Recently my kid and I went to the Richmond Country Farms nearby (see my review. It's phenomenal!)…read moreand we had planned on having lunch on the fabulous outdoor patio at the Country Winery beside the farm's market area. Unbeknownst to us, the Winery only serves food for lunch on weekends (I had a great pizza there the week prior - but yes, it was on a Saturday). We were advised by the Winery folks to come to this Ironwood Plaza (0.3 miles away, according to GPS), and get some foods for lunch and return, where we were welcome to dine there.
Sounds easy enough, doesn't it?
We drove the few blocks to this Plaza and we just loved this place! Yes, it's akin to a "strip mall", but in reality it really is more like an outdoor mall. There are 41 brand name stores and restaurants here, including a beautiful, large Starbucks, a large London Drugs, and the nicest and largest BC Liquor Store I've been to since moving to Vancouver two years ago. There are also other cute restaurants and shops (some brand name, some chains, some outlets, and some smaller and local stores and food stops). There are also some medical and holistic clinics here (chiropractic, dental, etc.). So you can imagine that this is a hopping spot. There's also a humongous Canada Tire across the parking lot, FYI.
I like the set-up of this outdoor mall and how the shops are arranged, and I also liked the ample (and free!) parking. What really was cool was the centrally located kiddie play area. It sounds weird to have this outdoor play area in the middle of a large parking lot, and I've never seen this set up before, but it works. There are no swings and slides per se, but rather large, colorful stationary objects for toddlers to play among, and brightly painted grounds that are soundly separated from the cars parked on its sides by way of substantial barriers. I saw some 3-4 year olds frolicking among these large, vibrant shapes, and they were having the time of their lives, with their parents on benches nearby. The space really worked.
What I didn't like was how frustrating and difficult it was to exit this mall. We tried to exit on a side street, to go back on to Steveston Hwy and it was IMPOSSIBLE. There really should be a traffic light at these exits from the parking lot, as there was so much traffic, gridlocked, we couldn't turn left out of the lot. I ended up turning right, thinking I could go around the block. Oh no, that turned out to be impossible. We were stuck in non-moving traffic for well over an hour and couldn't go the 0.3 miles back to the farms. After an hour of not moving, I gave up the boat and just took a very very long way home, back to Vancouver. What a joy kill. My advice is only to come here at off-hours, whenever those might be, and perhaps super early on weekends or something. Very frustrating. I don't know if I will ever return here. For real.
(City of Richmond people, if you're reading this, please for the love of God get traffic lights at the exit points from this mall's parking lot)!