Mid-Autumn Festival lands on Friday, 25 September this year, and Singapore’s malls have spent the past month building lantern gardens, mooncake fairs and at least one giant custard pudding dog. This is a shortlist for anyone with a free evening between now and the weekend, plus a Tokyo hamburg steak shop that opened to the public at Lau Pa Sat on 22 September, ahead of its official opening on 5 October.
7 Metres of Pompompurin at VivoCity
VivoCity‘s Sky Park on Level 3 has been running the Sanrio Characters Moonlit Garden since 25 August, and the whole setup comes down on Sunday, 27 September. Six themed zones hold glowing installations of Hello Kitty, Cinnamoroll, Kuromi, My Melody and Hangyodon, but the one everybody is queueing for is the 7m-tall Pompompurin perched on an oversized mooncake. That is roughly two storeys of golden retriever pudding, and it photographs exactly as ridiculously as it sounds!
The paid extras sit in Kuromi’s Carnival Kingdom, where six Sanrio carnival games run at S$10 per game, the Mini Express Train charges S$10 a ride, and the themed photo booth is S$8 a session. Character meet-and-greets happen on selected weekends and need a minimum S$80 single-receipt spend to unlock. A Sanrio Retail Pop-Up at Level 1, East Court carries a selection of official merchandise and collectibles until the garden closes.
Here is the honest maths: three games and a train ride is S$40 before anyone has bought a keychain. The installations themselves cost nothing to stand in front of, which is where the good photos are anyway, so budget for one game and spend the rest on dinner downstairs.
📅 25 August to 27 September 2026 · 📍 VivoCity Sky Park, Level 3 · 💰 Games S$10, train S$10, photo booth S$8 · 🎁 Meet-and-greet with S$80 single-receipt spend
Last Call for Mooncakes at Great World and NEX
If the boxes have not been bought yet, this is the week. Great World is running Moonlit Treasures, its mooncake and gifting showcase for the season, while NEX has its own fair stocked for the same deadline. Both are the sort of set-up where the samples do more persuading than the signage.
The reason to move now is simple. Mid-Autumn falls on Friday, and both fairs run to 25 September. Buy for the family gathering, then buy one box you have no intention of sharing.
📅 Through Mid-Autumn week · 📍 Great World and NEX
City Square Mall Enters the Playverse
Over at City Square Mall, Enter the Playverse runs until 27 September 2026, with a Collectible Toy Fair, a Mid-Autumn Fair and a Mental Health Fair under its banner. The rewards all route through the CityNexus app, so sign up before shopping rather than after, when the receipt is already in the bin.
The pick of the redemptions is the two-piece mooncake set worth S$30, which needs a minimum S$50 spend (S$100 if the receipts include Don Don Donki or Eagles Mediation & Counselling Centre) at participating Basement 2 stores, entertainment, gifts and hobbies outlets. It runs from 14 to 27 September and is capped at the first 100 redemptions, so that is the one to chase early in the day. Bigger spenders can take the Eco Mama bag charm plushie and a S$5 CDL e-voucher at S$120 or S$170, and a S$20 spend earns triple points, capped at 1,000 bonus points daily.
Worth noting for the weekend after this one: from 2 to 4 October, a S$20 single receipt gets a round of Supā Bōru Sukui (super ball scooping, the Japanese festival game with the paper scoop that always tears) or a yukata experience for up to a family of four at the Anime Earth Game Booth. First 500 redemptions daily.
📅 Until 27 September 2026 · 📍 City Square Mall · 🎁 Mooncake set worth S$30 from S$50 spend, 14 to 27 September · 📱 CityNexus membership required
Pre-Loved Racks From S$10 at Parkway Parade
Parkway Parade has pre-loved fashion on the floor this week with pieces starting at S$10, which is less than a bowl of ramen and considerably better for the planet. Thrifting in Singapore usually means a trek to a warehouse in the east or a Carousell meet-up that falls through twice; having the racks sitting inside an East Coast mall removes both excuses.
The appeal is not only the price. A rack of second-hand clothing is the one shopping experience an algorithm cannot flatten, because nobody else is getting the same jacket. Go early, because the good sizes disappear before lunch.
📍 Parkway Parade · 💰 From S$10
A Tokyo Hamburg Legend Lands at Lau Pa Sat
Yamamoto’s Hamburg opened for a soft launch at Lau Pa Sat, 18 Raffles Quay on 22 September 2026, with the official opening set for 5 October. For anyone who has not met hambagu: it is a seasoned minced-meat steak, seared hard on the outside and kept loose and juicy inside, served with rice rather than a bun. Calling it a burger undersells it badly.
The name behind it is Shohei Yamamoto, who founded the restaurant, known in Japan as Yamahan, in Ebisu, Tokyo, in 2005. Singapore diners may already know his other concept: Hikiniku To Come, started in Kichijoji in 2020, opened at VivoCity in May 2026.
Two decades of a Tokyo following is a stronger opening credential than most CBD launches manage, and putting it in a hawker centre rather than a mall unit is the smarter call. Lau Pa Sat at 12.30pm is a contact sport, so the soft-launch window before 5 October is the calmest run at it anyone will get.
📅 Soft launch 22 September, official opening 5 October 2026 · 📍 Lau Pa Sat, 18 Raffles Quay · 🍽 Japanese hamburg steak
If There Is Only Time for One
Take VivoCity. The Sanrio Moonlit Garden and City Square Mall’s Playverse both end on 27 September, so once that date passes the 7m Pompompurin is gone, while Yamamoto’s Hamburg is only just getting started. Go on Friday night with the lanterns lit, skip the carnival games, spend the S$30 on a mooncake box on the way home, and consider the evening well spent. Our running things to do in Singapore guide tracks what replaces all of this in October. Mid-Autumn comes once a year, so make Friday count!
Visuals courtesy of VivoCity, Great World, City Square Mall, and Yamamoto’s Hamburg.
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