The Oven Marvel story, from Delicious Muffins to the last batch

What was Oven Marvel?

Oven Marvel was a small takeaway bakery on the ground floor of Sunshine Plaza, the building at 91 Bencoolen Street in Singapore, near what is now Bencoolen MRT station (SETHLUI.com, 2020). It sold three things and only three things: chicken pies, curry puffs and muffins (ieatishootipost, 2013). The chicken pie made its name. It was flat, round and built from puff pastry made in the shop with butter, around a peppery, creamy chicken filling.

Oven Marvel was never a chain. Every review, listing and news report we could find points to one shop at one address. If you remember an Oven Marvel somewhere else, I would genuinely like to hear about it, but nothing in the public record supports a second outlet.

When did Oven Marvel open?

The honest answer is that nobody has published an opening date. The earliest dated evidence is a blog post by Leslie Tay on ieatishootipost, first published on 11 January 2009 (ieatishootipost, 2009). At that point the shop already existed, but under a different name. A 2022 article about the closure says the bakery had been in Bencoolen “since the early millennium” (Great Deals Singapore, 2022), which may well be right, but it gives no year and no source. So this site says “by 2009 at the latest” and leaves it there.

Why was it first called Delicious Muffins?

In January 2009 the shop at Sunshine Plaza traded as Delicious Muffins, and the 2009 post lists it at unit #01-51 with a chicken pie at about S$2.80 and a curry puff at S$2 (ieatishootipost, 2009). The name fitted one third of the menu. Leslie Tay later explained the change with a shrug that most of us would recognise: buying chicken pies and curry puffs from a shop called Delicious Muffins was a bit funny. By his second visit, written up on 13 August 2013, the sign said Oven Marvel (ieatishootipost, 2013). Some blogs also give a Chinese name, 皇冠烘培, which reads roughly as “crown baking” (mitsueki.sg, 2013).

The rename therefore happened some time between January 2009 and August 2013. No source pins it down further.

Who was Chef Johnny Ngiam?

The person behind the pies was Chef Johnny Ngiam. According to Leslie Tay, he had been a pastry chef all his working life, and his last job before opening his own small bakery at Sunshine Plaza was as pastry chef at a Hilton hotel (ieatishootipost, 2013). SETHLUI.com repeats the Hilton background in its 2020 review (SETHLUI.com, 2020), and a Burpple reviewer in 2014 describes the shop as owned by an ex-chef of the Hilton (Burpple). Those last two probably drew on the same story, so I count them as corroboration rather than independent proof.

That is, truthfully, almost everything the public record says about him. He made the pastry himself, in the shop, from scratch (ieatishootipost, 2013). In June 2017 a Burpple reviewer glimpsed a middle-aged chef laminating pastry in the tiny kitchen while an older woman peeled potatoes by hand (Burpple). Nobody else who worked there is named in any source I trust, so I name nobody else. I have no inside knowledge, never knew the family, and have not tried to reach them. If they ever read this and want anything changed, the address on the share a memory page reaches me.

The Oven Marvel timeline

1. By early 2009A shop called Delicious Muffins is trading on the ground floor of Sunshine Plaza. The first dated review appears on 11 January 2009. (ieatishootipost, 2009)
2. 2009 to 2013The shop is renamed Oven Marvel. The exact date is unknown.
3. 13 Aug 2013Leslie Tay’s second post, now under the Oven Marvel name, scores it 4.75 out of 5 and names Chef Johnny Ngiam. (ieatishootipost, 2013)
4. Dec 2013 to 2016A steady run of personal blog reviews, from mitsueki to springtomorrow, slowchomp and umakemehungry. (umakemehungry, 2016)
5. 2014Regulars pre-order in person and pay cash. (Burpple)
6. Around 2018A reviewer notes a move to a bigger unit a few doors away. Unit numbers in the sources are inconsistent, so treat this one loosely. (Burpple)
7. 18 Jun 2019Oven Marvel appears in Miss Tam Chiak’s blind pie taste test, at S$4 a pie. (Miss Tam Chiak, 2019)
8. Apr 2020SETHLUI.com lists the pie at S$4 and opening hours from about midday to 8pm. (SETHLUI.com, 2020)
9. May 2021The last review we found from a customer while the shop was open: a muffin, on Burpple. (Burpple)
10. Mid-March 2022The closure is reported on 17 March 2022. The owners reportedly retired. (Great Deals Singapore, 2022)

What was it like to buy a pie there?

The shop was small and plain, mostly takeaway with a table or two, and reviewers agree there was no decoration worth describing (umakemehungry, 2016). What gave it away was the smell. Several people mention the scent of butter pastry before they reached the counter (umakemehungry, 2016).

The practical details are what regulars remember most:

• Cash only. Reviewers mention it repeatedly (Burpple).
• Small batches. Pies came out a tray at a time and sold out. One blogger found things gone by 1.45pm on some days (mitsueki.sg, 2013), and a 2017 reviewer found no pies left at 7.15pm (Burpple).
• Pre-ordering. In 2014 people pre-ordered in person (Burpple). By the end, phone orders were heavy enough that a walk-in customer could leave with nothing (Great Deals Singapore, 2022).
• The bag. Pies went into a brown or oil-paper bag that turned translucent with butter on the way back to the office (Miss Tam Chiak, 2019).
• Rest days. In its earlier years the shop closed on the 8th, 18th and 28th of each month. The small calendar on the home page has fun with that habit.

How did Oven Marvel end?

In mid-March 2022, people noticed a closed sign. Great Deals Singapore reported the closure on 17 March 2022, relaying what members of the Hawkers United Facebook group said after phoning the shop: the owners had retired because of old age (Great Deals Singapore, 2022). Leslie Tay updated his 2013 post the same day to say the place had closed (ieatishootipost, 2013). Google Maps marked it permanently closed. The retirement reason is second-hand. The owners were not quoted anywhere I could find, and the exact last day of trading is not on record. There is more on this in what happened to Oven Marvel.

What the record does not tell us

Quite a lot, it turns out. We do not know the year the shop opened, who opened it, exactly when it changed its name, what the sign looked like, or whether there was ever a slogan. We do not have the recipe. Nobody has published it, and this site never pretends otherwise: the pies in the recreation kitchen are my own attempts, guided by what reviewers wrote. The full list of open questions, with a confidence rating for every claim, is on what we know and what we do not.