Century City Mall. A safe haven and a landscape of hell all wrapped into one. If you live in Los Angeles, you know exactly what I am talking about.
Century City is indisputably a cute mall. It has an open concept layout with beautiful greenery everywhere. There are cute seating areas with the LA sun beating down, yet, it comes across as incredibly stressful.
If you have ever tried going in the parking lot at Century City, you know how horrible it is. There is no parking anywhere, and if you are staying for more than an hour and a half, expect to pay around $10 minimum for parking.
Although the price of parking alone is atrocious, I am convinced this parking lot is similar to the Bermuda Triangle. Cars just simply disappear. I have spent 30+ minutes looking for my car in this lot on multiple occasions. And I have even had to go as far as recruiting the parking staff to help me find my car in the maze of it all. If you didn’t take a picture of the section your car was in, you have sent yourself to your own doom.
But parking is only the beginning, because once you get inside, it is the most crowded place ever, especially on weekends. You can’t go for a casual trip to Din Tai Fung, because the wait will be an hour minimum.
And these cons are of course weighed out with pros as well. Because, yes, you will be waiting an hour for some soup dumplings, but I would be lying if I said they didn’t give you plenty of options of things to do in the meantime.
Where else can you find an Aritzia, Blue Bottle, Apple Store, Cha-Cha Matcha and Gelson’s all in the same place? I can mind the wait a little more while sipping on my $10 matcha chai and trying on the Melina Pants in the Aritzia fitting rooms.
Another added bonus? They do have a lot of fun events that go on there. The other week I went to get my phone looked at at the AT&T store and stumbled upon the cutest Valentine’s Day SKIMS pop-up. They had the store set up in the courtyard with music and an adorable little snack station (available only with purchase, of course). Or, a different week, there was a puppy play station set up with people bringing SO many cute puppers.
A visit to Century City always leaves me feeling bittersweet in this way. Yes, it can be a tremendous inconvenience just to go to the mall, but at the same time, it can be such a silly little getaway from school and responsibilities. Am I a bit cynical? Yes. Will I still continue to go there often? Yes.