Gardens Shopping Mall presents contemporary food court vision and concept

According to Nakheel, their vision is to have the best food court in the Middle East, combining contemporary design and tempting food displays with speed and value for money.

"We are working on the premise that our food court should offer more than just the standard food transaction", said Andrew Chambers, General Manager of the Gardens Shopping Mall. "To ensure we achieve this we will benchmark our offering against several international best practice standards for food courts", he continued.

Nakheel has appointed a combination of international consultants to work collaboratively with the Gardens Shopping Mall team on the concept and design of the food court. These consultants include Food Service Retailing (FSR) and DesingInc.

Francis Loughran, Managing Director for FSR, further commented on the concept and said, "We are aiming to implement what the industry terms a 'deconstructed' food court. In simple terms this means, we will have tenant's outlets strategically located throughout the food court complemented by several pockets of seating areas, rather than the traditional u-shape layout with mass seating in the center".

"We are also seeking to implement a 'food theatre' approach, whereby the various tenancies will be encouraged to present their food with a visual approach. An abundance of colourful and fresh food displays combined with contemporary branding evokes a sensory experience for shoppers and drives forward a 'fresh food' message", continued Loughran.

The Gardens Shopping Mall management team in conjunction with FSR and DesignInc, have thoroughly researched the current food court offerings in the local market. With these findings and their previous experience in projects within Europe, Canada, Australia and South East Asia they are confident they hold a firm understanding of what needs to be done to deliver a truly 21st century food court.

Discussing the design, Carolyn Varney, Principal for DesignInc said, "It's vitally important that the food and design complement each other, and we have therefore planned the food court will this in mind. Our functional design will feature contemporary physical elements such as satellite cafes, landscaping components, a variety of seating options and clever use of natural light".

In total there will be 15 tenancies for lease in the Gardens Shopping Mall food court with each presenting the customer with a different food concept. The result will be a blend of popular international fast food majors combined with specialized cuisine concepts. Following the recent presentations, prospective food operators are now being asked to submit their detailed expressions of interest for review by a judging committee.

The Gardens Shopping Mall is located in The Gardens residential community, just off Sheikh Zayed Road between interchange 5 and 6. The Mall will combine retail, entertainment, restaurant and family activities all within a uniquely themed environment. Construction is well underway and the expected opening date is September 2004.