On our Singapore Trip we booked a couple of hotels. The first was in Little India and the second was at the Harbour front, within the Bukit Merah district.  This is a convenient location if you want to visit Sentosa Island, but want to save on the accommodation. Our hotel was located across the road from the VivoCity shopping centre. Since it was my favourite shopping centre and we spent so much time there thought I would dedicate a post for it.

VivoCity is the largest shopping centre in Singapore and is both a shopping, entertainment and dining destination. No matter your budget you will be able to shop, eat and enjoy yourself in this centre since it caters for just about everyone. The centre houses Singapore’s largest cinema, biggest toy store, an amphitheatre, wade pool and four food courts. They are open from 10am until 10pm, giving you plenty of time to get all your minute shopping in or a place to hang out to get out of the heat. The Sentosa monorail and Broadwalk  leave from VivoCity, so its a convenient place to stop in at between attractions.

I found the selections of brands really great at this centre. There are international and Singaporean brands and a variety of high fashion, casual wear and quirky stores. I think the only thing that was really missing was a good bookstore. My only advice when navigating the centre is stay away from the stores leading out to the exits. This is where the beauty services are and they will try anything to get you in their shop and try to manipulate you to spend an obscene amount of money of their beauty products. I made this mistake twice, since I’m so polite. I didn’t buy from them but I did try to not return to these areas for another time wasting exercise.

 

One of the great features of this centre third level rooftop sky park. You can splash around bare foot in the low wade pool, enjoy the landscape gardens and observation landings or visit the amphitheatre. There are also some restaurants up here too. If you have kids that are restless this a great place where they can have water play and run. Its also a great place to leave your husband and kids why you enjoy the shopping inside.

 

Another great feature is the second level open air kids play area. This is only a snapshot of whats up there and its all free. The only things that cost are ride on cars/animals,  Cookie & Monkey Kids’ Lounge or The Polliwogs. I wasn’t comfortable leaving my toddler at these places, but if you have older children I’m sure they would enjoy doing art and other activities with the hands on staff.

 

Probably the best food court in VivoCity and the one we spent the most time at was Food Republic. I actually remembered this hawker centre from our last visit and was really looking forward to returning and it didn’t disappoint. This food court is located on third level, adjacent to the Sentosa monorail and Rooftop Skypark.

This is not the only Food Republic in Singapore. There are a Food Republic outlets in a variety of shopping centres across Singapore. They offer a huge variety regional cuisines, which are made quick to order and the facilities are clean and well designed. Each Food republic is very different and my favourite the outlet at VivoCity.

The VivoCity Food Republic, has 30 stalls and mini-restaurants housed under a 27,000 square foot food atrium and seats 900. The theme of this outlet is the early 1900s to 1940s. The interior features time-weathered floor tiles, Chinese Marriage Sedan chair, old bicycles, and a uninhabited Hakka Village, which was brought from China.

With so many different cuisines in one place you can try something different every time you visit or get a variety of dishes to share. Whether your gluten free, vegan, vegetarian or a meat eater you will find something here.

Before going to the beach at Sentosa Island, we stopped Food Republic hoping we could find some breakfast. Even though the shops don’t open until 10am, there are a few vendors in Food Republic that open earlier. Toastbox opens at 7:30am everyday, so its the perfect place to have a cheap and tasty Singaporean style breakfast.

This wasn’t our first time eating at Toastbox chain. We also had  breakfast here when we went to Marina Bay Sands. This one is just as good. We got our favourite kaya  bread and kopi coffee with some nice soft boiled eggs.

We had three dinners at Food Republic in Vivo City. Yes there are many lovely restaurants in the centre, but the food here is so cheap, generous and delicious. It seems silly spending a lot more money elsewhere when we can all get something we like here or share a few dishes. I also got to check a few more must try Singaporean dishes here.

 

Some delicious dishes worth mentioning include the Handmade Noodles with Prawns from Formosa Delight, Pad Thai from JJ Thai Cuisine, Vegetarian Rojak from Auntie Jessie Rojak and Coconut and Peanut TuTu Kueh from Chinatown Tan’s Tutu Kueh. I can honestly say we didn’t have one bad meal here or any funny tummies after.

 

The last place I recommend if you are needing an early breakfast at Vivo City,  Kopitiam, in the Basement 2 food court. This is another Singaporean chain, which offers Singaporean breakfast sets and bao. We visited them before we walked across the Sentosa Broadwalk to Universal Studios. Octavia had wholemeal kaya toast, Marco had French toast with eggs and kopi and I had a Vegetarian bao Lotus bao and kopi. The others were pretty happy with theirs and I really enjoyed both bao. For the price cheaper price I found their food pretty good in comparison to other Singaporean chains.

 

Have you been to Vivo City?

What was your favourite thing to do or eat here?