Food court eats @ Food Republic (Citygate), Hong Kong

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with food courts. On the one hand, there's a wide variety of food to choose from that are quite affordable. On the other hand, food quality is a bit of a hit-and-miss, and dining in a noisy hall on a hastily wiped-down table and using plastic cutlery leave a lot to be desired. Last weekend we went out on a rare (and short) shopping excursion to Citygate Outlets. We spent less than an hour shopping for Zak's clothes, and then looked for lunch. The Food Republic food court happened to be on the same floor as the last shop we were at, and having a variety of food appealed to us. Just as well we didn't dine in a proper restaurant because the 2-year-old was not on his best behaviour. The first three stalls we walked past were Singaporean, Thai and Korean, and we didn't make it beyond these three as we'd already made up our minds what we were going to eat for lunch. The Dolsot Bibimbap (rice with meat and veges in hot stone bowl) from the Korean food stall proved to be a winner, whereas the Nasi Lemak from the Singaporean one could be better. When I saw the Thai stall offering my favourite green leafies, Kangkung (aka morning glory, water spinach), I just had to get a plate. The average price for each dish was around HK$40, which made the meal a whole lot cheaper than the previous weekend's lunch. The food court looked clean enough, the food were cooked to order, and they were ready in a jiffy - perfect for a quick bite whilst at the shops.

Piping hot Dolsot Bibimbap from Korea House, which was super-tasty:

The delicious crunchy burnt rice at the bottom (called "okoge" in Japan):

Nasi Lemak from the Singaporean stall, served with beef rendang - the sambal had a decent spicy kick, the rendang was only average and the soup that came with the set was not worth drinking:

Kangkung, done very spicy - I could easily have eaten the whole thing on my own:

It was a rather enjoyable meal, and the best thing was being able to order a variety of dishes from different stalls. We headed home after lunch, which meant that half the time we were at the mall was actually spent eating, but we were perfectly fine with that.