What happened to Oven Marvel?

When did Oven Marvel close?

Oven Marvel closed in early 2022. On 17 March 2022, Great Deals Singapore reported that the Sunshine Plaza shop had shut for good (Great Deals Singapore, 2022). The same day, Leslie Tay updated the header of his 2013 review to say simply that the place was closed (ieatishootipost, 2013). Map listings switched to “permanently closed” (Wanderlog).

What nobody recorded is the last day of trading. Was it the week before? The month before? The last customer review I found from while the shop was open is a muffin review on Burpple, dated May 2021 (Burpple). Between May 2021 and March 2022 the record is silent, and that silence covers a period when Singapore was still living with pandemic restrictions. So the honest phrasing, used everywhere on this site, is “closed in early 2022, reported mid-March”.

Why did Oven Marvel close?

The reported reason is retirement. According to the Great Deals article, members of the Hawkers United Facebook group phoned the shop and were told that the owners had retired because of old age (Great Deals Singapore, 2022). A HardwareZone forum thread carried the same reason in its title (HardwareZone Forums, 2022), though I could not read the posts behind its login wall.

Three things are worth saying plainly about that reason:

1. It is second-hand. No reporter quoted the owners. The chain is: shop, phone call, Facebook group, news site.
2. It is entirely plausible. Chef Johnny Ngiam had a full career as a hotel pastry chef before he opened the shop (ieatishootipost, 2013), and he made the pastry by hand to the end. That is physically demanding work.
3. It is nobody else’s business beyond that. I have not tried to contact the family, and this site will not speculate about health, money or anything else.

How did people find out?

The usual Singapore way: someone turned up, found a closed sign, and told the internet. The closure report notes that by the end the shop was taking so many phone orders that walk-in customers could leave with nothing (Great Deals Singapore, 2022). In other words it did not close for lack of customers. Days before the report, the shop was still appearing in a “best pies in Singapore” listicle that had been updated on 14 March 2022 (SETHLUI.com, 2022), which is a good reminder to check any older food list before you travel for it. Oven Marvel is not the only casualty those lists still carry: Pie Singapore’s list of closed pie shops keeps track of the others, so you can stop chasing them.

What happened to the recipe?

As far as anyone has published, nothing: it was not sold, licensed or written down in public. No cookbook, no recipe card, no interview with quantities. That is why this site’s recreation kitchen exists, and why every recipe there is labelled a home recreation and not the original.

Some readers have asked whether another bakery took over the recipe or the staff. I found no evidence of that at all. In particular, there is no connection between Oven Marvel and Don Pie, a separate pie business with a different founder and a different style of pie. The evidence page sets out why.

Is the shop still there?

No. The unit no longer trades as Oven Marvel. I have not tracked what occupies it now, and I will not guess. If you walk the ground floor of Sunshine Plaza today you will not smell butter pastry, which is the saddest sentence on this website.

October 2026

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Is Oven Marvel open today?

In its earlier years the shop kept an unusual rest pattern: it closed on the 8th, 18th and 28th of every month. The shop details in reviews from about 2009 to 2015 record it, and regulars learned to plan around those dates (see the evidence page).

Check today

On an 8th, 18th or 28th the old answer was no. On any other day, the old answer was yes, until the pies sold out.

Closed since 2022 Today the answer is no on every date. The closure was reported in March 2022, and the owners reportedly retired (Great Deals Singapore, 2022). What happened to Oven Marvel.

Where can I get a pie like it now?

Nowhere sells the same pie. A handful of places sell good chicken pies with their own character, and some lean towards butter puff pastry. I have written an honest round-up, with the pastry style of each, in where to get a chicken pie like that today. And if what you want is the taste itself, the flagship recreation is my best attempt so far.

How can I share my own memory of the shop?

If you have a memory, a receipt, an old photo you took yourself, or simply a correction, the share a memory page explains how to send it. I would especially like to hear from anyone who knows the year the shop opened.