You can barely swing a cat in this city without crashing into something record breaking. Most leaning tower? Check. Biggest carpet? Check. Fastest roller coaster? Check, check, check. The latest grand opening might not win any international prizes, but it hasn’t stopped the publicity machine from going into hyperbole overdrive. ‘Abu Dhabi’s largest shopping destination,’ screams the press release. ‘Four hundred and eighty shops…unsurpassed dining, entertainment and leisure facilities…’ The day an Abu Dhabi shopping centre delivers a restaurant capable of outclassing, say, Hakkasan, is the day we start believing in…er…press releases.
Sections of Dalma Mall, which sits in the dust opposite Mussafah’s Shabia area, have been open to the public for 12 months. Both the Carrefour and the Matalan store are popular destinations, the first for its queue-free shopping (we like our hypermarkets deserted), and the second for being arguably the only Matalan store in the world where service comes with a smile; if that’s not something worth getting hyperbolic over, we don’t know what is.
Of course, the largest mall in the capital (only an enviable title if you have 480 shop owners to fill it) will not stay the largest for much longer, what with Yas Mall whipping up the dust near the racetrack. But, for the time being, anyone thrilled by mall size can get their kicks out on the Mussafah truck road. And if you’ve any cats that need swinging, they’ve got more than enough space.
