- Yellow Productions presents
the best food courts in Singapore.
Now if you're wondering why I'm starting
this video going down this escalator,
it's because the first food court we're gonna start with
is the one in basement level four of Iron Orchard.
It's my favorite food court, but before that,
let's talk a little bit about food courts,
and why am I doing this on food courts.
As most people know, Singapore is a foodie city.
It's truly an international food destination
and some of the best food in Singapore is served
in these city's hundred hawker centers.
Hawker centers are these outdoor open air establishments
with lots of different food vendors.
Unfortunately because they're outside and open air
they're really hot, and for someone like me who's
not used to the heat and humidity, I sometimes
prefer to eat in an air conditioned food court.
While the food you'll find in these food courts
is often more expensive and maybe not quite as good at the
hawker centers, you can eat in air conditioned comfort.
In this video we will visit my top six favorite
food courts in Singapore.
So the first one we're gonna be starting with
because it's my favorite, so we're gonna start
with that one, is called the Food Opera
and this is on Orchard Road, it is right outside
the Orchard Road MRT, you go down two levels
on that escalator and there's tons
of really great stalls.
My favorite stall is this one, it's the
Singapore Fried Prawn Noodle store.
They specialize in prawn noodles and carrot cake
and you see them here, warming them up nice and fresh.
I have the kim fried hokkien mee,
and the carrot cake, hokkien mee is $10
and the carrot cake was $6, truly delicious.
My second favorite stall here is the
Barbecue Chicken Wings stall where they've got
chicken wings cooked over an open flame.
You can also get sauteed, they're truly delicious.
And they're cooked the traditional way, with a fan.
That's just cool.
What I love about food courts in Singapore
you can really tell what you're eating.
At this stall they specialize in roast meats, you know
you're gonna get some duck meat off that roast duck.
There's no hiding what they're doing here because all
the kitchens are open kitchens, you see
the chefs doing their thing.
A Singapore delicacy is hainanese chicken
with chicken essentially served over a rice
that's been cooked in the broth of the chicken,
and Sergeant is a chain across Singapore
that specializes in this delicacy.
It seems so simple, chicken with rice
with some spicy chile sauce and soy sauce, truly delicious.
In the center of the Food Opera, like in the center
of most Singaporean food courts, they've got
the one stall that sell drinks.
This stall specializes in seafood.
You can tell it's fresh, it's right out there on ice.
They've also got an outpost of one of my favorite
Japanese restaurants, Pepper Lunch,
where you can get the fast food steak
served on a hot cast iron skillet.
This stall specializes in authentic Indian cuisine.
One of the things I find about a lot of the Indian
places in Singapore, they prepare the food,
it kind of sits out here, it's often
served at room temperature.
At the handmade dim sum stall they've got
lots of different varieties of dim sum served all day long.
I love it.
I never understood why dim sum is a lunch only thing.
They've got steamed lings and fried lings.
I mentioned all the food in the Food Opera,
which is the food court of sorts,
there's lots of independent restaurants
out on Iron Orchard on the fourth floor
and the second floor, here's one specializing
in soup and salad.
Another one of my favorite food courts is this one.
It's the Food Republic at Vivo City.
I like it because there's always plenty of seats,
and it's got this old time feel as well.
It's really convenient if you're going to Sentosa Island
or you're walking the trail up to Mount Faber
or Faber Peak, so what did I get here today?
And what do I like from here?
Well I like the laksa, this is a noodle soup
with shrimp and it kind of has a coconut milk base
with chile pepper and really delicious.
And what did I get to drink here?
This is a lychee drink.
Lychee flavor, it's got some lychees down in the bottom
there, and I've also got my signature
lime drink, which, you drink this,
nice and sour, makes you pucker.
You know, drinks at food courts are really expensive,
these drinks, $2.60 each, so a little over $5,
whereas my soup was eight Singapore dollars,
so interesting value there.
I guess ice in a hot country must be pretty expensive.
In the bowl we've got some
delicious shrimp that they've cut in half,
which is nice, so it's easy to eat.
There's tofu,
this is chile pepper if you want it spicy,
they'll ask you if you want it spicy,
they'll toss a glob of that in.
There's an egg over here, and then underneath
there are these delicious, delicious noodles
along with some bean sprouts.
And in case you wanna get that tasty laksa,
it's from the Prawn Mee Laksa Shop.
My other favorite stop at this food court
is the Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle store.
Just like I had at Iron Orchard,
this one always has a pretty good line,
which means, you know it's good.
And it's fresh, see you can see
him making it right there.
In case you want chicken rice and didn't get it
at any of the other food courts, there's another branch
of the Sergeant hainanese chicken rice stall here.
And finally, at the front of the food court,
is a really impressive selection of Hong Kong roast meats.
Those look pretty tasty.
Once you're done dining at Vivo City, make sure
to head right outside from the food court
to Vivo City's sky deck, this is on the rooftop
of the shopping center, it's got neat water features,
neat art, and views of Sentosa Island.
Just right next door to Iron Orchard
there's another really good food court
in Wisma Atria, this food court is located
on the fourth floor of Wisma Atria,
it's called Food Republic, and it's got a
connected Japan Food Town.
I find the food court in Wisma Atria to be a little less
of a mob scene than Iron Orchard, just because it's
a little further away from the MRT,
a little harder to find.
While the Food Republic may look small when you first
come up, there's more stalls in the back
and there's also more seating in the back.
This one specializes in oden beef noodles.
This one here specializes in hot pots,
so you can get all these ingredients
in the hot pot of soup.
There's also an outpost of that Sergeant
hainanese chicken rice here, I'll tell you,
every food court or hawker center's gonna have
one or more places selling hainanese chicken rice.
And in the newly opened Japan Food Town,
you'll find about 15 restaurants
all featuring delicious Japanese food.
And you know what, when I walk into Japan Food Town,
I do feel like I'm in a food hall in Japan.
I love the slogan of this restaurant,
no ramen, no life.
And just in the corner between the Food Public
and Japan Food Town, you will find
an outpost of Din Tai Fung, the Taiwanese
soup dumpling chain, if you've never had
soup dumplings from Din Tai Fung,
you really should check them out.
They're truly amazing.
And you even see them making one in the window.
Delicious.
If the wait's too long for Din Tai Fung,
you can have some more Taiwanese food
at Fermosa Delights, handmade noodles and
pot stickers.
Next up, a little further down Orchard Road
at 313 Somerset, they have two food courts
in this building, one on basement level three,
which is the one right here, and one on level five.
On the entire fifth floor of 313 Somerset
is a very large Food Republic.
It takes up the entire fifth floor of the building.
The Food Republic looks out on the sky terrace,
an open air terrace with views
of Orchard Road down below.
A couple of other interesting touches
at this food court are the inclusion of a large giraffe
and elephant statues.
There's a Indian cuisine here, and you can see
him making the prata.
It's kind of like a crepe, and they make it on this grill.
Freshly made.
Looks pretty good.
This stall is simply called Fish Soup.
I wonder what they sell.
This stall is interesting,
Tokyo Pasta Mario Pizza Udon, interesting combination.
The basement level three section also has a lot
of Japanese restaurants, there's Coco Ichibanya,
which is a Japanese chain which specializes
in curry rice, and then just over here
is a rotating sushi restaurant
where all the sushi is $1.50 a plate.
Goes around in circles on the belt.
There's a stall specializing in churros,
and also Shihiin, Taiwanese street snacks.
If you like soup, up on basement level two
is Soup Stock Tokyo, one of my favorite food chains.
Which is right next to Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen.
Our next best food court is this one.
Okay, now you're gonna be saying, Chris,
you are not standing in front of a food court,
you are standing in front of a fountain.
Well, we are both correct.
The food court is a Food Republic food court
and it's actually right behind the fountain
in the basement level of the Suntec City shopping center.
Really neat if you come here for breakfast
you can dine at the Toast Box, have some
traditional kaya toast and coffee,
and enjoy the view of the fountain.
They do daily touch sessions at the fountain
that you can go into the middle of the fountain
and experience it from the center.
There's also about 10 or 15 cool stalls inside
and a whole bunch of other restaurants
that ring that fountain as well.
Just on the other side of the fountain
in the Suntec City mall is a Giant Hyper Fresh supermarket.
And this really is quite a giant supermarket.
and if you're here in Asia, try some of my favorite
fruits, these things back here are dragon fruits.
They're kind of like a kiwi, except a much more
cooler outside, purple and spiky.
And the final best food court of Singapore
is the one at the Marina Bay Sands shops.
This is in basement level two, it's called
Raspura Masters, there's normally an ice skating
rink over here, I'm not sure what's going on today.
This isn't the cheapest food court, actually it's probably
gonna be one of the more expensive ones,
but you don't have a lot of other options
at the Marina Bay Sands, and this one is decorated
quite well, and the food is also quite good.
They really go all out in this food court.
I love the chefs wearing their super tall white hats.
My favorite stall here, guess what,
it's the one that sells Singapore noodles.
And what did I get?
I got the charkwitell.
Charkwitell literally means stir fried rice cakes.
And this is rice noodles, there's a few egg noodles
in there, probably a little bit of sea food,
there's some squid, there's some cockerells
and some spicy chile sauce on the side.
Pretty delicious.
I hope you enjoyed this video, if you'd like
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Or you might enjoy watching one of these other videos.
Click any of them to watch or find links
in the description below.
In the upper left you'll find my travel guide
on Singapore in general, in the upper right
you'll find a video on Singapore's best
air conditioned food courts.
In the lower left you'll find a video
on gardens by the bay, and in the lower right
you'll find my video on Singapore's Sentosa Island.