When I visit family in Toronto, I often find myself visiting the Bayview Village Shopping Centre…read morewhether it is meeting family for a coffee and snack and then walk around the centre, stopping by some of the retail spaces for shopping, or making a reservation for a sit-down restaurant. On my most recent visit to Toronto, my family and I visited the Bayview Village and had dinner at a restaurant where we made a reservation in advance. There's something for everyone and plenty to see and do, and I appreciate the renovations that have been done over the years. Bayview Village is known for some great restaurants and shops. In fact, there are many different options from upscale and casual restaurants to coffee and grocery stores. My favorites include Italian food at Il Fornello to shopping at Lindt and LCBO to casual like Aroma. You can find all 19 options at https://bayviewvillage.ca/shop/dine. There are also plenty of shops from upscale shops to more casual ones. You can find all 47 retail options at https://bayviewvillage.ca/shop/retail. Find exclusive offers from stores at https://bayviewvillage.ca/whats-on/?promotions. There are also fifteen different wellness options from dentists, hairstylists, spas, drug stores, and more (https://bayviewvillage.ca/shop/wellness) and thirteen different services from tailoring to financial planning to travel services, and more (https://bayviewvillage.ca/shop/services) There are also special events that take place (https://bayviewvillage.ca/whats-on/?events) at Bayview Village. While stores and restaurant hours may vary, the hours are typically weekdays from 10 AM to 8 PM, Saturday from 10 AM to 6 PM, and Sunday from 12 Noon to 5 PM. There is plenty of free parking around the entire mall. You can read more about the Bayview Village at https://bayviewvillage.ca including a place you can sign up to be "in the know." I certainly plan to return again on my next Toronto visit!

Small yet upscale. Clean and well maintained. Multiple benches to sit on. Fancy washrooms. Instead…read moreof a food court there are multiple diners. Plenty of parking. A-OK for dining or shopping. Selections limited by the size of the mall. Friendly service. I recommend if you're nearby.

CF Markville is a clean and modern mall with a nice mix of stores for shopping, dining, and…read moreeveryday errands. From fashion to tech, you'll find popular brands and local shops all in one place. It's easy to walk around, and the layout makes browsing simple and stress-free. The food court has a good variety of options, and there are cozy spots to sit and relax. Parking is usually easy, and the mall feels safe and welcoming.

Mall always busy on weekends especially. Data/wifi does not…read morework on the Best Buy side of the mall... like it takes FOREVER to load anything. Good variety of stores and a clean food court. Washrooms in the food court are 50/50... the ones near Best Buy are much much better.

Pacific Mall is home to lots of tiny little shops, selling all kinds of things, including cell…read morephones and accessories, clothing, herbs, bubble teas, and so much more. Its home to my favourite camera store, Aden Camera, where I purchase most of my hardware. They also have great tasting food from several outlets and stalls. A couple friends and I decided to do a food challenge to see what we could each get for CDN$20. We met the challenge and enjoyed some great tasting food. Our preferred vendors included QQ Noodle King, Go Curry, Chloe's Convenience, Hi Anna's Basket, Shark's Fin City, and Prairie Lamb Kabob. This mall has something for everyone. Check them out!

What I expected vs the reality = confused. The "mall" reminded me of the underground fake market…read morein Shanghai. It's small booth lined up that sells knock off items on the main floor. I did walk around the main floor, and I didn't go up stairs or downstairs or check out the food stalls and left. I was told after visiting to ignore the retailers, but go try the food stalls... so I guess next time I'm in town, I'll try that.

Tip: If you're looking for decent eateries to visit at Dynasty Centre, Great Fountain Fast Food,…read moreSamosa Fusion, and HK Garden are decent and budget-friendly. I have been to Dynasty Centre a handful of times. It's an area in Scarborough that I used to frequent with my parents many moons ago. With so many eateries in Markham, we rarely come down here. A few months ago, I dropped by to dine at Samosa Fusion with friends. This place offers an all-you-can-eat buffet with a special promotion at the time of $20 per person. I don't know if it has gone up in price, but it was regularly $25, which is still decent to stuff yourself silly. Next door to it is HK Garden. The Hong Kong-style milk tea (iced) stands out as being one of the best drinks I have had in a while. I recently did takeout from Great Fountain Fast Food. It's in the food court. The fried beef rice noodles were excellent. This combo came with soup and a drink. The hot and sour soup was amazing. I am still dreaming about the iced lemon drink, which was refreshing and so good if you are a lemon fan. This meal was less than $20. It was a great value for the quality of food and drink that I got. There is lots of parking at this plaza. I've seen it being fairly busy on a Saturday. It's fairly quiet after work on weekdays. I have been fortunate to not experience idiot drivers at this plaza, which is so refreshing! I am still working my way through the businesses. I have seen stores that sell DVDs, herbal stores, and more. So far, I've liked the eateries that I have visited. There's plenty for me to explore. (193)

The Dynasty Center has been around for ages. The surrounding plazas have lost tenants over the…read moreyears and are mostly half empty but this one is mostly full. There are a lot of the same types of stores - multiple day spas, places to get your haircut, and of course a multitude of restaurants both on the perimeter and inside at the food court. The parking lot technically has arrows that point you down which way to park but I've seen them ignored so just be careful. If all the surface parking is gone, there is underground parking towards the back of the plaza. The entrance to the main plaza is not the most accessible. The buttons to open the door automatically don't work. Right now the food court is take-out only. All of the establishments are open. They had some hand sanitizer at the entrance to the food court from the inside and social distancing stickers in front of each of the restaurants. I did notice that at the leftmost restaurant they were allowing people to bring in their own containers to get take-out. Maybe not the best idea during Covid.

I recently visited New Century Plaza to have dim sum at New Century Restaurant. It's cool that the…read morerestaurant's name matches its plaza's name. Here's the question that I have been facing at work. We have a document with New in its title. Is it really new when this document has existed for a few years? I feel the same way about New Century Plaza. When you visit it, it's like the century look and feel dominate more than new. It is an older plaza. What I noticed is that there are a lot of stores selling Chinese herbs and medicine. I'd imagine that 80% of the stores that I had passed by were herbal ones. Besides the restaurant, across from it was a bookstore. It was a nice change. Before we left, we can across a chicken stand. The chicken looked weird and shredded. I made a comment about it, which made my friends laugh hard. It looked like mystery meat to me. Parking was a bit crazy on a Thursday at around 1 pm. I did manage to find a parking spot. It was much better when we left at 3 pm. I don't drop by this place often, but it's worth it for New Century Restaurant, which has fabulous dim sum. If you do need a herbal shop, you've got a ton of variety at this plaza. (114)

New Century Plaza is an older, dated mall that has been around since the 1980's.  The most vibrant…read moretenant here is the New Century restaurant in which we had a delightful dim sum.  The restaurant itself was vibrant but afterwards we putzed around in the smallish indoor mall here and it was pretty dead on a weekday morning.  The tenants and shoppers are naturally part of the older generation and there are numerous shops for items like ginseng and other dry goods. There was also one big florist and a bookstore.  The demographics makes sense as the youngsters have moved on to the shiny newer malls.   Something makes me think this place can still get busy on the weekends though because there are still a lot of Chinese up here that use these products and everything else for that matter!

I came here to meet a friend for lunch. This place get really busy in the afternoon so I try to…read moreavoid malls in the late afternoon. Also the washrooms in this mall haven't been renovated & are usually dirty. One plus for this mall is the new Marry Me Mochi donut place near Moxie's. Also this Moxie's has a great cook. The food here has always been good when I eat at this location. I have been to other Moxie's and they are not good. A con for this mall is the transit is now outside the mall on one of the side roads. When the LRT used to be open there was a bus bay there the buses used to stop. So for transit users this mall isn't as convenient as it used to be. This mall is best for those who have a car.

Scarborough Town Centre has been around for more than 40 years…read more I like the evolution of this mall. They are adding more stores soon since the big box retailers Bay and Sear are long gone. There's an Ikea city store and Urban Behavior clearance store with all items $10 or less. This new information kiosk is kind of cool. Its setup like a smartphone with widgets. If you are looking to do some Xmas shopping this holiday season then definitely come here. The food offerings here are excellent as well. They got a huge food court with lots of delicous food offerings across the globe. You want more of a dine in experience? Visit Moxies, Jack Astors, Scaddabush, Milestones, Hibachi, etc. The washrooms here need more TLC. The cleaning staff need to clean more frequently to make it a more pleasant shopping experience.

Well .. if you are going to Yorkdale you have to be strategic, Narrow down the store(s) and avoid…read moreeverything else. If you like walking around in a mall doing nothing, then you could not find a prettier one. It has some great stores and right now, the Christmas decorations are very pretty.

Large mall with SO many stores. I came here to poke my head around Crate and Barrel, and Pottery…read moreBarn and end the shopping experience at Cheesecake Factory (places that we desperately need in Ottawa, and don't have yet) Lets just say, I ended up at Shake Shack for a frozen custard and cheesy fries, and barely poked my head in Pottery Barn and finished up the experience at Earls Restaurant. Great mall, with so many stores to drop some $$$, lots of parking, but it did get very busy after 5pm on a Friday.

Dragon City has changed over the years. I dropped by in mid-July to fetch dinner from Juicy…read moreDumpling, which is on the first floor of this mall. You can enter and exit this eatery to get to the mall. I used to take Cantonese classes as a teen a block away. Afterwards, I had the option of hanging around this mall and then heading home by streetcars, or I'd go nuts and walk all the way down to Eaton Centre, hang around, and then go home. I loved malls back then. I can't say that I feel the same way these days. This mall is a shadow of itself, which is a shame. It used to be cool seeing vendors in the lobby. I got a sterling silver ring here when I was in grade 11. I still have it. Excellent quality. It still fits, too! Back then, bubble tea wasn't as popular as it is now. I did love getting iced pineapple drinks from a vendor in the basement. Sadly, it's gone, along with most of the food court down there. I saw two eateries in the basement that were left standing. The eateries are scattered on the ground, second, and fourth floors. Frankly, I don't know why the designers skipped naming the fourth floor the third floor. Chinese culture doesn't like the number four because it sounds like death when you say it out loud. Weird. The ground floor is the most interesting because it has the most stores. Sun Wah Bookstore has been kicking around for decades. It was nice seeing it again. Tung Tung Dan Quen King has bubble waffles and more. Sugar Marmalade is next to Juicy Dumpling, so you can stuff yourself with carbs and then go on a dessert high next door. There were a couple of Chinese herb stores, a pharmacy, a gift store, an optical store and more on the ground floor. It's such an eclectic, odd mix of stores. The second floor had six or seven businesses that were open. It was sad seeing half this floor vacant. There's a claw machine place called PaliPali Claw. I suck at claw games, so I didn't go in. Owl of Minerva, Clay Pot Rice, and Canteen are you eateries. I've never been to the fourth floor, There was a sign saying that Sky Dragon Chinese Restaurant is there. It's interesting that it's the only business up there. I hope that there's a rooftop patio or something up there, too. Forget hitting the washrooms here. They are gross. You're better off hitting the washrooms at Chinatown Centre where they are passable. It was nice to return, but the Dragon City that I loved as a teen is long gone. Instead, I embrace ice cream, bubble waffles, and dumplings. Here's to new memories! (341)

DO NOT GO TO THIS STORE. The lady who runs this gift shop (there is no name) is VERY VERY RUDE. I…read moretold her I wanted to buy a pack of hongbao and she raised her voice at me saying 'you put your $4 there (pointing at the shelf)! I am BUSY!" -- and i was the only customer there.