Shop Till You Drop Mall Review: City Square Mall – Singapore’s First Eco-Mall

For those who live near to MRT stations along the Northeast (purple) line, City Square Mall is one of the easily accessible mall along the line that offers just about everything you need. It is directly connected to Farrer Park MRT station and is one of the largest city fringe malls in Singapore.

City Square Mall is also Singapore’s first eco-mall to be integrated with a 49,000 sq ft urban park named City Green, located within the planning area of Kallang. The mall sits on the site of Singapore’s historic New World Amusement Park and is designed to provide a learning experience about ecology and the natural environment.

The mall is located at the junction of Serangoon and Kitchener Road and is within the Little India area, one of the Top 5 must-see tourist spots in Singapore. As such, it draws a natural traffic from tourists visiting Little India, on top of locals heading there for shopping or dining.

The mall consists of five retail levels, two basements and four levels of lifestyle services (such as a gym and tuition centres). It is home to about 200 tenants offering a wide-array of merchandises and services as well as F&B options. Let’s see how it scores on our four review criteria – Food Options; Uniqueness; Tenant Mix; and Accessibility.

Food Options: 4/5

The mall has a variety of F&B options at different price points. There are your usual fast food joints like McDonald’s, KFC and there’s also a Food Republic food court. For the budget conscious, there are value restaurants like Old Town, Saizeriya, Aston’s and Chic-A-Boo by Aston.

For those who prefer something different, there is also a Korean restaurant, Seoul Jjimdak (#05-04) on the 5th floor, a vegetarian restaurant, Saute-san (#03-23/24), a Chinese restaurant, Din Tai Fung (#01-10/11) and several Japanese restaurants.

Most of the F&B options seems to be casual diners geared towards the family crowd and less of fine dining experiences.

Uniqueness: 5/5

One of City Square Mall’s unique selling propositions is that is the first mall in Singapore to be integrated with an urban park. During its inception, City Square Mall was conceptualised with environmental sustainability in mind, from the construction process to the building features. Check out some of their eco features:

What we like about the mall is that there are lots of play area for kids within and outside the mall at the City Green park. Within the mall, Basement 2 is designated as a kids zone with retail and services catered for kids, including a Toys’ R Us and Babies’ R Us store.

On level 2, there is also Airzone – the world’s first indoor suspended net playground, brought to you by the guys behind the Art-Zoo Inflatable Park.

During the weekends, the mall features a small bazaar in the open area near the train station exit whereby you can pick up some cheap buys:

Tenant Mix: 4/5

The mall offers just about everything you would need. There is a NTUC Fairprice at Basement 1 for those who needs to do grocery shopping; a good mix of F&B tenants from food court to restaurant dining; and a sufficiently wide variety of retail stores like UNIQLO, Decathlon and OWNDAYS. These three are among my favourite value brands and they are located side-by-side on level 2 which is totally awesome. There’s also a DAISO for all your household essentials, a BEST DENKI and a Challenger for electronics and tech stuff.

The tenant mix seems to be targeted more towards family shoppers and kids. For those looking for edgy design wear for youngsters, there are a few shops like COTTON ON and Levi’s, but these are not really the most exciting fashion brands out there.

What surprised us was that there is a Golden Village cinema tucked on the 5th floor featuring GV Gemini – a 62-seater couple cinema with separate pairs of seats in an intimate setting. How cool is that?

For those who like arcade games, the mall also has a Timezone outlet:

There is also an entire floor dedicated to furniture and other household items as well as several spa and beauty tenants:

Accessibility: 5/5

The mall is easily accessible by public transport. It is directly connected to Farrer Park MRT station on Basement 1 and there are lots of buses passing by the area. If you drive, you will be happy to know that the mall offers FREE weekday lunchtime parking from 12 noon to 2pm for the first 1 and a half hour.

The mall offers a variety of parking lots including family parking lots; electric and hybrid car lots; and wheelchair-friendly lots.

By Train

NE8 Farrer Park MRT Station Exit I (North-East MRT line)

By Bus

Kitchener Road (Before Tai Hoe Hotel, 07231)
Service No. 21, 125, 130
Serangoon Road (Outside Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple, 07211)
Service No. 21, 23, 64, 65, 66, 67, 125, 130, 139, 141, 147, 857, NR6

By Car & Motorcycle

Carpark access via Serangoon Road, Kitchener Road and Petain Road
Motorcycle access via Kitchener Road
Drop-off point at Basement 1 via Kitchener Road
Carpark height restriction is 2.1m
Click to view car park rates
Alternative Carparks

PARKROYAL Hotel Carpark
Park Hotel Farrer Park Carpark
Blk 678 Multi-storey Carpark
Petain Road Carpark

By Taxi
At Basement 1 via Kitchener Road

What do you think?

Our verdict is that City Square Mall is a great mall to be at for family with young kids and family crowd, but less so for the millennial. There is a a great variety of F&B options of all prices, diverse mix of tenants and the mall also has some pretty unique features like the urban park it is connected to. It is a convenient mall to do your grocery shopping and get your daily retail needs like sports wear at Decathlon; spectacles at OWNDAYS; and basic wear at UNIQLO.