Exciting Times Ahead: SM Megamall's new Mega Fashion Hall

SM Megamall will always have a special place in my heart. This mall is where countless weekends have been spent with my family since childhood up to the present, and over the years I have watched it evolve and go through numerous changes to become what it is now. 

Since it opened during the 1990s up until its cousin SM Mall of Asia came along in 2006, it was the biggest mall in the country--since then, it has been unable to take back the title it held on to for more than a decade; that is, until the opening of its newest building, the SM Mega Fashion Hall last Tuesday, where once again it officially became the largest mall in the country, snatching the title from another cousin, the SM North Edsa.

The Mega Fashion Hall will have over 100 tenants, majority of which are global fashion brands and restaurant chains. My family and I got the chance to take a look around over the long weekend, a few days after it opened on January 28.

The 101,000-sq.m Mega Fashion Hall has five floors, as well as basement parking. I think this photo shows pretty well how huge this expansion is!

The Mega Fashion Hall also has a large ice skating rink at the top level, with a pretty good view of the city. This new ice skating rink replaces the older one at the basement level which closed sometime during the mid to late-2000s.

This will be Vikings Luxury Buffet's newest and largest branch. I couldn't even take a photo of the entire facade!

The SM Mega Fashion Hall will be home to the flagship stores of numerous clothing stores, some of which will be entering the Philippine market for the first time.

American Eagle Outfitters and Zara, side-by-side. This will be Zara's largest store in the country, with two levels. My mom couldn't contain her happiness when she found out Zara would be opening a store here!

The Spanish brand Pull & Bear will be opening their first store in the Philippines here. Pull & Bear is a sister company of Zara.

The wait is over--Swedish clothing brand H&M will be opening a massive, 3-level store at SM Megamall. in the 2nd half of 2014. Fans of this brand will no longer have to go all the way to Hong Kong or Singapore just to shop. This is also reportedly the largest H&M store in Southeast Asia.

Topshop and Topman (located at another floor) will be opening in March.

The 3-level Uniqlo store was the first store in the Mega Fashion Hall to open. It opened months ago in November 2013, way before the rest of the Mega Fashion Hall was unveiled.

Chez Karine Bakery serves one of the best French Macarons you'll ever get to try. Read my review of Chez Karine Bakery in Serendra here.

Tim Ho Wan, which first started as a hole-in-the-wall place in Hong Kong, is now a highly-rated Michelin Star restaurant and is widely known for their dimsum. I really want to try this place out when they open!

The Mega Fashion Hall is very spacious and well-lit, in contrast to the older buildings of the mall. I guess it's time to upgrade the rest of the mall.

These Audi cars are displayed right at the entrance facing Edsa.

The new Mega Fashion Hall is certainly a great addition to the mall that I've come to know and love over the years. The next few months will surely be exciting!

Just...Wow: The Robinsons Magnolia Mall in Quezon City

Although it opened to the public sometime in mid-2012, I was only able to check out the new Robinsons Magnolia mall (located at the corner of Aurora Boulevard and Hemady Street near New Manila in Quezon City) just earlier today. Since it opened, I've been wanting to check the place out as it is much talked-about online (through blog posts I've read) as well as on posts by my contacts on my social networking accounts. These positive reviews really got me curious, and my curiosity was finally satisfied earlier today. 

We had just entered the parking lot and I couldn't help but be impressed already. The basement parking area is spacious and well-lit, and finding a vacant parking space wasn't really much of a problem. It was very orderly and it was pretty easy to navigate. The ramp leading to the parking area was quite wide, too.

We entered the mall via the Food Court entrance and my first reaction: wow. The whole place looked clean, airy, and spacious, and that goes for the whole mall, too. It didn't really look like your typical mall food court--the Robinsons Magnolia food court was very orderly and didn't look cluttered at all. I think the white paint as well as the shiny, white floor tiles helped in giving the place a sense of spaciousness. 

The food court

As we made our way up the escalator to the ground floor, we were once again impressed by what we saw. At that point, I came to the conclusion that Robinsons Magnolia was not your typical Robinsons Mall. Robinsons Malls usually cater to the middle-to-low end market, since they compete with SM whose malls also cater to the same market. I noticed, however, that Robinsons Magnolia attracted the same type of crowd you'd usually see in upscale malls like Shangri-la Plaza in Mandaluyong or Power Plant Mall in Makati. 

All. That. Space. 

The mall wasn't really very crowded, even on a Saturday

The mall has a pretty good mix of stores, from local brands like Oxygen, Bench, and Penshoppe, to foreign brands like Cotton On, Muji, Gap, Fred Perry, and Mango, among others. There are also other vacant spaces and other stores that are still about to open. It's pretty clear that Robinsons Malls really aims to attract the upper market, judging by the brands they carry. 

Ford Mustang cars on display at the mall's atrium

A closer look at the car

There also a number of pretty good restaurants here, from casual fastfood places to the more upscale ones. There are just so many to choose from! Aside from the ones right inside the mall, you might also want to check out the Al Fresco area (facing the garden) for more restaurants that might interest you. Some of the dining places I saw at the mall (both inside and at the Al Fresco area) include Jamba Juice, Krispy Kreme, UCC Park Cafe, Claw Daddy's, Pepper Lunch, Yabu, and SumoSam. I was also happy to see that my favorite Filipino restaurant, Mesa, will also be opening a branch here soon. For a snack, you might want to visit the Magnolia Flavor House at the garden, which I'll be blogging about next.

For those who don't know, the mall is called Robinsons Magnolia because it is located at the site of the old Magnolia Ice Cream Factory. The factory was a frequent host to students on an educational field trip, as well as a place for friends and dating couples to hang out, because of the Magnolia Ice Cream Parlor at the site. The factory closed down and was transferred somewhere else about a decade ago (I think), and the land was purchased by Robinsons, which they transformed into a mall and condominium (the Magnolia Residences, which is still under construction). 

Another view of the atrium area. I really like the floor design, as well as the chandeliers.  Very classy.

The al fresco dining area

The garden, with a view of the Magnolia Residences which is still under construction

The cinema area

How soon is "soon"?

The mall is well lit and airy, which helps in giving it an overall sense of spaciousness

I was definitely very impressed with this mall. If you're the type of person who would prefer malls that are less crowded, then this mall is a good alternative to other not-so-crowded upscale malls like Shangri-la Plaza. There is a good selection of stores and restaurants that would appeal to anyone, and I would say that this place is really very promising. As of the moment, however, there are still some vacant retail spaces, and there are still some stores and restaurants that haven't opened yet. But still--kudos to Robinsons Malls! I will definitely be back.

(Robinsons Magnolia is located at Aurora Boulevard corner Dona Hemady Street in Quezon City. The mall is open from 10am-9pm from Sundays to Thursdays, and at 10am-10pm every Friday and Saturday. For more information, please visit http://www.robinsonsmalls.com/malls_magnolia.php)