bangalorebeats

Lido Mall

The stand alone Lido cinema has transformed into Lido Mall. It looks much better and adds to the look of that area. It also makes business sense to have multipurpose mall with multiplex rather than having a single screen movie theatre. But Lido cinema has lots of nostalgia. I still remember the walks after the late night shows and occasional drenching to reach Lido. Watched a lots of movies there and was happy with their ticket pricing being a student then. A ticket for balcony used to cost Rs 50 though they increased it to Rs 60 later. But with the new multiplex comming up shortly the luxury of shelling out less may be a thing of past now.

The Lido Mall is located on Swami Vivekananda road near Trinity circle. Looks like the mall is sparsely visited and remains uncrowded most of the time. Could be a good place for those who want to avoid noise and the like. Lido Mall mostly offers brand stores and recently few high street kind of open stalls have come up on the lawn area selling stone statues, imitation garlands, teen’s trendy stuffs etc. On entrance one ought to go right to the first floor as the ground floor has almost nothing. The front side of the ground floor is still under work and may come up soon.

On the escalator to the first floor you are greeted by the store Guess and as you walk you will find Jealous 21, Revolution(shoe shop), Next (apparel shop), the body shop, Blue sky – watches and sun glasses, Marks and Spencer, Lee Cooper, 109 degree Farenheight – women’s modern wear, Etam lingerie – for women.

The second floor is almost occupied by pantaloons and offer huge collections. So go with an open mind and they have something for you. The other stores on this floor are Planet Sports and Lilliput. Also, one can have some chit – chat food at the lawn area and women can check a fancy Jewellery stall opposite the food stall. Practically only two floors of shopping as of now but that is not all to Lido mall. Lido Mall has added to it what can be one of the best 5 star hotels in Bangalore – Ista. Yes, above the two floors of shopping is a 5 star hotel. They have a swimming pool facing the road. A lunch or a dinner can be a awesome feeling.

Lastly, the multiplex is comming up in a separate building and looks like it will be managed by the Shringer group who runs a chain of multiplexes under the brand name “Fame“. Fame Lido is most likely to be a four-screen, 1,029-seat multiplex and likely to be launched in mid-September. In most of the malls multiplexes are a huge crowd puller. So once this multiplex starts operating at Lido Mall, it will become a big sought after place and subsequently the stores will also receive more foot falls. The composition of Lido mall is quite unique among all the Bangalore Malls. Lets wait and see how Lido Mall fares once all the work are completed.

View from the front at night

Side view of Lido Mall – Entrance to the shopping area is from this side

View from the front at another angle

The upcomming Fame Lido multiplex and besides that the tower of 5 star hotel Ista

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Esteem Mall, Bangalore

Esteem mall is a new addition to the list of bangalore malls at a location where someone would have feared to have a mall few years back. Yes, Esteem mall is located at Hebbal near the Hebbal flyover or Hebbal lake. I am quite surprised to see the kind of human activities that goes on outer ring road. As the city is expanding and people started staying in peripheral areas, a mall comming up is quite natural. This kind of malls comming up with the objective of serving some particular area is quite good I think. Otherwise, people from the outskirts of the city, it will be a huge expectation to think of visiting Garuda or Forum mall given the traffic these days on Bangalore roads.

Esteem mall built by the Esteem group is not a sub standard mall though it may look small from the front. As of now 4 floors are operational with multiple things to choose from. But looks like more floors are there and I think they have the rooftop open with some nice pub or some happening thing. One can get awesome view from the mall. They have parking facility and those who do not have vehicle, it should not be a problem to be here in the right as there is ample buses plying on the route(ShivajiNagar and Majestic) till late night.

Other than the food cout the mall desires little sitting arrangement as there is hardly any. I fear if this one of the trick of mall developers of not having sitting arrangements to make sure that in order to sit people visit the resturants and have something. They also have a help desk at the entrance of the mall. There are two ways to enter and leave the mall – one can use the front entrance to enter or leave. Otherwise can use the separate entrance and exit on the side parallel to the side bylane.

The ground floor features stores like Wrangler, addidas(yet to open), Food Bazaar, Health and Glow, Lee etc. They have escalators but only for climbing!! However they have lift on two sides on all the floors and staircases so it should be alright. The 1st and the 2nd floor stores like pepe jeans, peter England, Koutons, Monte Carlo, Sam and Sally, Ezone, Planet M, few high street type fashion shops, few non branded shops selling multipurpose apparels, Whizz – camera shop, Fab India, Pizza corner, a kids game parlour(yet to open), Base camp – for adventure stuffs, welhome – for household stuffs, a furniture shop, few shoe stores, mermaid – branded women’s innerwear etc. They have an entire floor dedicated to food and named it Food Court located on the 3rd floor. You have many shops to choose from like Chungs Wah – Chinese food, Biriyani King – Biriyanis, Kebabs etc, Sukh Sagar – chats etc, Mir Maya – yet to open, Delhi Kazana – Bhelpuri, chats, North Indian Thali etc, Ivero – Ice Cream parlour, Esteem Refresher. One can order to these shops and use the ample sitting arrangements they have made on this floor. I recommend to take the glass shielded window seats to enjoy the nice view.

This mall looked quite easy going and the crowed also seems to be good. Though the mall may not be crowded on a Sunday evening but foot fall is good enough for that area and good news that it attracts foot falls. Some shops are yet to open and maybe some more floors will be added in sometime. I will give it 6 and 1\2 on the scale of 1 to 10. Btw, I have some pictures for you to see.

Esteem Mall view from the front

View from the front – taken from other side

Food Court

Food Court

View of the ground floor

At the entrance in the evening

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