Mall of India, Noida
At first glance this could easily be mistaken for a railway station - a really posh one- at rush hour right? It's actually the food court in Noida's new Mall of India on a Sunday afternoon. This is the mall I've been waiting for, for years and apparently so has every other resident in the city and neighboring districts of Uttar Pradesh.
Before the Mall of India, the city had very few good dining, shopping and entertainment options and one would have to travel miles away to those in Delhi's
Saket or Vasant Kunj or even cross two state lines to get to Gurgaon. The only mall of consequence, The Great India Place, about whose food court I went on a rant a couple of years ago, stopped being much good after the initial few years of its opening.
Now, with 2.7 million square feet of stores, restaurants and gaming, we need to look no further. The mall has well known brands like Zara, Marks and Spencer, the largest H&M in the country, Forever 21, Cole Haan, Gap, Hamley's and stores such as Armani Exchange are also on their way to opening their shutters. The shops also have large floor areas thereby giving customers a wider range of merchandise.
It's also entertainment bonanza for the kids. The top floors have movie theatres, Fun City, a play centre for Kids with bumper cars, some rides and gaming options and Smaash, a gaming centre where you can hit cricket balls against a virtual opponent, play soccer, go bowling and have scores of video games to burn your money on. The piece de resistance though, is Ski India, the country's biggest snow park where you can go bob-sledding, tobogganing, tubing or just jump around in the snow. The lines for this place are unbelievable and if you don't come early on a weekend, there's little chance you'll even get to go in.
Now all these gaming areas are accessed through the food court. So, even though it is India's largest, with a 1,000 people seating capacity, on a Sunday, it was totally inadequate and practically bursting at the seams. There were easily three times the number of people the hall could accommodate and it took us two hours to get our food. We had planned to get lunch before the Angry Birds movie which started at 12.15 p.m. and decided on the food court as everyone wanted to eat different cuisines. Alas, being Sunday, we got lazy and missed the opportunity. So by 2.30 pm, when we emerged from the hall, it was madness. There were no tables free and people were hovering over occupied ones with a hawk eye ready to grab the seat as soon as their occupants finished.
Waiting for a table standing to one side with the two brats I was pleasantly surprised when in a few minutes a gentleman approached me and pointed to the table his family was vacating. Another lady from behind dumped her bag on the seat and was categorically told by his wife that the table was going to us. How sweet of them. It was nice to experience kindness from random strangers. I thanked him profusely.
Chairs are a premium. While the hubby was getting the food I was approached by at least 10-12 people who were polite enough to ask if the chair was free. One woman didn't even bother. She just grabbed hold and started taking it away. The `hey! someone's going to be sitting here' stopped her. How uncouth some people are. You get to experience all kinds of people in a crowded place.
In the two hours it took us to get the food - my husband and I took turns - one chair got swiped by someone which we managed to replace. Then the hubby saw a little boy holding an even smaller boy protectively on a table without any chairs while the mother went to get food so he gave him one of ours. He's a nice guy that way. Very generous in thought and deed. We got another chair soon after.
I don't see the rush abating in the near future as we are heavily dependent on malls for entertainment for at least seven months of the year because the scorching sun makes outdoor activity near impossible during the summer months. At temperatures ranging from 40 - 47 degrees Celsius only the very brave would go out gallivanting in parks and open spaces. We make full use of them in winter though. The developer of the mall has hit a gold mine and is well set for a good number of years before he sees any likely competition.
While in my earlier post I lamented about the quality of fare at Great India Place, this mall has no such issues. The range at the food court is large and the quality good. Dining options range from fast food such as Dominos Pizzas to KFC and Rolls King selling Kathi rolls to oriental options like Kylin and The Bento Cafe, which sells pretty good Asian food in box combinations including Malaysian black pepper crab, prawns in sriracha sauce and duck in tamarind sauce with fried rice or Japanese chilli udon noodles or Thai noodles. It's not cheap and the portions are small but the food is good. It's early days yet. Lets hope the quality remains the same and the standards don't go down. Right now I'm happy to have quality food and entertainment in my backyard.
Now, with 2.7 million square feet of stores, restaurants and gaming, we need to look no further. The mall has well known brands like Zara, Marks and Spencer, the largest H&M in the country, Forever 21, Cole Haan, Gap, Hamley's and stores such as Armani Exchange are also on their way to opening their shutters. The shops also have large floor areas thereby giving customers a wider range of merchandise.
It's also entertainment bonanza for the kids. The top floors have movie theatres, Fun City, a play centre for Kids with bumper cars, some rides and gaming options and Smaash, a gaming centre where you can hit cricket balls against a virtual opponent, play soccer, go bowling and have scores of video games to burn your money on. The piece de resistance though, is Ski India, the country's biggest snow park where you can go bob-sledding, tobogganing, tubing or just jump around in the snow. The lines for this place are unbelievable and if you don't come early on a weekend, there's little chance you'll even get to go in.
Now all these gaming areas are accessed through the food court. So, even though it is India's largest, with a 1,000 people seating capacity, on a Sunday, it was totally inadequate and practically bursting at the seams. There were easily three times the number of people the hall could accommodate and it took us two hours to get our food. We had planned to get lunch before the Angry Birds movie which started at 12.15 p.m. and decided on the food court as everyone wanted to eat different cuisines. Alas, being Sunday, we got lazy and missed the opportunity. So by 2.30 pm, when we emerged from the hall, it was madness. There were no tables free and people were hovering over occupied ones with a hawk eye ready to grab the seat as soon as their occupants finished.
Waiting for a table standing to one side with the two brats I was pleasantly surprised when in a few minutes a gentleman approached me and pointed to the table his family was vacating. Another lady from behind dumped her bag on the seat and was categorically told by his wife that the table was going to us. How sweet of them. It was nice to experience kindness from random strangers. I thanked him profusely.
Chairs are a premium. While the hubby was getting the food I was approached by at least 10-12 people who were polite enough to ask if the chair was free. One woman didn't even bother. She just grabbed hold and started taking it away. The `hey! someone's going to be sitting here' stopped her. How uncouth some people are. You get to experience all kinds of people in a crowded place.
In the two hours it took us to get the food - my husband and I took turns - one chair got swiped by someone which we managed to replace. Then the hubby saw a little boy holding an even smaller boy protectively on a table without any chairs while the mother went to get food so he gave him one of ours. He's a nice guy that way. Very generous in thought and deed. We got another chair soon after.
I don't see the rush abating in the near future as we are heavily dependent on malls for entertainment for at least seven months of the year because the scorching sun makes outdoor activity near impossible during the summer months. At temperatures ranging from 40 - 47 degrees Celsius only the very brave would go out gallivanting in parks and open spaces. We make full use of them in winter though. The developer of the mall has hit a gold mine and is well set for a good number of years before he sees any likely competition.
While in my earlier post I lamented about the quality of fare at Great India Place, this mall has no such issues. The range at the food court is large and the quality good. Dining options range from fast food such as Dominos Pizzas to KFC and Rolls King selling Kathi rolls to oriental options like Kylin and The Bento Cafe, which sells pretty good Asian food in box combinations including Malaysian black pepper crab, prawns in sriracha sauce and duck in tamarind sauce with fried rice or Japanese chilli udon noodles or Thai noodles. It's not cheap and the portions are small but the food is good. It's early days yet. Lets hope the quality remains the same and the standards don't go down. Right now I'm happy to have quality food and entertainment in my backyard.
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