Much like the neighbourhood milk bar, the international food hall was once a staple of suburban Australian life.

Key points: The classic food court style of dining has made a big comeback

The classic food court style of dining has made a big comeback Tired suburban centres have become vibrant melting pots of cuisine

Tired suburban centres have become vibrant melting pots of cuisine Food trucks, Instagram 'foodies' and students are driving the trend

After fading out of Australian life over the past two decades, the humble food court is now making a quiet comeback, offering authentic, cheap and culturally diverse dining experiences in a modern era of well-travelled taste buds and colourful Instagram foodie blogs.

"I think people are going back to the food court now because the quality is getting better," Malaysian Chinese chef Vincent Lim said.

"It's still cheap but it's good quality now. You hang around with your friends, you can have some beer."

The food court boom began in Australia in the 1970s, with one of the first being the stand-alone Sun Markets in Perth's CBD.

"You'd see the bain-maries sitting there with this slick layer of oil across the top," Suresh Rajan, head of WA's Ethnic Communities Council, recalled.

"You'd go to the Chinese place for example, you'd have some curry there, you'd have sweet and sour, Mongolian lamb, fried rice and some noodles and you got a combination.

Suresh Rajan remembers the mundane food on offer at Australian food courts in 1970s. ( ABC News: Gian De Poloni )

"It was the most horrific things you could ever eat because you literally had everything piled on to one plate. But it was cheap.

"It was a real novelty — everyone went to Sun Market because it was a place you could get a meal that gave you exposure to a different variety of cuisine."

That messy buffet style was replicated across many suburban food courts, long before the concept was adopted by commercial shopping centres to include the standard array of fast-food restaurants.

Many of Australia's suburban food halls have closed. ( ABC News: Gian De Poloni )

"We always described it as Anglicised Chinese food," Mr Rajan said.

"It wasn't your traditional Chinese food, it was really designed for the Western palate.

"It wasn't for the traditional Singaporean market, for example, because they'd make most of these dishes at home."

Varieties of Chinese food tailored for westerners is typically served at food courts. ( ABC News: Gian De Poloni )

Mr Rajan said as the travelling public's tastes become more refined, the overseas cuisines on offer in Australia became more sophisticated.



"It just seemed that the run-of-the-mill restaurants were providing what had previously been only available at the fine dining restaurants," he said.

"We Aussies really don't pay for service or the flashy accompaniments that go with a meal, we want a good tasting meal and a good price."

Cheap share plates revive the food court

Food blogger Mary Noonan said she believed the rise of food trucks and the explosion of "foodie" culture on social media had encouraged people to be more adventurous.

Pork buns being steamed at one of the longest running shops at Spencer Village in Perth's south-east. ( ABC News: Hugh Sando )

"In the past, people used to only like to go out to places that served spaghetti bolognaise, or steak and mash, or fish and chips," she said.

"People were only having food that they were comfortable with, or food they were having at home already.

"I'm finding over time people are becoming more willing to explore."

Ms Noonan said support for food courts was on the rise after years of public disdain.

"We're finding that a lot of places are now doing tapas, shared plates and food courts cater for that," she said.

Mary Noonan thinks the popularity of food trucks and festivals has encouraged diners to be more adventurous. ( Supplied: Mary Noonan )

"You can go there with everyone and everyone will find something that they're happy with.

"I think there's no excuse anymore to not have good quality food, especially in WA where we've got fresh produce everywhere."

Mr Rajan said families and students were behind the resurgence.

"You're seeing more and more relationships between the various cultural groups," he said.

Perth's Old Shanghai full of people during a weekday lunchtime run. ( ABC News: Gian De Poloni )

"Particularly in families where you have intercultural marriages where someone has the traditional Anglo cuisines verses something that originated in India.

"You've got a family of five or six people, each with different tastes.

"I can go to the Malaysian place and have the fish head curry. The fish head curry would be something that no one else makes, but I'll have that there.

The fish head curry is one of many authentic dishes found in international food courts. ( ABC News: Gian De Poloni )

"I have it almost every time — but no one else in my family would eat that."

Authenticity is king

Nestled deep in suburban Perth is Spencer Village Food Court, which is recognised as one of the city's the most authentic examples of a Singaporean or Malaysian hawkers market.

Tiny kitchens serving traditional meals from South-East Asia and beyond are grouped around a no-frills dining hall that often reaches its capacity.

Spencer Village is said to be the closest thing Perth has to a hawkers market. ( ABC News: Gian De Poloni )

It opened 30 years ago, initially to serve a high concentration of Chinese immigrants and international students in nearby suburbs, but has since built a reputation that reaches far beyond the local area.

"Food courts like Spencer Village represent a familiar cultural experience to our multicultural society," said the centre's manager, Cameron Hopkins.

"The food is authentic to their origin, as is the dining experience."

Noodles being tossed at a kitchen at Spencer Village. ( ABC News: Hugh Sando )

Danny Hung has run his tiny Malaysian kitchen at Spencer Village for almost 20 years.

He said families were brought together around cooking familiar to their roots.

"All the Malaysian, Chinese, Indonesian, Singaporean, Thai — everyone — they come here, they have a lot of choice and they're looking for their own flavour, their own food," he said.

Danny Hung owns the longest running shop at Spencer Village. ( ABC News: Hugh Sando )

"Lots of Asian families love to come here — one order there, one order there, the whole family will sit down with each other and enjoy a meal."

Joppy Sai recently opened his Thai outlet at Spencer Village after operating a stall at a nearby market for 10 years.

"If you think about Asian food hall, this is the first one they'd have to think of. It would have to be," he said.

"When it's busy, there's no seats available, we can only do takeaway.

Joppy Sai and his co-workers opened up a shop in Spencer Village after operating from a weekend market stall. ( ABC News: Gian De Poloni )

"It's multicultural people, Australian, New Zealand, African or any Asian. People across the world come.

"We all help each other out when somebody has an issue — maybe there's a leaking tap or something — everyone just comes and helps."

Mr Lim said the Australian food courts that succeeded were the ones that created a buzzing atmosphere.

A busy hawkers market in central Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. ( Supplied: Flickr/IQRemix )

"In [the hawkers food courts] in Malaysia and Singapore, you actually see the chef cooking your food right in front of you," he said.

"You can talk to the chef, tell him more chilli or less. You're running around with your friends, there's hundreds and hundreds of people. It's a vibe.

"You really taste something homemade, something like your grandma's cooking."

Mr Lim said Spencer Village replicated that experience on a smaller scale.

"Even though they're still cooking behind walls, you see [the chefs] walking around, talking, yelling, shouting to each other," he said.

"There's definitely a real vibe there for a food court."

Hopes coronavirus won't derail business

But even the well established cultural dining hubs are not immune from the perceived threat of coronavirus.

Like many Asian food restaurants across the nation, vendors at Spencer Village have reported seeing a drop-off in trade as fears about the outbreak spread.

Vendors at Spencer Village are concerned coronavirus will have an impact on trade. ( ABC News: Hugh Sando )

Mr Hopkins said the impact had been minimal at this stage.

"Naturally there is some cause for concern, as this seems bigger than SARS, however at this stage customers have been consistent and resilient," he said.

"Support for the food court has been widespread, not just limited to people from certain cultural backgrounds.

"We hope it stays that way for everyone's sake."

'It's not just fish and chips anymore'

Mr Lim said he expected food courts to become even more diverse to reflect the melting pot of culture in modern Australia.

Many more foreign ingredients are being imported into Australia, allowing ethnic restaurants to serve a greater variety of dishes. ( ABC News: Gian De Poloni )

"I believe in the next five years you will see a lot more different cuisines from China that weren't here start opening up and taking off," he said.

"The last three or four years you've seen lots of Sichuan restaurants opening up, the hot pots.

"You will see a lot more cuisines from the north."

Chef Vincent Lim expects even more Asian cuisines to find popularity in Australia. ( ABC Radio Perth: Emma Wynne )

He said Asian cuisine would continue to grow as more imported ingredients were made available to the Australian market.

"Even places run by Western chefs, they'll use a lot of Asian ingredients to make it like a fusion," he said.

"It's not just fish and chips anymore.

"Even the fish and chips they will put the miso batter or the miso mayo!"