Abalone usually waits for Chinese New Year, but the Abagold Abalone Festival 2026 puts it on eight Singapore menus from 10 October to 12 December 2026, with plates starting at S$15++. For anyone who has only met the shellfish at a family banquet, that’s a low-stakes way to find out what the fuss is about!
This is the festival’s second edition, and the brand behind it is Abagold, a South African producer that farms its abalone in Hermanus, at the southern tip of Africa. Each restaurant has built its own limited-time dish around the ingredient, and those dishes come off the menu once the festival wraps on Saturday, 12 December.
The pitch from Werner Piek, Abagold’s Executive Marketing Manager, is that diners should be able to eat abalone “at any time they want something extraordinary”, rather than once a year. That’s a brand talking about its own product, of course, but the price list backs up the accessible part better than abalone’s atas (Singlish for upmarket) reputation would suggest.
Farmed in Hermanus, Plated Here
Abagold says it has three decades of sustainable farming behind it, in cool Atlantic waters that it credits for the abalone’s clean, mineral sweetness. In Singapore, the abalone comes in through a single exclusive importer, Ler E, whose founder Esther Loh doubles as Abagold’s brand ambassador.
“Having worked with abalone from Australia, China and Chile, and in 25 years with Abagold, their quality has never wavered,” Loh said in the festival announcement. Consistency is a sensible thing to sell chefs on, because nobody wants to design a dish around an ingredient that changes character with every delivery.
All prices here are as listed by the organisers, and the “++” means service charge and Goods and Services Tax (GST) come on top. Individual dishes run from S$15++ to S$68++, which puts most of the line-up in date-night territory instead of banquet-booking territory.
Two Ways In Under S$30
The cheapest entry point is Avant Seafood Market at 129 Owen Road, which keeps things deliberately plain. Its Miso Butter Steamed Abalone (S$15++) is steamed and then finished on the grill for some char, while the Cold Baby Abalone (S$25++) is briefly steamed and shocked on ice to hold on to its natural sweetness.
Zenryoku Izakaya on Upper Thomson Road cooks its two dishes over binchotan, the traditional Japanese white charcoal. The Shioyaki Abalone (S$15.80++) arrives salt-grilled in thin slices under a dashi butter sauce made from the abalone’s liver, and the Awabi Itame (S$29.80) stir-fries abalone with portobello mushroom, ginger, and scallion, a combination borrowed from a staff-meal favourite. The catch is a minimum of one alcoholic drink per guest, so budget for a beer.
Pasta, Risotto, and Liver Sauce
Scott’s Grill at Shaw Centre has the most labour-intensive plate of the lot. For its Grilled Abalone Pasta with Liver Emulsion (S$58++), the abalone is steamed shell-on for three hours before it’s grilled to order, and the liver is poached in cream and blended into a sauce with garlic, dashi, shiso, and chicken jus.
If that liver sauce sounds familiar, it’s because it keeps turning up across the festival, in Zenryoku’s butter sauce and again at Capasso. It’s the detail that separates these dishes from the braised banquet version most people know, since the liver adds a deep, briny richness that sliced abalone alone doesn’t carry.
Over at the Esplanade, Supply & Demand sets its abalone on a risotto cooked with sea urchin and crustacean butter, then finishes it with squid ink and parsley. At S$47++, the Grilled Abalone Risotto is the middle-of-the-road pick for anyone who wants a full main course.
Capasso on Telok Ayer Street goes furthest on luxury trimmings. Its Abagold Risotto (S$68++) pairs larger abalone with mongo ika (cuttlefish), cordyceps, and puffed barley in a broth built from the liver, which makes it the priciest single dish in the festival.
The second Capasso option, Cold Angel Hair Pasta with Abalone Supplement (S$46++), comes with a miso-smoked uni (sea urchin) dressing, Oscietra caviar, and myoga, a Japanese ginger. Note that the restaurant is listed as open Monday to Saturday only, so Sunday plans need a different address.
A Custard at a Patisserie
The oddest venue on the list is the most interesting one. AMI Patisserie at 27 Scotts Road serves Chef Makoto Arami’s Abalone Chawanmushi with Autumn Mushrooms, a savoury egg custard made with an abalone and seaweed dashi and finished with slices of maitake mushroom and abalone.
It isn’t sold on its own, though. The custard is one course in AMI Patisserie’s autumn dessert dining experience at S$128++, with seatings listed at 12pm and 3pm from Tuesday to Sunday, plus 6.30pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
One of the eight is off-limits to most readers: Tanglin Club is serving its South African 6-Head Abalone with Morel Mushrooms and Beancurd to members only, at Tang Yun on Stevens Road. Time to find out which friend has been quietly holding a membership!
The stay-home option comes from Chef Desmond Heng of Suguru Home Dining, whose new ready-to-eat marinated seafood concept is called XIAN. His Teochew Marinated Abalone swaps the traditional yellow wine for baijiu from Luzhou, on a lighter shoyu base rounded out with rock sugar, and pre-orders open from late October through the XIAN and Suguru websites.
The Gold Trail, Stamp by Stamp
Then there’s The Gold Trail, a collectible passport that fills in an Abagold Food City artwork one stamp at a time. Ordering a festival dish earns a stamp per restaurant visit at six stamp partners, which the organisers list as Avant Fine Foods, Capasso, Scott’s Grill, Supply & Demand, Vineyard, and Zenryoku.
Three stamps unlock a special-edition stamp of Abby, the Abagold mascot, along with 15% off Abagold Canned Abalone. Four stamps complete the artwork and add a second Abby stamp, the same discount, and a complimentary can of Abagold Abalone that the brand values at S$68, all redeemed at Avant Seafood Market.
Is the free can worth chasing? The reward is a S$68 tin as the souvenir, which is a fair trade for anyone who was going to eat out anyway.
For a single visit, Zenryoku’s Shioyaki Abalone is the smartest order, because S$15.80++ buys charcoal-grilled slices and the liver sauce in one plate. Scott’s Grill is the one to book for a proper occasion, given the three hours of steaming behind it, and the festival should still be running when the Christmas menus start crowding everyone’s feeds.
🗓️ Date: Saturday, 10 October to Saturday, 12 December 2026
⏰ Time: Varies by restaurant
📍 Location: AMI Patisserie (27 Scotts Road), Avant Seafood Market (129 Owen Road), Capasso (92 Telok Ayer Street), Scott’s Grill (Shaw Centre, 1 Scotts Road), Supply & Demand (Esplanade Mall, 8 Raffles Avenue), Tanglin Club (Tang Yun, 5 Stevens Road, members only), XIAN (online pre-orders), and Zenryoku Izakaya (183 Upper Thomson Road)
💰 Price: S$15++ to S$68++ per dish, or S$128++ for AMI Patisserie’s autumn dessert dining experience, as listed by the organisers
🔗 Details: abagoldabalonefestival.com
Nine weeks is a generous window, but these dishes disappear once it closes, and the Gold Trail needs four separate meals to finish. Pick a starting plate, check each restaurant’s opening hours, and plan the route on the Abagold Abalone Festival website before the first stamps go out on Saturday, 10 October!
Photos and Visuals courtesy of Abagold.
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