The Crystal Mall

I don’t come here often and parking kind of sucks here. There is a parking lot but you have to keep going in a literal circle until you find a spot. It’s much better to take the bus here in my opinion. Crystal mall is located near Metrotown. Its all Asian stores and not really all that cheap either. This mall includes a food court, market and stores. I used to come here for the electronics department they have for video games but since they have turned them all into cell phone accessory stores, I’ve stopped coming here as often.

It was Saturday, about 1pm, and we walked into Crystal Mall for the very first time. We agreed before heading inside, this visit was just to be an initial walkabout — a sort of general look-​see, as to ‘what’ and ‘where’, and experience some of the sights & sounds. Wow! … busy, colourful, and rather exciting!
After checking out a few of the gift, kitchenware, and other shops at one end of the ground floor, it was the offerings in the food court, and fresh food markets that particularly caught most of our attention. And all the time thinking, so much to remember when we return to eat and shop!
We did get back later that day to sample some of the offerings in the food court (which was fun, and yum!), but because our stay in area was un-​expectantly called short, we did not get back to do much in the way of shopping (but leave it to me to find and catch a couple of nice fish-​themed flower vases before our dinner that evening!).
Much more to see and experience for our next visit.

Wasn’t sure what to expect when visiting this Mall. turns out it was mainly Chinese vendors and goods which was exactly what I love to experience. Had wanted to try the XLB’s at a restaurant in the food court which was closed… but no worries I will return one day when they are open. The food from other sellers looked good and there was no shortage of customers. Garage was a bit confusing but found parking easily. Give it a look see.

Mall with the worse parking lot in BC. It might be worse parking lot in North America and even the whole world. Its not the way the people park that makes it the worse, its the design of the parking lot that makes it horrible. My dad has scratched his car in this parking lot because he drove a large family van and the turn was too narrow. I know a bunch of people who scratched their car here. If you look at the parking lot wall, you will see rainbow colors of streaks. Car Streaks. yes Car streaks paint! Whoever designed this parking lot must be on the Guinness of record for bad parking lot designer. Enough said…
Well this is an Asian mall. Other then getting produce here or for me to pick up glasses, I don’t see anything interesting about this place at all. Most of the shops are just useless to me. Like massage chair or toys or sport wear that I am not sure if they are real authentic brand. They have a few travel agency but again I get my tickets online and I hate making special trips when I could do it at my convenience.
Well like I say, I only come here when needed or when I am in the hood to pick up produce.

This place has a very reasonable food court with a lot of great options, though the ramen and generic noodle places will always be my first choice when coming here. I’m hoping to try out the herbalists and some sit down restaurants in the future. ‘I Like Coffee’ has the best rose bubble tea!
There are some Japanese and Korean fashion shops which is nice because it can be a bit tedious having to order everything off of a place like YesStyle all of the time.
I’m also hoping to try out some of the other beauty suppliers, but so far my favorite is the shop upstairs (I think its called ‘Fun Land’?) which is run by a couple. They may not have Jill Stuart products like the other one downstairs, but their prices for Étude House and Innisfree are pretty reasonable. She also offered to order something online for me if I didn’t see it in her shop and gave me free samples. She’s so nice and I’m happy to be a regular.

Fun place to visit for buying groceries and grabbing something to eat!
The food court has a massive variety of Chinese and Asian foods to try, you may be overwhelmed by the options. My advice is to pick the food you like or look at what everyone else is buying and do the same. You can’t really go wrong as most food items are less than $ 10, with many ranging between $ 6 – 8. I’m not sure how crowded the mall usually is but I was able to find a place to sit and eat when I visited Saturday evening.
The grocery store downstairs has cheap fruits and veggies. The quality of the produce seems to vary a lot. Depending on when you arrive there may be long lines and crowds, which can increase your blood pressure. Still, I thought the trip was worth since the prices are good and they have a large variety. Of course not everything is reasonably priced, I saw the famous chinese white rabbit candy being sold for $ 5.99/lb, which is kind of absurd. Perhaps it was per kilogram?
I believe most if not all of the stores are cash-​only. Also, the bathrooms were not as icky as I expected!

Full of Chinese restaurants, types of agencies, shops. The environment is not so good, however it’s really very convenient for Chinese people. The market for vegetable is very crowded.

This place is awesome. The bubble tea in the food court area is good. They offer aloe and other unique ingredients. But the highlight is the hand pulled noodle restaurant. You can watch the owners making it in front of you. One pile of dough is pulled and pulled until 10 minutes later it becomes noodles. This place is quite huge.

The food court is great, the only thing that is pissing me off is a lot of food shops are CASH ONLY, it’s super annoying! Be sure to bring enough cash before u come here! (I don’t use cash)

This place is ridiculous. Filthy, people shouting, spitting… The parking is a bad joke and the place is taken by chinese immigrants. Don’t get me wrong, I’m from China and moved here 8 years ago, but going to this place makes me feel like I’m back in Guangzhou. I’m never going back.

Oh gee, what a great place to be walking/​driving in a clockwise/​counter-​clockwise. Are you seriously retarded too? This mall is just mocking at you when you do it. If not for the food court stuff then avoid this mall like a plague. I come here once every many months so no doubt you can live without it too!

This mall has a store that specifically sells bidets.
I just want to start off by saying I’m not the type of guy that gets impressed by material things. So you drive a Lambo with an «N» tag on the back, and you got the newest LV purse. Cool, like we don’t see that in Burnaby parking lots every day. Played out like a Ja Rule album.
But a bidet? That’s just impressive. If I was chillin’ at someone’s place, and they had a bidet as nice as the bidet’s they sell here? I’d be damn impressed. Because that’s a level of luxury you don’t flaunt, or that people can see. You can’t drive your bidet around. It’s a true sign of sophistication.
#classy

It stinks… Like really bad.
People are pushy and wear masks
Bad driving is everywhere…

My parents had a lot of fun here. It reminded them of their days living in Taiwan. I thought this plaza was okay, though it was much different than the markets I’ve been to in Los Angeles. It was a huge shopping mall filled with little stores and restaurants. You can get so many awesome items that you can’t find at the normal American grocery stores like hot water dispensers or bamboo ear pickers. lol.
I wasn’t that big of a fan. At 11 a.m. on a Saturday, this place was packed. I felt claustrophobic trying to buy some oranges. All these people were rushing to the fruit stands pushing and talking really loudly. As good as those oranges looked, I decided to forgo purchasing them because it was just too competitive. I also wasn’t too fond of the idea of waiting 10 minutes in line for produce. It was kind of smelly on the exterior of the plaza. I think eventually, your nose gets adjusted to the smell of stinky fried tofu but the initial hit makes you want to gag. Overall, not a bad place to visit for fun.
Oh yah, I forgot, don’t bother negotiating with the vendors. I wanted to buy some bowls and my mom asked in Mandarin, «can you give us a discount?» I thought it was a harmless question. The woman abrasively said, «we’re not in China!» and then turned away. I almost wanted to yell at her for dissing my momma but held my tongue. I get that they’re trying to make a living, but come on, don’t be rude about it!

The food court is a foodie’s paradise. Notables include Want Want’s Lambs skewers/​burgers, Xu’s, Hauxi Noodle Specialist, Delicious BBQ, Fung May’s stone bowls.
The market downstairs is pretty awesome too. Beware the asian moms fighting for cheap produce. Pine House Bakery also has some great deals on packaged buns in the front. Check em out!

Options at the food court used to be plenty when it first opened. These days it’s mainly 90% from Mainland China and Hong Kong.
Busiest time is between 12 and 2pm. Finding a free table is like trying to park your vehicle at their circular parking garage — mission impossible. This is even worse on weekends if there are special events happening, which takes away 25% of tables.

This mall have the worst parking. You have to go around in circle.
Do not even bother with P1, continue down to P2 and lower and you have a better chance for easier parking. Once you get into the mall, remember which side you are on.
This mall has a really good food fair, prices are reasonable.
The market on the ground floor is quite popular, the price of fresh veggies is surprisingly cheaper.
There is also a Computer Lane where there are shops that can jailbreak your phone, game consoles, and all the covers you will need for the phone.

It’s been years since I’ve been to Crystal Mall and even though everything has changed in the mall, some for the better and some not so much, there’s still enough for me to visit. Firstly the mall is in a circle shape which makes it very easy to navigate for someone as directionally challenged as myself. There are a lot of stores that carry the exact same stuff, it’s a dime and dozen place.
It’s a very dominant Asian place, therefore, there is a heavy language barrier between myself and 99% of the shop keepers but that is expected given the demographic. I don’t expect good service or friendly staff but there are some stores that are exceptional like the Kwaii stores. I am in my cat hat and love hello kitty so they like me a lot.
There’s a few shop owners who yell to me when they see me, «hello kitty.»
The stuff in most shops are extremely cheap. I saw a suitcase that was $ 69 in Metrotown, similar model for $ 30. Cheapest bakery and stationary places are here as well. There is even a guitar shop that sells pics at a larger bulk discount.
Electronic protection cases are the cheapest in the city here. One guy at the shop in broken English calls me, «clumsy cat lady» ’cause I am always dropping my phone, camera and stuff and they have to give me a case for it with the standard, «no more drop for clumsy cat lady.»
The only place that this place is lacking is a good Asian candy store.
This place is mostly cash only, however, considering how cheap most things are this is not a problem for me. I can walk out with a back pack of good deals for under $ 20.

While we were up in Vancouver for the day, my boyfriend wanted to check out an «Asian Mall» — we leeched some business’ wifi to look up Asian Malls and this was the first result. So we punched in the address and 30 minutes later, ended up in Crystal Mall.
I stepped in the mall and I definitely felt like I was in Asia. Asia (well, in particular China and Taiwan, although I’m sure other Asian countries are the same) really like their multistory malls and the mall here definitely reminded me of those complexes. There was a supermarket on the first floor, and a food court on other floors. The rest of the floors had clothing and electronic shops.
We had gone on a Saturday evening and most places seemed to have closed around 7pm, which is pretty early. The food court was alive and well though, but we got way too overwhelmed with the choices that we left. That’s too bad though because some of the food looked amazing.
Most if not all of the places here do not take Discover/​JCB so you better come equipped with cash or with a Visa/​Mastercard.

I don’t live in Canada. I was there for Dim Sum. But, I think Crystal Mall is cool. A building 3 – 4 floors with banks, bakeries, clothing, retails, and somewhat traditional market. This can be my kind of one-​stop shop place.
The security guards are very friendly. They notice that we are visitors. They gave a lot of help.