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BaseHall, in the basement of Jardine House, is a trendy new food court in Hong Kong, but will it ever replace the satisfaction of eating at a local dai pai dong? Photo: BaseHall
Opinion
Mouthing Off
by Andrew Sun
Mouthing Off
by Andrew Sun

Millennials’ love of casual dining revives food courts – but of the hip, artisanal, and pricey kind

  • Hong Kong’s newest food court, BaseHall in Jardine House, has a cool design and hip culinary talent, but do you really want to pay HK$128 for a laksa?
  • Hawker food stalls and cooked food centres are enjoyable to eat at because they are authentic and appeal to all
Andrew Sun
Andrew Sun
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Here’s another sign of Covid-19’s devastating effect on the Hong Kong restaurant scene: the hottest new opening this summer is a food court.

That’s right. In the basement of Jardine House is BaseHall, a buzzy new destination featuring an arcade of some of the town’s hippest culinary talents. The venue plays cool music and has a snazzy lighting scheme. But ultimately, it’s still a food court.

The thing is, that’s not a term most retail operators want to use. It’s far too down-market for any shopping development that aims to project prestige and luxury.

The trend among malls in Hong Kong business districts to eliminate fast and cheap meal counters began a little more than 10 years ago. Pacific Place turfed out their popular food court for a Lane Crawford Home store. IFC and Elements deliberately didn’t leave space for multi-vendor dining areas.

A section of BaseHall food court’s interior in the basement of Jardine House. Photo: BaseHall

Not even McDonald’s is really welcome any more. Their outlets have been relegated from prime high-traffic locations to remote back lots. Think about where you have to go for McNuggets now if you’re at Elements, IFC or Pacific Place. Even a classier concept like Food Republic has retreated from Cityplaza in Taikoo Shing.

We all need to eat and we don’t necessarily always want a fancy meal. Malls, however, think food courts and fast food encourage the wrong kind of people to loiter. They don’t want such riff-raff to scare off more desirable customers, such as those in the Chanel, Rolex and Bvlgari boutiques.

Is Hong Kong finally falling out of love with celebrity chefs?

Has it never occurred to them that these may be one and the same? I can picture Kim Kardashian and her sisters getting a Big Mac before or after a spree at Louis Vuitton and Sunglass Hut.

The millennial generation’s love of casual dining and hanging out is changing the paradigm again and giving food courts a new lease of life, albeit with a makeover. Hip food halls are now found across American and European cities, often in public markets, serving artisanal food on canteen trays.

Instead of Taco Bell and Panda Express, these places offer Peruvian bibimbap and Asian-inspired tacos. It’s food truck food without the truck. Communal dining might be passé, but experiential, social dining in a market setting is desirable – especially after so many months of takeaway isolation.
Nasi lemak served at BaseHall food court in Central. Photo: BaseHall

No one in Asia needs to be reminded of this. We are the land of hawker stalls and street food. Asians pioneered this. We understand eating is not just eating, it has a social function.

At BaseHall, the impulse to elevate the food with a curated roster of artisanal chefs using fresh ingredients is laudable, but the corporate mandate for Central-size returns means it’s probably the priciest food court in Hong Kong. BaseHall is all right if you are OK with paying HK$128 (US$16.50) for a laksa – albeit a good one – in a funky office building basement.

I’ve always felt the most enjoyable food markets are not elitist. Eating from the hawker stalls of Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan is enjoyable and memorable because their food is authentic and inexpensive, and appeals to all ages and to locals, expats and visitors. Hong Kong’s humble dai pai dong and underrated cooked food centres are part of this tradition.

The popular cooked food hawker bazaar at Haiphong Road in Tsim Sha Tsui. Photo: Dickson Lee
Only a few ever get any attention. The notable exceptions are Tung Po (in the North Point Java Road Municipal Services Building) and ABC Kitchen (Queen Street Cooked Food Market). Their atmosphere and culinary swag just can’t be matched, not even by Central’s shiniest new food court.

Will I ever go back to BaseHall? Sure, for a quick bowl of noodles if I’m in the area. But if a tourist asks me if it’s worth a visit, I would find out a little more about what they want and say, “That depends: are you more likely to enjoy souvenir shopping in Pacific Place or the ladies’ market in Mong Kok?”

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