General Information
NFT Map: 45
Address: 6600 Topanga Canyon Blvd.
Canoga Park, CA 91303
Phone: 818-594-8732
Website: www.westfield.com/topanga/
Shopping
For any Valley resident who has ever gone behind the Orange curtain to Costa Mesa and lamented, “Where is our South Coast Plaza?” we have an answer. It’s in Canoga Park and it’s called Westfield Topanga. Before the Northridge Quake did some serious damage, Topanga Plaza (as it was then known) was a run of the mill neighborhood mall. But out of the rubble has emerged a lesson in civic planning, a utopia, if you will, of how retail—and society—should be.
The brilliance of the Topanga mall is in how it manages to be the big tent that draws everyone in. The planner who thought to include a two-story Target along with a newly renovated Nordstrom deserves a Nobel Prize for malls. Low end, high end . . . it’s all covered. The major apparel chains are all represented, along with an occasional higher-end surprise (Benetton and Hanna Andersson). Male shoppers have established a beachhead in the upper level “Canyon” with the one-two punch of the Apple Store and the spa-like Art of Shaving.
Food
The mall’s egalitarian qualities extend to the food available to its guests. Westfield eschews the term “food court” for the far more posh “dining terrace.” Choices there are a little more focused on Asian meals, from the sushi at Seiki-Shi Sushi to the Korean BBQ and kimchee at Sorabol, but it’s all definitely fast food. If you’ve got the time (and the cash) spend a little more and have breakfast, lunch, or dinner at The Farm of Beverly Hills, an export from Beverly Hills and The Grove.
Drawbacks
In a bizarre attempt at world domination, the folks at Westfield now own both the former Topanga Plaza and a complex they call The Promenade just down the street (6100 Topanga Plaza). The good news is that together they are home to just about any retailer you might ever want to visit. The bad news is that there’s no easy way to get to the Promenade from the Westfield Topanga and vice versa — you can walk about five blocks, or drive and repark (an unbearable thought on a weekend evening). It’s rumored that Westfield will one day connect the two malls by bridge or walkway or—we hope you’re sitting down for this—build a new mall to unite the two squabbling ones that we have.
How To Get There
Take the 101 to Topanga Canyon Blvd and head north. Westfield Topanga will be the second mall on your right (the first being the Westfield Promenade), at Victory. The bus lines that stop at Westfield Topanga are AVTA 787, Metro Bus 150, 161, 164, 165, 245, 645, Metro Rapid 750, Santa Clarita Transit 791, 796, and VISTA Hwy 101/Conejo Connection Route.