Number One Dixon

Many people may know this Chinatown shopping centre for the 12 or so restaurants it has flanking the northern section of Dixon Street Mall, offering a variety of Asian cusines, including Japanese, Malaysian, Korean, Indonesian, Taiwanese and Chinese, as well as regionalised Chinese food such as Sichuanese, Yunnan and Beijing styles. These places are very popular with Asian students, ’nuff said. The ground floor is also home to N2 Extreme Gelato, one of the latest dessert trends to hit Sydney.
Venture inside though, and it’s completely different. There’s three floors of Asian boutiques, with a scattering of gift shops and beauty shops catering primarily to the Asian market. The former Chinatown monorail station is located on the second floor, all locked up but intact, and visible through a large glass wall, an eerie reminder of the Sydney monorail system. The second floor is also home to the New Hong Kong Café, a popular Hong Kong café style restaurant.
The basement floor (ie, below Dixon Street level) has a billiard hall, an internet café, a karaōke bar, a couple of food places and some small shops. There is an underground carpark on site.
At most times, the mall is almost deserted, apart from those heading to and from New Hong Kong Café. Why this shopping centre isn’t more frequented, I have no idea. The boutiques seem to survive though, so there must be some customers patronising them. Who knows, maybe i’ve just been at the wrong times. I dare say though the lack of a food court might have something to do with it, the other shopping centres in Chinatown that have food courts always seem a lot busier.