Burlington Mall is an upscale retail center with three department stores and over 150 stores. The department stores are Lord & Taylor, Macy's and Sears and the various specialty shops include Ann Taylor, Coach, Apple Computer, Lucky Jeans, Jasmine Sola, or L'Occitane. Burlington Mall also houses a 775 seat food court and such restaurants as Legal Sea Foods, Rainforest Caf, and the Cheesecake Factory. WFW was part of the design team for the mall renovation in 2004. Recently, WFW designed the mechanical, plumbing, fire protection and electrical systems for the mall's expansion to add a new Nordstrom's Anchor store.
The Burlington Mall is located in Boston, Massachusetts off Route I-95 on exit 32B. The mall attracts people from the towns of Woburn, Lexington, Bedford and Burlington, plus many towns others located outside of Boston. The Burlington Mall has an area of 1,246,675 square feet with 170 shops and restaurants. The mall was built in 1968 and was expanded in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The mall first included a two movie cinema and a small Stop and Shop; the mall was expanded due to the fact of good income and felt the need to become a larger business in order to satisfy more people. Simon Property Group Inc is the current owner of the mall. The mall is ranked #2 in size in Massachusetts.
With the Burlington mall you are sure to find a spot to park in their huge lot and be able to roam around the mall without feeling overly crowded. The mall also features many upscale events such as modeling shows and giveaways that many other malls do not offer. There is a large attendance of people that go to this mall but the development of making it a large mall allows it to spread people into all areas due to certain store placements throughout the mall that are more popular than others. The mall also features upscale stores that you may not find in other malls such as Burberry, Lacoste, Ruehl, and Nordstrom’s. The wide variety of stores attracts a larger crowd of people of all types of class allowing the mall to offer something to everyone.
The food court is located inside the mall on the second floor. I took a seat at one of 775 seats with tables inside the food court so that way all the food stores were surrounding me. The food court includes a Quiznos, Chik-Fil-a, Regina Pizzeria, Gourmet India, Johnny Rockets, Maki of Japan, Master Wok, Ruby Thai Kitchen, and Appleseed Crepe & Bread. With all these options of ethnic foods you are sure you’ll find something you would enjoy. The typical price for a takeout meal is 10 dollars included with a drink, which is very reasonable. The portions of all the meals are good enough to fill you to your satisfaction.
As I observed the food court area I noticed that it was a very noisy area due to the fact of having a baby play ground included in the food court area. And also the way the area is wide open seems to make everyone’s voice echo off the ceiling. As I observed I noticed that many of the people there were locals who go to this mall often due to the fact that they seemed to already know what they wanted as they entered the food court. Some people were dressed in suits and looked as if they were on lunch breaks for work. I noticed one person who was using his laptop and talking on his cell-phone while trying to eat which showed me he was a very busy person or trying to catch up on emails. There were also many people with families and friends there. The mall is set in an industrial area with many businesses surrounding it but also including many residential areas as well which brings in a wide range of people from different areas.
I saw that there were many workers some of which fit the ethnicity of food they were serving at every restaurant. This allowed the customers to get there food very quickly. They were each dressed in uniforms that had logos of the restaurant and all had name tags which made it easy for the customers to identify. The staffs were very friendly no one seemed to have a problem with their food or any of the workers which made it seem like it was a comfortable place to be in. The maintenance people were very good at cleaning and organizing the tables. The entire area of the food court was very bright due to the glass ceiling allowing it to be more of an exciting place. The walls were painted white which added to bright atmosphere and the floors were even a light color. I have been to the food court at the mall many times and I noticed that all of the restaurants there have lasted a long time but many new stores have opened up recently such as Appleseed Crepe & Bread.
As I was sitting down at the tables I could see that everyone was in groups of people only some were by themselves, there were many younger people many between the ages of 13 to 18 and they all socialized with each other as if the food court was a friend hangout. One kid that I noticed entered the food court alone and sat down at a table full of kids. Over the loud voices of people I was able to hear the music being played through the mall speakers and an occasional advertisement of a man letting the people know what special offers are available for the holiday season.
The smell of the area depending on what restaurant you were closest too allowed you to get a sniff of what they were cooking. I was closer to the Maki of Japan which is one of my favorite restaurants offering chicken teriyaki and that is what I smelled during my observation. Also depending on whom you sat next to you could smell that person since many of the tables are placed closely next to one another. If you are a germ phobic then the Burlington mall food court may not be for you since everyone that goes there sits in the chairs and touches the tables, which means the maintenance people have to keep an eye on who comes and goes so that way they can clean the tables. This allows people to feel better when they go to sit down and eat their food because they do not have to worry about pieces of leftover food from other customers. In a way it can be a germy place but by the looks of the area it seems to be very clean with no food on the grounds and never any overflowing trash barrels. It was hard to find a taste for the area except you could taste the smell of the different foods being cooked at the restaurants. The wide range of food available gives people a very good variety of what type of food to order.
I was able to walk around and get different samples such as Maki of Japan was offering pieces of chicken, and Chik-Fil-A as well. As I walked over to Master Wok they kindly gave me a piece of orange chicken which is one of my favorites as well. To me the food court at the Burlington mall is a very nice social area because everyone seems to be very nice, you feel safe because you can see there are plenty of security guards. The food quality is very good and I could see that they gave good portions to each customer for a reasonable price of under 10 dollars a meal.
This mall is one of my favorites to be at because it is conviently located north of Boston and offers many stores and free parking. The food court is easily accessible allowing people to walk into the entrance and take an escalator to the top and be right there while also being very close to the stores located in the mall. Other malls such as the galleria mall in Cambridge makes you pay for parking, and the money goes to the City of Cambridge and not the mall itself. The mall is also overly crowded due to the size of the mall and the crowd of attendance coming from all areas of the Boston area.
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