I12 Katong Mall: Shops, Food, How To Get There & Is It Worth Visiting?
Singapore is one of the countries that’s leading the world into the future. Living alongside Big Brother at his best is part and parcel of the Singaporean experience. It’s a place we go expecting to see the latest in technological development. But sometimes, we also want to experience the Lion City’s more traditional, people-oriented side.
Even amidst the island’s rapid technological and economic development, you may enjoy more local commercial experiences, if you know where to look. One of those places is i12 Katong. Unlike the more popular Singaporean malls, this one is known to operate with a decentralized system of ownership. That may not always be ideal from a funding and management perspective. But at the same time, we definitely don’t want to see smaller-scale brands and franchises disappear from the Singaporean landscape.
And no, this is not to give the impression that i12 Katong is lacking. To the contrary, dear reader, it is one of the better Singaporean shopping adventures out there.
Sometimes you want to go to a mall just to shop and have good, clean fun, not be bedazzled by decorations and advertisements. In the United States, Walmart gets more patronage than Louis Vuitton. You know what I mean? If you’re on a middle-class budget and want to shop at a mall, i12 Katong is preferable to prettier places like Marina Bay Sands. But options are also limited in some regards, with i12 Katong being most appealing to shoppers looking for food, homeware, health and educational services.
HARDWARE AND FURNISHINGS
Hardware City is a cool place to shop, if you’re in the market for affordable tools and accessories, though the prices won’t always knock your socks off. But what I like is the wide range of products available. It feels like you can find just about any gadget related to home or car care in this mall.
So if you’re going to be in the Lion City for an extended time and need to outfit your domicile, i12 Katong is one of the better places to shop. Besides hardware, there’s also a plethora of knickknacks and furnishings. For instance at the Tott Store, you’ll find just about anything imaginable for your kitchen – besides the food. What’s even more interesting is that the store offers cooking and baking classes that’s also available for private parties and team-building programs. One of their competitors, HOUZE, is also within the vicinity, so you can always compare between prices and quality.
CLOTHING
Shopping at Tiffany’s features a plethora of women’s wear that’s suitable for the Singaporean climate. It’s a cool place to take your lady if you want her to look fashionable, on a budget. Outfits at this boutique typically cost around USD$100. That’s nothing to sneeze at but still better pricing than some of the higher-end stores in Singapore.
If you’re looking specifically for shoes, you can head to Binibeca Fashion, with its Spanish-designed footwear. Some of the footwear they offer is cool though a bit costly, all markets considered. But if you want quality you have to pay for it, especially in a place like the Lion City.
That’s something you should also keep in mind if you decide to shop at Lucca Vudor. The shoes aren’t expensive, but they aren’t low cost either. However this establishment has a commitment to quality, which ultimately is more important than affordability. If you can’t afford to cough up about USD$80 for a pair of shoes, then you probably shouldn’t be in Singapore to begin with. For women and children especially, i12 Katong offers an admirable collection of locally-based brands, making it a wise place to shop if you’re not used to buying clothes for the tropics and have a little bit extra to spend.
HEALTH & BEAUTY
There are a number of shops in i12 Katong that sell specialized beauty products. For example, if you want to safely change the color of your dome piece, check out Organic Express Hair Color Lab. As the name says, they deal with organic hair colours. A friend of mine gave high praise to this store as she visited them twice and the hair colour lasted for a good couple of months before needing a retouch.
There’s also Watsons, a department store full of health and beauty goods. And for a more traditional approach to making yourself feel good, head over to shops like Liang Yi TCM. Overall, this may not be one of the places in Singapore you would go specifically for traditional medicine (unless you live nearby). What i12 Katong is better for is providing modernized healthcare products and services, even if in old school form.
For example, the mall’s Core Clinic provides the type of standard, quality healthcare you’d expect from a service provide in Singapore. There’s also a dental and pediatric clinic (the Royce Center) within the mall’s border.
You may come to i12 Katong to get your shopping and eating on, but you can conveniently use the opportunity to get a quick health checkup or some other types of expeditious medical and beauty treatment. In its own way, the mall is just as diverse when it comes to healthcare and bodily aesthetics as it is when it comes to food.
FOOD & DRINK
And speaking of food, the biggest draw of i12 Katong, in my opinion, is the food variety. I appreciate Singapore as being a crossroads where you can get all types of exotic yet street-worthy Asian treats. But I still prefer Western food and want to give a shoutout to i12 Katong for accommodating those tastes in proper abundance.
For instance there’s The Pizza Pasta Project, which isn’t the name of a cooking show but rather one of the mall’s food stalls. In fact, it’s part of a unique dining experience called Bistro Bytes. What’s unique about it? It’s actually a smart kiosk with digital ordering! How it works? You simply order your food through the app and it’ll be ready for collection in one of the lockers within minutes!
One of the pros of this concept is that there’s a variety of food stalls to choose from – much like a food court. There’s also Saizeriya, an Italian restaurant, which serves affordable Italian dishes. In a multicultural Asian environment where the focus is on regional foods, you have to be thankful that there’s ample stores and menu items dedicated to the American basics. And I know that the likes of pizza and pasta aren’t actually American, but again, you get the point.
TONS OF FAST FOOD
There’s also a plethora of fast foods available that are popular in other nations, being offered through stores such as Yum Yum Thai (Thailand), The FISH & CHIPS Shop (British), Pizzamaru Express (Korea), RollGaadi (India), Guzman Y Gomez (Mexico), So Good Bakery and So Good Char Chan Tang (Hong Kong), etc. Then you have a shop like SG Hawker, backed by a number of food vendors and allowing customers to make purchases via a self-service system. Being in a country like Singapore compels you to expand your culinary experiences, and i12 Katong is one of the places where you can suitably fulfil that goal.
You’ll also notice at i12 Katong that people out have a thing for ice cream (understandably, considering the weather and all). Besides that, there are a number of shops that specialize in drinks like yogurt smoothies (Hey! I am Yogost) and fruit juice (Boost Juice Bars). Or if you want a hot drink you may opt to take some Taiwanese tea (Coucou Hotpot). At i12 Katong, you can overeat and overdrink and then, when your tummy starts to hurt, head over to one of the medical clinics or shops – killing two birds with one stone.
There are also a number of food wholesalers and retailers, i.e. supermarkets, found within the mall. This includes the likes of CS Fresh, where you can get everything from toilet rolls to rotisserie chicken. Meanwhile, J-Mart hails from Japan and is the one store in i12 you must visit if you like sake, i.e. alcoholic Japanese tea.
CHILDREN AND EDUCATION
Interestingly, i12 Katong is a hub of alternative child education. The Singaporean educational system can be extremely competitive and stressful. So it’s cool to see that there are businesses inside this mall which understand that not all children learn the same or may need additional inspiration.
At Mathnasium, kids can edify their math skills with programs catered to their respective individuality. At Spark Education, they’re able to make learning a more palatable experience for small kids than what you usually find in school. Another company, Tree Art, incorporates drawing and painting into the educational experience. Or how about a bookstore (Junior Page) that’s dedicated to making texts for children affordable? During the late 20th century, some visionary minds decided that i12 Katong should be a center of youth education. And it has retained that standard to this day, featuring an array of professionals committed to teaching kids through fun and personalized methods.
Even if you want to push your child more in the physical direction, there are businesses dedicated to teaching dancing (All That Jazz Dance Academy) or taekwondo (Olympic Taekwondo Academy). i12 Katong is really interesting, when you think of all the major purposes the mall serves – clothing, furnishings, health, beauty, food and even getting the kids off your hands for a couple of hours. It truly is a mall of the people, not international interests per se.
HOW TO GET TO I12 KATONG MALL
One of the advantages of Singapore being so small and urbanized is that just about everywhere is easy to get to. And the same goes for i12 Katong, located in Katong, which is a big residential neighborhood that’s also known for its commerce (in food, interestingly).
I12 Katong is just a spitting distance away from the Marine Parade MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) train station. There are also a number of buses that pass through the area, such as 16. Or of course you could use a taxi, through apps like Grab or TADA. Regardless of what part of the island you’re on, i12 Katong is just a few minutes away.
CONCLUSION
Whether or not i12 Katong, in a country full of malls within close proximity, is worth the visit depends on what you’re looking for. This is a nice place to take a woman shopping, if you have money to spend though not too much (by Singaporean standards). Or if you’re looking for things to use around the house, sundry or decorative, you’ll be amazed, perhaps even overwhelmed, by the mall’s variety.
Another appeal of i12 Katong is if you’re pressed for time and want to kill two birds with one stone, i.e. shop and check on your health at the same time. However I, as a man, wouldn’t go there shopping for clothes. And the various educational services are cool if you have kids but likely won’t appeal if you don’t.
The best thing about i12 Katong, from my perspective, is the variety of food. The mall is dominated by places where you can get your eat and drink on, at reasonable prices. Or if you want to widen the children’s educational horizons, you can carry them along. But outside of the food, education and health aspects, there may be better places to visit. i12 Katong harps back to an earlier stage in the Lion City’s history. And that’s a good thing, if you’re looking for a commercial experience that isn’t over the top.
