Polaris Mall Lifestyle Center

I give the mall 4 stars, but the congestion of this area simply stinks. I think the engineers that did the traffic design/​control were high when they made the plans. We stopped to get something to eat, then saw a shop in a strip mall we wanted to go to, and ended up having to go the opposite direction to a light, that forced back on the main drag, that took us PASSED that strip mall, only to back track to it. What a mess.
If your planning to simply go there, park once, do what you want to do, then leave, it might be okay, but dont think you are going to easily commute to multiple destinations in a car. And its like this all the time.

Great place to shop! Lots of «girl stores»

I’m am totally on board with Michael U. on this.
Polaris is my worst shopping nightmare. This mall is not inviting at all. It’s like a fortress with a moat of a million cars parked all around it. When you finally fight your way in, you have to deal with peoples kids running around like barbarians both in the play area and everywhere but the play area.
Be prepared to stand in line at every store you come to because for some reason every needy person in the city has come to the same store you have a 2 minute errand you need to run at a shop that is ONLY here.
Oh look ANOTHER California Pizza kitchen. I love waiting an hour for pizza I can buy frozen at the grocery store. I consistently wonder why these places are always busy.
I just don’t get it. This place is more frustrating than the million floor high Beverly Center. Avoid avoid avoid. I’ll shop online at Sephora from now on.

I actually did wander in here around Xmas time… not really to do any shopping so much as to get an eyebrow threading and wander around a bit.
I got started on threading when I was interning in NYC. It was a new thing at the time, and a place opening down the street from the University was offering a deal. So, I stopped in to give it a go. Not only was it relatively painless, but my brows looked fabulous.
Sadly, I have never had an experience quite as good as that first one since. I also have noticed that the threading experience is a lot better when the threading is done in a little kiosk in the middle of the mall. Aside from the shop in NYC, I have yet to go into a threader with a shop who was decent. And this… wow, this was the worst experience yet!
I entered the shop and smiled. The clerk didn’t even raise her head, just looked at me crankily. I think I asked something along the lines of «how much is eyebrow threading?» «$ 14 (I think it was that. $ 14 or $ 15). «…would you be able to do mine?» *imperceptible nod*
The girl kinda pointed at a chair. Thankfully I’ve done this before so I knew what to do and what to expect. After all, the only person she was talking to was someone on the other end of the phone she had on headphones. …At least I ASSUME it was a phone. I don’t think she was just randomly talking to herself or non-​existent people. Regardless, she was too busy blathering to bother doing a decent job. I lost count of the number of times the thread broke, and half expected to sit up and found she had completely removed my eyebrows considering how much she was taking off. Luckily, though incompetent in terms of customer service, the end result looked pretty good, if a bit thin. Still, eyebrow threading for me is like going to the spa. I am indulging in a little «pampering» and expect to be treated in a civil manner… not an annoyance in the way of you and oh-​so-​important phone conversation. No thank you, no smile… just a lot of nodding and blathering into a phone. I couldn’t understand the language she was using, so I didn’t even have the satisfaction of being amused (or infuriated?) by what was being said!
Gee, wonder why the shop was completely deserted, and I was the first customer all day if the ledger I saw was anything to go by.
More positive this visit was a quirky little place called Bijoux (I believe) with lovely scarves on sale for $ 10 (filling a much needed gap in my Xmas shopping list). Nice atmosphere — love the chandeliers. Probably good if you like Pandora beads and their ilk.
I also dropped into Sugar Inc. I believe it is called, which is currently moving to a location in Worthington was it? Anyways, it’ll be worth checking out when the move is over, though more inconvenient for me. As it stands, the mall location had a few cupcakes and cookies for sale, along with full containers of the tea. Major props to the clerk who cheerfully and thoroughly explained everything. I bought a cookie for someone as a gift and a cupcake for myself — buckeye flavored. It was definitely good enough that I didn’t begrudge the price, nor did I feel that it was something I could have made easily in my own kitchen. The texture was unusually dense and rich (the owner, a native of Hawaii I gathered, is very involved in the entire process, including the gathering and processing of cacao, so the ingredients are unusually fine tuned and tasty). I especially liked the frosting, though, which was more salty than sweet and actually tasted like peanut butter instead of whipped sugar butter… which sadly is typical of peanut butter flavored icing.
The other highlight of the visit was a weird little world-trade\head shop on the second floor. It’s mostly weird carvings, incense, batik cloths kids hang in their dorm rooms, and other cute knick knacks… but in the back corner there were some belly dancing supplies including silver zils for $ 5. Nothing super high quality, but I was still happily surprised to find them there.

It just seems like an after thought to me. There’s the mall. Then there’s the Polaris Mall Lifestyle Center. I don’t know how many times I’ve gone shopping, gotten back to my car and suddenly remembered, ‘Oh yeah, there’s some other stuff there too.’
And I really want to like it more. I like being outside infinitely more than I like being inside and would love to justify my purchases with a window shopping stroll. Its just for some reason, I can’t get into it here. Hmm.

The Polaris Fashion Place offers a variety of shopping from Von Maur to Saks to Sephora that the other malls in the area do not offer. There is a ton of parking and multiple freeway exits to get there and a variety of food places in including one of my favorites — The Pub. I do personally like outdoor malls, but since we are in Ohio — it’s a great place to shop with the inclement weather conditions often associate with Ohio. With the added new stores, I am sure this will just increase the mall’s popularity. Only caution is trying to park on a weekend night near Barnes and Noble and the new outdoor portion. It is typically packed.

First off, I do not like malls. I get overwhelmed and quite anxious at all the commotion and hollering kiosk sales people. But, putting my personal feelings aside and focusing on the purpose of the mall, this is a good one.
Polaris has all the high end necessities any clothing and accessory addicted woman could want: Saks, Von Maur, Coach, Bare Escentuals, L’occitane, Strasburg Children, etc. Don’t be fooled, it is still a mall. Among the pretty, lovely smelling stores are the kiosks. The kiosks, my goodness! I understand that the people working them are doing what they were instructed to do. What I mean is viciously persuading every single passerby to smell, touch or listen to the products they have. If you don’t, you will simple be incomplete… or your girlfriend will break up with you. You want a happy girlfriend, don’t you? (an actual question I overheard and I pretending to be in a deep conversation with my friend).
Other than the kiosks vulchers, Polaris is well designed and well maintained. The Germain (I think) valet is a nice touch, never used, but a good to know option. The recently added outdoor section is a creative way to open the walls. It’s a work in progress, that I think will enhance business in the warmer months. I would recommend checking out the website for store sales before the excursion to Route 750 (Polaris Parkway).

I am SO excited! I have seen the plans and this place is going to be incredible! I am a fan of Easton (on pretty days) and a fan of Polaris (on not so pretty days) but this is going to be a great combination of both worlds. The Lifestyle Center is slated to be ready this fall though the mall websites do not state this. I have read this in Columbus business journals and magazines and such and see the progress that is being made every time I head up to Polaris. Good stuff!!! The Cheesecake Factory is already open for business so we’re off to a promising start! :)

Dear Polaris,
We already have an outdoor mall, we don’t need you to be one.
We already have plenty of poor quality chain restaurants, we don’t need yours.
We no longer have a quality large-​scale outdoor concert venue, we don’t need more shopping.
I support the original polaris and quite like Cole Haan, Saks, Von Maur, Johnston & Murphy, Sephora, Body Shop, Great Indoors… but the last thing we need is yet another B+N (isn’t there one across the street,) Cheesecake Factory (The OSU Ross Heart Hospital and McConnell at Riverside are plenty busy,) or Benihana (seriously, more mediocre sushi?)
Wanna do something outdoors up in Polaris? Bring back my concert venue and quit classing down what is a great high-​end mall.