, because a soft launch is a modest thing and we would rather describe it plainly than dress it up.

What did the soft launch actually offer?

A way to pre-order. The site invited you to “Pre-Order Pies Now”, and the order button led to the kitchen’s ordering site, where pies are ordered ahead for pickup or delivery. The shop listed the kinds of things the kitchen bakes: chicken pies in two sizes, a shepherd’s pie, small canapé pies, puffs, kueh lapis and cheesecakes. It did not list outlets, opening hours or a delivery policy, because those live on the kitchen’s own pages.

The copy on the site was short and cheerful. It talked about going back to basics, about pies packed with chicken chunks and spices, about gathering friends for a pie party and about gifting pies and cakes on a birthday. It also said that some people call the brand “Don” and others call it “Don Pie”, and that either way it is still Your Personal Pie Club.

Where does the name come from?

The first Don Pie shop was “DON: Your Personal Pie Club”, opened by Chef Don Lim at Far East Square around 2000 to 2001. Sources and the kitchen’s own pages differ on whether the year is 2000 or 2001, so we give the range rather than choosing. The longer account of that shop and the years after it belongs to originaldon.com’s story of the original Don, and we do not repeat it here.

Chef Don Lim founded Don Pie and co-founded Chicken Pie Kitchen & Don Signature Crab, where the pies are baked today under the DonChef name. The club site is one of the ways the same kitchen takes pie orders. This site, donpieclub.sg, is where we write down what is new.

Was it a membership?

No, and we want to be exact about this. The soft launch had no points, no tiers, no member pricing and no loyalty card. A reader who landed on the shop in April 2025 saw an order button and a banner. Today the Don Pie Club means one thing: the mailing list described on the Join page. It gets you news first, a heads-up before seasonal pre-order windows open, and invitations to events. It does not get you a price cut, and we will not hint that it might.

What does “first come, first served” mean for you?

It meant what it says. Bakes were limited, so the earliest orders were the ones filled. The practical lesson, which still holds for seasonal items, is to order early. The kitchen’s ordering site asks for payment at the time of ordering for advance orders, and it does not allow amendments or cancellations once an order is placed, so check the date, the outlet and the quantity before you pay.

Quick facts

If you want the next announcement before the crowd, the quickest route is the Join page. If you want to know what a season at the kitchen usually looks like, start with a year at the kitchen.