Satay by the Bay Closes From 1 October 2026: You Have One Month Left, and Here Is Where to Eat After

Singapore is about to lose the cheapest table with a Marina Bay view.

Gardens by the Bay posted the notice on Tuesday 1 September 2026, on its own Satay by the Bay page and again on its Dine and Shop page: *"Satay by the Bay will close from 1 October 2026 to make way for a refreshed waterfront dining experience as part of the Wetlands by the Bay development."*

> Quick view: it closes from Thursday 1 October 2026, so Wednesday 30 September is the last day to eat there. That is four weeks and a bit. Hours are unchanged until then. Nothing has been said about where the stallholders go, and the replacement dining spot is part of a project that only breaks ground in 2027.

*Photo: Gardens by the Bay official*

The dates that matter

The phrasing is worth slowing down on. "Closes from 1 October" is not the same as "closes on 1 October". The first of October is the first day it is shut, which puts the final service on 30 September. Gardens by the Bay has not announced a farewell night, a last-order time or any kind of send-off, so there is no reason to wait for one.

Opening hours until it closes

Straight off the Gardens' own Opening Hours page, checked 1 September 2026:

The weekday split catches people out. Turn up at 10am on a Tuesday and the food stalls are still shuttered. If you want a proper spread, go on a weekend, when the whole centre runs from 9am.

Where it is: Waterfront Promenade, Bay South Garden, Gardens by the Bay, 18 Marina Gardens Drive. Nearest MRT is Gardens by the Bay on the Thomson-East Coast Line. Phone 6538 9956. Note that the Gardens' free shuttle loop covers Bayfront Plaza, Active Garden and Flower Dome only, so the food centre has always meant a walk.

What is replacing it

Wetlands by the Bay was announced back in March 2026, six months before this closure notice. It is a five-hectare extension of the existing Kingfisher Wetlands, running along the waterfront near Gardens by the Bay MRT station, and it is the reason the food centre's plot is needed.

From that announcement, the precinct is planned to include:

• A flagship museum by the Japanese art collective teamLab, moving between indoor galleries and the surrounding landscape
• A pedal-kayak waterway threading through the wetland habitats
• A Glade Lawn for events and community use
• A cantilevered canopy boardwalk giving an elevated link from Gardens by the Bay MRT station into Bay South Garden
• A large expansion of the mangrove and coastal planting, several times what Kingfisher Wetlands holds today

And, per the 1 September notice, a refreshed waterfront dining experience in place of Satay by the Bay.

Construction starts in the first quarter of 2027, and the precinct opens progressively from the end of 2028. That gap is the part worth planning around. Between 1 October 2026 and some point after 2028, there is no hawker-style food centre on that side of the Gardens.

The things nobody has answered yet

This is a short notice, and the questions it leaves open are the ones people actually want answered:

• How many stalls are affected, and where do the operators go. Not stated.
• Whether any of them get a place in the new waterfront dining outlet. Not stated.
• Whether the Satay by the Bay name carries over. Not stated.
• What the replacement is, and when it opens. Not stated beyond the phrase "refreshed waterfront dining experience".
• The car park. The notice is about the food centre. The Gardens' Opening Hours page lists Satay by the Bay separately as one of five car parks, all open daily 5am to 2am, and says nothing about that listing closing. Since works do not start until 2027, check the parking page nearer the time rather than assuming.

We are not going to fill those gaps with guesses. If Gardens by the Bay publishes more, this page gets updated.

Where to eat at Gardens by the Bay instead

Twelve other outlets stay open, and the Gardens' notice points visitors to them. Full hours are in the table above. The short version:

• Closest replacement: Jurassic Nest Food Hall is the only other multi-stall food hall in the Gardens. Cafe from 9am, food hall 11am to 9pm with last order 8.30pm.
• For chilli crab: TungLok Seafood, at restaurant rather than hawker prices.
• Cheapest: McDonald's, daily 8am to 9.30pm, and the earliest weekday opening of the lot.
• Latest: Starbucks at Golden Garden runs to 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Hortus keeps a kitchen going to 10pm daily.
• Check the day first: Finnwood is shut Monday to Wednesday, and Marguerite is shut Monday and Tuesday.

One planning note: nothing else in the Gardens serves food as late as Satay by the Bay's 10.30pm weekend close, so late suppers there end on 30 September.

A satay club that has moved three times

Satay by the Bay opened in 2013, a year after the Gardens themselves, but the format is much older than the address.

Its lineage runs back to the Satay Club, a cluster of satay hawkers believed to have started in the late 1940s off Beach Road. In 1971 the club moved to the Esplanade, where it became one of the city's best-known open-air night-eating spots. That site was cleared in 1995, and a handful of the stallholders carried on at Clarke Quay. Satay by the Bay was the format's return to the waterfront, this time under the Supertrees.

If it does not come back in the new precinct, this will be the fourth move in eighty years, and the third time the club has been closed for a redevelopment.

If you are going in September

• Go on a weekend if you want the full run of stalls, since the food stalls only start at 11.30am on weekdays
• Pair it with the Mid-Autumn lantern displays in the same gardens, which run 12 to 27 September, 6pm to 10pm and free, so one trip covers both
• The September school break falls 5 to 13 September, so expect it to be busiest then
• Go earlier in the month rather than the last weekend. Individual stalls can stop before the 30th and nobody has promised they will all last
• Call 6538 9956 first if there is one particular stall you are going for

Related

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• Mid-Autumn Festival Singapore 2026: 8 Lantern Displays and Events
• Jurassic World Experience at Gardens by the Bay
• Hidden Hawker Gems in Singapore
• Tom's Palette Is Closing in October 2026

*Closure notice, opening hours and outlet list read off gardensbythebay.com.sg on 1 September 2026. Cover photo: Gardens by the Bay official.*