Highland Park Mall set to become one stop destination

ON Monday morning, after four days under the duvet while the Beast from the East and his first cousin, the Cold Front from Cape Town turned everyone into a headspin, the sun came out again, and George and I hit the ground running in search of breakfast at the newly-opened Highland Park Mall.

Situated at the corner of Arcturus and Enterprise Roads in Highlands, the shopping centre, which opened recently with great pomp and ceremony, promises a ‘premium shopping experience for local residents’. It also offers ‘food courts with strong food and lifestyle brands’

Work in progress at Highland Park Mall.

Online images of Highland Park Mall showed a fully occupied shopping centre with landscaped gardens, neatly-parked, latest-model SUVs and sedans, shoppers and workers. Realising on arrival that the images were CGI, our hopes for a hot sit-down breakfast were dashed, as apart from Pick n Pay liquor store and supermarket, only Cottage Bites was open for business. Pick n Pay continues to open supermarkets country-wide, each more impressive than the last. We decided to go in and explore.

Inside Pick n Pay’s latest supermarket, everything was shipshape and Bristol fashion. Floors gleamed, shopping lanes allowed ample space for two trolleys, and well-dressed, welcoming staff offered assistance. In the vegetable section, displays of blushing red tomatoes, glossy purple aubergines and freshly-picked bunches of emerald green spinach caught the eye, while purple cauliflower and Romanescu, a hybrid between cauliflower and broccoli demanded attention. Special offers abounded, and top quality bananas, displayed on an artfully constructed banana tree, were on promotion.

Top quality bananas on promotion at Highland Park Mall’s Pick n Pay.

In the liquor store was a dazzling display of drinks to celebrate every occasion, with many popular brands on promotion. I didn’t see Ferrari Trento, the official toast of Formula One champions, but there was an ample supply of Moet & Chandon, the biggest name in luxury champagne.

With breakfast still a priority, we left Highland Park Mall, and with the help of newly-installed traffic lights re-entered the heavy traffic on Enterprise Road, and headed for the nearest restaurant, which happened to be Queen of Hearts in Hurworth Road. Early on a Monday morning, all was quiet at Queen of Hearts, and few of the shops were open. We sat in dappled sunshine under the trees, and eventually ordered breakfast from an attentive waiter.

The cappuccinos at Queen of Hearts are hot and aromatic, and at $2, possibly the best in town. Queen’s breakfast ($8) of toast, egg, bacon, tomato, fried potato, zucchini fritter and mushrooms, looked attractive, but the serving of bacon was minimal, the fried potato oily and overdone, and the fritter was nuked to a crisp. As new restaurants continue to proliferate and popular brands open second and third branches in various venues, standards will need to remain consistently high to retain custom.

Patissier Marc Banville and owner of Cafe de Paris in Churchill Avenue, is upbeat about the new coffee shop he’s opening in Highland Park Mall. There will be seating inside, and tables and chairs shaded by umbrellas for those who would like to watch the world go by, as they nibble a strawberry and pistachio tart and sip a fragrant filter coffee. Besides croissants and pastries, there will be chicken and creamy mushroom pies, beef fillet and black pepper pies, and baguette sandwiches, some vegetarian, others filled with cold cuts.

Upstate by Pariah State is also due to open in Highland Park Mall in the next few months, as are popular Cafe Nush and Cafe Veldemeers, famed for handcrafted chocolates, Belgian waffles and chocolate cakes. The fun is just beginning at Highland Park Mall, and for many shoppers it could become a one stop destination.

A Matter of Taste with Charlotte Malakoff

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