Trinoma is the newest mall on the block, or shall we say, literally beside The Block (within the SM City North EDSA area).

When I mentioned to my parents of this newly opened mall, they decided we should visit it. After all, it's only once a mall is new. After that, it gets older. And so last sunny Sunday, we toured the new mall.

I wasn't able to get the mall's name right as a few days before, I was trying to think what the name was. The following names were floating in my mind: Tribeka, Tribola, and Trimona. And behold, I didn't get it right until a friend pointed it out to me that it's Trinoma, short for Triangle North of Manila.

Our approach to the new mall was hindered by what seemed to be a new access road prolonging Mindanao Ave. Coming from Quezon Circle, there wasn't any left turn at the intersection leading to Trinoma. If I needed to make a U-turn at Mindanao Ave, I was definitely in the wrong lane. Afraid of being caught for swerving, I just crossed the intersection and made a U-turn at the first island break which was the break also leading vehicles from the opposite lane into SM North EDSA. Good thing there wasn't any "No U-turn" sign nor traffic enforcer ready to flag me down.

Alas we got to the new access road fronting Trinoma. Although a bit confusing, the parking architechture was different from the standard mall parking. The parking lot alone had a bird's eye view of its "close" competitor, The Block.

When we got inside Trinoma, we started looking for the food outlets already in service since we hadn't eaten breakfast and it was close to noontime. We found the biggest fastfoods on the ground floor to be KFC, Jollibee and McDonalds. Interestingly enough, Jollibee had comfty couches which made it look classier than the usual swivel foodcourt-type chairs. The center was huge, similar to Glorieta and Market! Market!'s core, ideal for shows and events. There was a playground on one side for kids.

There were four floors with each section of a floor having its own theme shops. The second floor for example, contained computers, celphones, sports, and watches all bunched by their respective categories. The foodcourt had a unique shape with a balance of tables and couches for those who prefer to feel at home.

The fourth floor has huge carousel in the center dividing the play area (Timezone) and the cinemas.

If you thought this was just about it, there's more !

When you get to the top floor, there's a huge outdoor area where a lot of restaurants are soon to open. It's beautifully landscaped with several paths leading from one side to the other. When you're in this area, it doesn't seem like you're on the top floor of a mall, as this wide outdoor area has no traces of the malls exterior.

When you get to the end of this area, you'll be welcomed by an upside-down fountain, or at least water sprouting from the 3rd floor that shoots up and strategically splashes on the small pool on the fourth floor. This particular area is circular with lots of additional restaurants and coffee shops soon to open for all four floors. The two establishments already open are Gerry's Grill and Cabalen (I think). There's much more to explore in this mall especially since it's just newly opened and there aren't much stores open yet.

I have some personal comments though:

1. Some places in the mall are hot. If the malls' airconditioning is centralized, how come Timezone and Handyman are extremely hot ?
2. The tiles used on the ground floor don't seem too much spectacular. Okey, it's mediocre. It makes you feel that the mall isn't new. The upper floors however have better tiling.
3. I was wondering why the food court had a lot of couches. If I would want to sit in a couch, I wouldn't want to be in a foodcourt. And if I had to eat in the foodcourt, and there were no more tables available, I wouldn't want to eat with my plate on my lap on a couch.
4. The stoplight in the North Ave-Mindanao Ave. intersection should have left turns coming from all directions since they opened a new road extending to Trinoma.
5. The sliding doors are great ! I couldn't find the entrance and exit signs for these sliding doors at first. No wonder, they're multi-directional. :)
6. Some of my favorite eateries will soon open at Trinoma, Zong, Sbarro, Krispy Kreme and the one which got me really excited, Taco Bell.
7. Landmark hasn't opened yet. And we couldn't find the bridge leading to the MRT yet. But these are big plusses once they're operational.
8. I highly recommend trying out all the barbeques at Reyes Barbeque. My mom tell me the Reyeses' are behind Aristocrat. They taste the same even down to the java sauce.
9. The parking attendants (inside the paybooths) seem to be tourtured with no ventilation except for an open door. They don't seem to have any electic fan or any sort of ventilation inside their booths.
10. Some parts of the multi-level parking lot are dim. Parking space allocated for vehichles are larger than the normal. So 3 Ford Expeditions can fit side by side. Our car suddenly looked small though parked beside them.
11. The escalators have a red & green light to their left before you get on one. I'm just not sure what they stand for. I definitely won't stop if I see it red even if the escalator isn't running.
    

Overall, the mall has great potential to be a one-stop shop, dine and have fun.