Mall of Scandinavia is the largest mall in Sweden and the third-largest in the Nordic countries…read moreafter Sørlandssenteret in Norway and Sello in Finland, the latter is only 952 meters squared larger, however - so it is rather close.
Being in Solna, it is in Stockholm County so you can still use your SL pass to get here via the train or metro, I would, however, recommend the train due to the close proximity of Solna Station compared to the metro which is a much larger walk (it involved going under a bridge which no GPS seemed to be able to navigate causing me to get lost for over half an hour) - of course Solna Station is quicker by commuter rail too, just seven minutes into Stockholm City station.
The mall is quite new as it opened in 2015 and it still feels pretty modern in most areas - I do like the flat escalators to get from the entrance and car parks up and around the mall which is more accessible for anyone and I really do prefer them to escalators and find them to be highly underrated and underused.
The mall is huge being over three floors - there is even a confusingly named floor "0.5" which can only be accessed through one lift - getting to this could be better. Floor 0.5 provides access into the Friends Arena, home to AIK and the Swedish national football team which is a stone's throw away, directly across from the mall - alongside Vapiano. (A chain I had much struggle with during my time in Sweden)
Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield owns this mall they also seem to own many other malls around the country - I did find the layouts between this mall and others including Taby Centrum to be similar in the sense the same signs which say "go forward for x store or toilets etc" were the same look and font - and although there is no individual branding for the mall company, they do seem similar. Westfield does have some pretty great, cool malls back home in London so it was no surprise when I found out they had an involvement here!
I did find it hard to find staff members around the mall to get help when needed - such as finding lifts and certain stores which was a shame as it seemed they only had the larger and anchor stores named on the overhead maps - probably because they're an anchor tenant and paying them more money.
With brands including JD Sports, Clas Ohlson, Hugo Boss, Adidas, G-Star Raw, Foot Locker and more they do have a good selection of stores which are big brands and international names which we have in the UK, (other than Clas Ohlson sadly who made the decision to close all of their stores here) as well as Swedish stores like Apotek.
The mall's website states they have 44 restaurants but I still can't help in being disappointed with the selection - after some bad experiences with service at some of their bigger brands including Starbucks (large store upstairs, but downstairs it is too close together, cramped and uncomfortable), O'Leary's (unauthentic, AWOL staff) and Vapiano (staff don't seem to care, rudeness, slow wait times). There are other places, which aren't really brands - none of which screamed out at me or looked too exciting - Top Floor being hidden on the highest floor of the mall and in a car park was surely strange.
Overall, especially considering the high taxation which if offputting to stores in Stockholm city centre this is a pretty good mall. Is it the best in the area? It's close but no but that doesn't mean the need to take anything away from MOS - while it might lack the contemporary, central feel of MOOD and perhaps the better service and Apple Store you can see at Taby Centrum - it's still a large, modern and cool mall and one of the better places to shop at the city, made better in a way by the city's two other malls as they all offer different things but here at Mall of Scandanavia, they have a great selection of stores, it's in a good location for access to Stockholm city centre or the Friends Arena so still warrants a good four-star rating.
