SINGAPORE Food Court Restaurants

THAI EXPRESS at the Paragon Mall Basement Food Court

Singapore food courts are like air-conditioned hawker centers - lots to choose from and pretty good, quality-wise.  Each mall usually has a food court - some of them have the franchised Food Republic, like at Wisma Atria, and some just make their own up, like at the ION Orchard.  One of the food courts we always end up at is the pseudo-food court at the basement of Paragon mall as it's conveniently located across the street from Mount Elizabeth hospital and our doctor's appointments.

Recently, we had lunch at the always packed chain restaurant, Thai Express.  It's cheap and cheerful and perfect for a quick meal.  On that day, we had the prawn Pad Thai, crispy soft-shell crab, dark-soy fried tofu, sweet sour chicken and seafood fried rice.  There is also a selection of cold drinks - Thai iced tea and lime juice to help put out the fire from the spicy dishes.

LUK YU TEAHOUSE at the iON Mall Basement Food Court

Another day, another food court.  This time, we went to the basement of the newest modern mall on the busy corner of Orchard and Scotts roads, the ION Orchard.  I had a very good lunch there once before at the basement Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin, which specializes in all-things tonkatsu.  As the boys didn't feel like having tonkatsu, we ended up at the first little food court restaurant we saw, the Luk Yu Teahouse, another chain restaurant which serves dim sum.  We had the usual - char siu pao (pork buns), siu mai (pork dim sum), har gao (shrimp dumplings), crispy prawns and a plateful of noodles topped with spicy ground pork.  The food was freshly-made, good and cheap.  So, the next time we're in Singapore, we'll try another mall food court and see what new dishes we can try.