Lau Pa Sat is a landmark hawker center housed in an ornate octagonal cast-iron market building erected in 1894, prefabricated in Glasgow and shipped to Singapore before being assembled on reclaimed land in the Central Business District. Declared a national monument in 1973, it was later dismantled, restored piece by piece, and reopened under its current name by 1989.
More than 80 hawker stalls and tenants operate within its distinctive high-arched hall, spanning Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Western cuisines, with the closed-off street outside transforming into a well-known satay grilling strip after dark.
The hawker center runs around the clock, though individual stalls set their own hours, and the busiest stretches are the weekday lunch rush from noon to 1 PM and the evening crowd from 6 to 7 PM.