Hazelton Lanes

Avoid this place at ALL COSTS! it is an over priced pretensions old people place anyway but it has been a war zone of construction for the past 2 years and it’s only getting worse. Now with the holiday season fast approaching I am guessing they want to make it extra difficult to shop here and really punish their customer for trying. Almost everything is closed, parking is a labyrinth maze of conflicting signage, out of service elevators and closed/​locked stairwells!
So sorry I came here today, I attempted to spend money at the Whole Foods and was never sorrier. I will check in maybe a few years form now and see how the construction is going.

I remember back in the day Hazelton Lanes had a certain je né sais quoi about it. But now it just looks like where old ladies shop. It’s going through renovations now but I don’t have much hope for it. It looks bad — poor lighting and just well not luxurious.
Yes they have stores in here you have never heard of and of course sell luxury brands but I wouldn’t come here again… even if I was in the area. Skip it. Skip it good.
There’s a Whole Foods in here but other than that I can’t see the point of this mall. I barely saw anyone shopping outside of Whole Foods so not sure how the other stores pay their rents.

As a dedicated student of luxury, I really want to give Hazelton Lanes a better review.
If you remember the 90’s you probably remember a Saturday Night Live sketch called «Remember the 80’s». Admittedly, I barely made it into teenagerhood by the end of that decade, but from what I recall, HL was the height of sophistication… and perhaps boredom for a kid who had yet to buy his first suit.
That said, the pricetags were usually worth a good gawk.
HL at the time was notable for it’s cafeteria-​style restaurant downstairs; the first place I tried tortellini (and still the best I’ve had); the kind of shop where eager servers would ask if you wanted «to-​MAAAAAW-​to» on your sandwich. The food was delicious, if pricy.
The eating area also abutted a «General Store» with obsecenely priced knicknacks, including fancy pens (I bought one for my grandmother’s birthday one year, and still swell with pride over the accomplishment).
Today, I could hardly tell you which stores are there, other than the Whole Foods where I occasionally buy fish. a decent kitchenware store closed. A Running Room ran away, and many of the boutiques are too twee, too precious, and unjustifiably snooty. I’ve bought my share of suits now, and prefer to spend my time and money at stores that treat me well, whether I’m dropping $ 20 or $ 2000. In fact, if they treat me well for the lesser amount, I’m a lot more likely to spend the greater.
It’s a message that’s often lost at HL.

This place is a dump! I excepted so much! It’s nothing more than a dated old mall. It is very closed off with narrow hallways. It could be so nice but has been let go… Don’t bother visiting. Reminds me of one of those micro malls below office towers.

This is a waste of space. Seriously, it’s a waste of space. In a neighbourhood where every single acre is worth more than an entire life’s savings, Hazelton Lanes is a classic example of inefficient use of space. This place is huge, yet the interior is so, so empty. Yes, there’s a Whole Foods… And a bunch of other stores. But you could cut the property in half and still squeeze all those stores together. With the extra space, you could create a huge garden or a picnic area or a cell for all the pretentious meanies of Yorkville who refuse to step aside for you when you’re walking on the sidewalk. (Yes, I’m slightly bitter. I’ve worked in this neighbourhood for the past two years and never in my life have I come across so many rude and unhappy people. I guess you can’t buy class.) The interior is also incredibly depressing. When you walk in you instantly feel lost in a hallway that feels emptier than the devil’s heart.
Hazelton Lanes gets one star for their lounge area. Inside, you can sit at the many tables or on the many cozy chairs, open up your laptop, and write Unilocal reviews on their wifi. Thanks, Hazelton!

Most shops are out of my price range but still great for one stop shopping.

Posh, quirky, eclectic, small, and has a little bit of everything, even a food market. So bring your credit cards. Parking is a pain.

For a high end mall, it’s a little bit dumpy. I think it’s the outdated layout, décor and colour scheme. The centre piece though is perfect for events, as I recently visited it for Toronto’s Fashion Night Out. It came alive with makeup artists, hairdressers, people selling jewelry and Jeanne Becker.
Outside of that, it’s a ghost town. But there’s a Brown’s store which is empty and I think will be a great place to buy shoes — you’d be the only customer and treated like a queen!

The Mall has gone through a transformation and is an interesting eclectic mix. There is whole foods and a few cute shops like a pet store called Pretty Yigi, some nice boutiques like TNT on the High End and some great finds at another boutique called Heidi-Ho2(More queen west vibe). A few other scattered shops mixed in with the high end stuff like Fabrice and a hair accessory store called Luxe.
Worth a visit YES. Grab a coffee at Letteiri and a muffin or danish from whole foods. There is nice seating in the rotunda with free Wifi.

I am in Yorkville… I get it… it’s poshy, overpriced for no good reason and OVERLY pretentious.
I would just like to see more down to earth peeps here, perhaps that would lower the «douchiness» of this place

Yeah, the mall is a little pretentious. But it’s still a nice indoor shopping experience.
I used to come here a lot when I was younger, when it seemed like more of a family place. Or at least that’s what I remember. That middle atrium was an ice rink. In the summer, you could have brunch there (The Great Canadian Bagel, and later something else). Now there are some seating there, looking more like an art installation.
There was also a store across from now the Brown’s called the «general store’ I remember it full of kids playing with knick knacks and was basically an adult toy store. But that’s gone now.
Where Whole Foods is now, there was seating, and around xmas, an elaborate Santa’s House. But they don’t seem to cater to the kids and families and more.
There’s expensive clothing and bedding stores. TNT has some great trendy fashion, but has a high price tag, although look out for their sales, when things can be bought at a more reasonable price.
The pet store here has some good stuff, but nothing different from what you could find at Global.
I do very much like the Whole Foods here, and especially since they expanded, gave more prepared food options. There’s also a café/​bakery upstairs.
Parking underground is a bit expensive if you don’t get it validated $ 3.50 every 20 mins. But, it’s Free with $ 25 purchase (on weekdays) and any purchase on weekends.
In the evenings it’s $ 7.00 flat rate which might be good if you’re in the area for something.

I like it because it is quiet. Oh, and their Whole Foods. I used to come here to purchase mostly rare sauces and spices. I never bought my groceries here as I remember once, while waiting to pay for my items the lady in front of me, bought no more than 12 items and her bill was about $ 110+, then she looked at me, smiled, took her Visa and made a bit of a show of paying it. «Wow,» I thought, «this is such NOT my scene.»
Well, that short story sort of nails the vibe of this entire mall. The stores are always empty aside from the clerks, sorry, ‘Design Consultants’ working in them, which basically just means that if they are following capitalism, the only way they could stay in business and survive is off the sale of chasm-​wide-​profit-​margined items. In otherwise, just overpriced fashion, such as Versace, I think Alfred Sung and even down to Nike, yet in all fairness, the storefronts do tend to melt into a one long, white hallway to me.
They do have a Wine Rack, which has come in handy when my GF and I lived on Avenue Road and although the whole place reeks to 70’s architecture, I do like their central common area with lots of comfy leather seating, along with the few (LAPTOP HOBO ALERT!) electric plugs which I have used to recharge my phone once or twice while in the hood.
I read a few Unilocalers mention about their Dog Sitting Services, however as a quadruped-​less person, I have no experience with this service so I will just skip it but it might be worth mentioning that it is available.
Sans Whole Foods and the Wine Rack, this mall really seems to serve better as a walk-​through to Yorkville than an actual commercial center. I mean, if you are craving a shopping experience shock full of weaponized snobbery, I am fairly positive you would be better served going to Holt Renfrew which is only a 5 minute walk south.

Complimentary Dog Sitting Services!
Hazelton Lane for sure is the only mall I been to that offers this type of services. And the fact that you can bring your dog in and browse around the store… it is so Beverly Hills! Maybe people can come walk their dogs here on a rainy/​snowy day?
Aside from that, there are nothing really exciting about Hazelton Lanes…

Aside from the Whole Foods, there isn’t much in this shopping center. Most of the retail spaces are empty, and those that remain don’t sell anything that compelling. The clothing retailers seem to target «older» women with labels that were hot 20 years ago, and everything else can be gained elsewhere at places with more selection. This shopping center definitely needs another anchor store — maybe a boutique-​y high-​end modern department store like Barney’s. For now, however, it’s just dead and withering.

Aside from the Whole Foods I’m not sure what reason anyone would have to come here. There are a lot of expensive women’s shops but they stuff looks like trash, who wears this stuff? It looks afwul.
Brown’s has a decent sale once or twice a year for women’s stuff that my wife enjoys. But other than that, nothing here interests me. The men’s stuff is worse than the woman’s in many cases.
They used to have Sunday brunch in the middle of the mall for $ 25 a person and I’m sure it was a great place to see and be seen but that’s gone now so I suppose the kind of people that would actually shop here will have to find a new place to over-​pay for eggs.

Are you fucking kidding me?
Ugly men and trophy wives look downright hilarious when they dress up nice. At first glance there’s that shine and sparkle… but when you look behind the makeup, it’s all too often accompanied by a sad face or vacant-​look of despair.
This place is so cold. It’s devoid of life or any human emotion.
Sure, it’s clean and there’s no external vomit on the floor. But just the simple act of walking in here makes me vomit in my mouth.
The mall is empty. A few polished bannisters that have never been touched. Storefronts that scream out «LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! I’M SO PRECIOUS! LOOK AT ME!». Salespeople who you can realistically lease by the hour. Uncomfortable looking pretty shoes. Nothing that you actually need.
Who the hell gets dressed up to go to the mall? I guess that it’s a good way to impress the rest of your friends who also drove half a kilometer in their leased BMW to show them how rich and powerful you are.
I’m sitting here in the vacant center court area of this temple of filth watching some plastic soul vampire slowly peck at a hamburger with her teeth caps.
There’s a small linup of people waiting to buy tickets to HotDocs… Meanwhile I’m trying to figure out how to hand out fliers in the Dufferin Mall telling all the one-​eyed vagrants to come hang out at Hazelton Lanes.
This place needs a fried chicken joint.

What Cumberland Terrace was to the 1980s, Hazelton Lanes was to the 1990s. It reminded you why you worked so hard to get your CA down the street at the U of T.
At one time such fashion luminaries like Hermès, Ungaro, Alfred Sung, and Versace had flag ship stores here. But those days are gone. The Internet hit, people didn’t have to dress up for work anymore, and it became a choice between a loft condo or Prada? Hmmm.
You still find many of those brands in the little boutiques that have taken over. There’s an interesting kitchen wares store. I’m a sucker for the exotic ways Danes come up with to press garlic. And while I’m not a big fan of Whole Foods as a place to get groceries, it’s a great place to grab brunch on a rainy Saturday morning.
The place is sorely crying out for a Timothy’s Coffee kiosk in center court, which seems to have little function.
Men probably only visit this place when in tow with a blond leggy trophy wife. 90% of the shops are for women’s clothing. There are about 3 devoted to men’s clothing. The Browns shoe store does stock some high end shoes not found in other Browns, like Gucci and Prada.

Hazelton Lanes offers lots of great window shopping — and actual shopping too, if you can afford it. But you don’t need to be rich to shop here…
There are a few good high end boutiques that often have *excellent* sales eg Jacadi has wonderful children’s clothing, ridiculously priced when you factor in that most children GROW, *but* they had an amazing post-​recession sale this summer.
TNT has good selections of high-​end urban wear, while offering up the appropriate Yo’ville attitude as a side. They also have good sales. And these days, you might be able to make your own deal at some of the other boutiques.
The Whole Foods here is good, if you know what to buy. There is better priced equivalent produce elsewhere, but bulk foods, peanut butter (no kidding, grind your own for a deal!), and some dairy and soy products are high quality and reasonably priced. The back deli bar has a great dinner deal, some of the «365» WF brand stuff is reasonable, and the cheese selection compensates for its prices. I cannot comment on the meat, but the fish selection is good and it is fresh, even though you might spend a bit more. There is also a good selection of slightly alternative supplements and beauty/​bath products, with prices that compare with other health food stores. The pricey espresso upstairs in the café is good and strong, and you can sit, sip and watch the buffsters heading into the Yorkville Club. The vegan mini muffins here arent too shabby either, and might motivate you to work out yourself.
Speaking of which — the Yoga Studio offers a great selection of classes, primarily Hatha-​style with some Ashtanga and Pilates, and the price of 10 classes there is comparable with any other studio. The bonus is you get to use the change rooms of one of the poshest clubs in Tdot.
Prettie Yiji pet boutique has a great selection of items, and the owner is quite helpful if you have questions.
The absolutely best thing, if you are a dog-​owner, is the concierge, who will fido-​sit for you while you shop. So civilized!

It used to have a skating rink in the middle of it you know? A skating rink!
God, I miss those days.
It’s a mall, let’s not paint it any other way. It’s just the most over the top, expensive mall ever. It’s shaped like a figure-​8 and takes years to properly navigate.
Inside there are tons of women’s high end shops and casual wear shops like TNT. The best (and most expensive) flower shop in the city, Teatro Verde, is here. And of course, Whole Foods.
They have the best –kept underground parking lot in the city and the shop staff are pretty jovial, relying heavily on returning loyal customers.
Wouldn’t it be amazing, if there was still a skating rink though?

I definitely have to agree with Mike on this one — Hazelton Lanes will make most feel very intimidated — or in my case, very insufficient. Then again, if you don’t want to hang out where the rich and successful do, then you might want to stay out of Yorkville.
That being said, Hazelton Lanes does have a ton of fancy pants stores that will clean out your wallet and fill that void inside you. They have a whole foods as well as tons of clothing stores, jewellery stores, home good stores, etc.
If you have the cash to spend, Hazelton Lanes is as fancy and upscale as malls get and its worth a visit. But, as Mike S. said, you’ll get much better deals and a better bang for your buck at Vaughan Mills.