Garden City

I always love how Garden City has a lot of good range of shops and always managed to keep the shopping centre look neat at the same time. I heard the rent for shops at Garden City is one of the highest in Perth though.

I don’t visit Garden City often, but when I do I really enjoy it.
The food hall has a wide variety of options, plus there are a number of other great cafes and food outlets throughout the centre. The variety of shops and services is great, and the community centre with a JP available every business day is extremely helpful (and often my main reason for trekking out to Garden City).
The interior is lovely and light, and I’ve always found parking on the roof to be plentiful (there is a lot of parking under the centre as well, but it can take a little longer to find a free space).

I really enjoy visiting Garden City. It’s very vibrant on Thursday nights and weekends. There is a large selection of shops to visit but the best thing about Garden City is the toilets. The entrance to the toilets are doorless so you are not forced to touch disease ridden door handles when leaving. The tap on the hand wash basin runs of a sensor so its fully automatic and the water is even warm. With all this amazing technology I feel confident that I’m not going to pick up some exotic South East Asian disease.

Anytime I needed a break from studying at Murdoch, I’d either go to Freo, or come to Garden City for a movie or some retail therapy. It was easy to get here via TransPerth bus, where they had frequent drop-​offs and pick-​ups.
As far as malls go, it’s a lovely place… it’s clean, and it’s easy to navigate. There’s a variety of department stores and shops (my favorite being Cotton On… which, coincidentally, they have here in the US now, but it’s not the same at all), and a decent food court as well. I remember there being a Cadbury World of Ice Cream… not sure if it’s still there, but it was delightful, especially on a hot day. I frequently visited the Hoyts theater, which was always a pleasant experience since I always visited during the day in the middle of the week. As a result, neither the mall nor the theater were ever crowded when I went. I realize most don’t have that luxury… ah, the joys of being a university student!

There are a few big shopping centres in Perth that are quite well known — Garden City being one of them. From my perspective, there really isn’t a whole lot to complain about. There are basically all the shops you would ever need in the one place and then some, and there is quite a varied range of stores also. You name it, they have it — department stores, grocery stores, clothing chains, hair dressers, electronics and hobby shops, book stores, fast food, a movie theatre and the list goes on!
It gets very busy, especially on Saturdays and Thursday nights, so parking can be a bit difficult, but there are several large car parks, so it doesn’t usually take long.
The food options are quite impressive for a shopping centre, with the usual fast food options, but there are also some healthy options, a kebab shop, sushi outlets and a mini dome. Various coffee shops are scattered throughout the centre also.
I would say it might be too busy for a local shopping venture, and doing my weekly grocery shop might be a little stressful on an ongoing basis but it can be a one stop shop, and one of the best shopping centres south of the river.

I thought I was the kind of man who liked shopping until I encountered Garden City in the full throes of Christmas. Mild claustrophobia and anthropophobia set in and got worse through the day.
Of course, you can find practically anything you want in this shopping centre, provided you know where to look. From supermarkets to department stores (David Jones & Myer), furniture to soap shops. It’s just that no matter the time of year, this place is a bit of a cesspit, full of people and noise. While I would usually relieve this pain with some music shopping, the only CD store in here is a very lame Sanity outlet — something I doubt is of much worry to anyone else bought CD’s anymore.
The food court here isn’t too bad, but don’t expect to find a seat if you’re eating around a meal time. If you’re undecided about what to eat, I suggest Mandarin Wok or the pretty decent Japanese place next to it.
The shopping centre attaches to a Hoyts cinema that offers all the usual overpriced Hollywood blockbuster pleasures you can expect from a mainstream cinema, but at least all the cinemas are well equipped and comfortable.
Keep me away from this place.

A shiny, sprawling shopping centre that covers the full gamut of fashion, food, home-​wares and entertainment. South of the River folk tend to love their Garden City, I’ve had friends go there just to life their spirits when they’re feeling down. Some higher– end women’s retail has opened up recently — Flannel, Morrison, Metalicus — but generally the stores are middle of the range. I never have much joy finding men’s fashion here, save for the retailers in David Jones — but I was happy to see General Pants open up for the younger folks not long ago. The higher end section of the food court is solid, some specialty stores and gourmet treats. But the fast food section (which opens out to Hoyts) is a bit grim.

Garden City is the number one shopping destination South of the River. It’s a large shopping complex easily accessible by public transport, with wheel chair access and lots of parking. Like most shopping centres, it’s confusing to navigate. but luckily it’s only one level (except for the Myers and David Jones which are three levels), so there’s not much of a labyrinth to solve. You can find a lot of major retailers under this roof, namely K-​Mart, David Jones, Myer, Coles and Woolworths. They also a range of other jewellers and fashion retailers which cater to mass markets. Good for the essentials.

I’m not the biggest fan of shopping centres and malls, I find them too crowded loud and overbearing. But as shopping centres go, Garden City is a good one. It’s a little larger than the rest in the state, so it’s layout can be quite confusing, but easy to navigate after you’ve been there a little while. It’s larger walkways make avoiding people easier, so no bumping into slow walking oldies and hyperactive kids!
Every high street store is here, from clothing to music to grocery to gaming to stationery. If you have a crazy list of things to get, just come here and you’ll leave with everything on your list ticked off. There is a large food court and cafes spread out across the centre. Parking is a bit everywhere, luckily my car is easy to spot as I’ve been lost in the car park a few times now! There’s a Hoyts here as well if you were looking to catch a movie. It really does have it all and it’s not as cramped as the rest, and on a Thursday night, instead of just feeling overrun by teenagers, it actually has a cool, community kind of vibe around, so I’d recommend shopping around this time, certainly preferable to crazy busy Saturdays!

Garden City is the first place I go to when I need something that my local shopping centre doesn’t have.
Obviously, it features large selection of all kinds of stores, from big chain supermarkets such as Woolworth to my personal favourite Gamesworld which will have you back when it comes to any kind of non-​video game. For full store list visit their website, there is far too many to list here.
Of note are Justice of the Peace service (at information desk) and excellent Hoyts cinema which has become my default go to cinema when I’m trying to catch some new release.
When I first started driving I found the layout of the parking very very confusing. Now maybe you are not directionally challenged like me, but keep an eye out for that so you don’t lose your car.
And if you can’t find what you are after here, it may be the time to go to Westfield Carousel.

Garden City is THE place to shop south of the river. Instead of dragging yourself into the city, try Garden City first. There are so many shops to choose from, and there is also talk that the shopping centre will be increasing in size in the near future.
There is Coles, Woolworths, Myer, KMart, many, many clothing and shoe stores, gift stores, jewellers, and everything else you can think of. There is also a food court and a Hoyts cinema.
You can be guaranteed of finding the right gifts for the special people in your life, as there is such a variety of different shops.
If you choose to just window shop, you can always sit down and enjoy a nice cup of coffee in one of the many cafes.