Pearlridge Center

My opinions of the mall have recently changed for the better; I’m happy we have this mall not too far away! Pearlridge feels the most ‘mainland’ of all the malls on O’ahu; it’s enclosed, has lots of typical stores, and does not cater to tourists. I see these all as positives; it’s nice to find real stores with real merchandise at real prices. It also has the distinction of being home to the only location of certain stores in the state, namely Sears, Toys R Us, and others.
Pearlridge is broken up into two buildings, Uptown and Downtown. Linked by a cute monorail (at a small cost), the two buildings are also a short walk apart. There is ample parking everywhere, so if you know where you’re going inside, try to find parking near the closest door. There are tons of things to do, all at fairly normal prices. Also home to many restaurants, you can find them all over both buildings for whenever shopping gives way to hunger. The buildings are done nicely and comfortably inside; wide hallways and balconies give an airy feel. The lighting is kept at a pleasantly low level.
I’m happy with the selection and experience of shopping here.

I loved going inside whether in longs drugs or catch a movie then eat @ the food court but now I live in Vegas my favorite stores are Ross, game stop& funfactory

The mall needs some work, but overall it’s okay. I was bummed to see the monorail out of service. Having three toddlers walk to and from each side was a taxing. The train for the kids was super cute and my boys had a lot of fun!

The parking is definitely a headache, we missed our movie, spots one series car crush on the way

Pearlridge Center consists of Pearlridge Uptown also known as Pearlridge Phase 1 and Pearlridge Downtown also known as Pearlridge Phase 2. There’s also Pearlridge Phase 3 which consists of the military recruiting offices, Big City Diner, plus Blue Tropix Bar and Grill in the old Denny’s location.
Pearlridge Uptown — this section an individual will find Bravo Restaurant, Anna Miller’s, Starbucks, Jamba Juice, Down to Earth, Monterrey Bay Canners Restaurant, clothing stores for the men, women, and children. Accessory stores, shoe stores, shops or kiosks specializing in toys, shops specializing in music, shops specializing in makeup, as well as your sweet tooth shops like See’s Candies and Cookie Corner. There’s also a food court located on the ground floor. The monorail is located on the third floor for individuals who want to ride the short rail system to the second phase of Pearlridge.
Pearlridge Downtown — this section consists of the begin/​end point for the monorail on the third floor. The third floor also consists of the food court and the Consolidated movie theaters. The second floor consists of men’s, women’s, and children clothing store. Fun Factory for the children or the kids at heart, Book Off for individuals interested in books. There’s even another Cookie Corner in the second phase of Pearlridge.
There are other establishments at Pearlridge Center like Long’s, medical offices, and a real estate office. It might take an entire day to browse around the many shops that Pearlridge Center has to offer to the local residents and visiting tourists.

I made the mistake of coming here on a Sunday during the holiday shopping season. The mall was packed. I was also surprised to find that both escalators were broken. I can’t believe they didn’t get that fixed overnight. The stairs were flooded with people which seems dangerous, and the wait for the elevator was ridiculous.
Also there don’t seem to be enough restrooms for a mall that size. Bad planning on the malls side. I much prefer Ala Moana or Kahala and will try to stick to those two in the future.

This might sound dumb but this place needs more coffee stands especially at Downtown (there’s none that side!). At Uptown you gotta wait in this long line just for coffee.

This place is not as big as Ala Moana but bigger than Kahala mall and has all the good stores I want. This is more of a place where the locals come to shop. The bus stops here and I like CPK. The use to have a Border’s bookstore which has since closed out. The food court is not that bad. I use to frequent Hot Topic but they have changed their clothing from a niche goth to mainstream punk, not cool. But I still like this please because it’s not too crowded.

Pearlridge has all the stores of reasonable price and not as many high priced touristy stores as ala moana. Sectioned into two, upper level with macy’s on the Ewa side, and ross’s on the Diamondhead side; lower level with Sears on the seaside and longs on the mountainside. Lots of shops for us locals.
On Saturday mornings, they have a farmer’s market in the parking lot near sears, and after shopping for produce there’s zippy’s in the mall next to Sears to eat lunch as well as the food court next to the movie theaters, as well as California pizza next to funfactory.
Y ou can actually spend the whole day here with so many stores, restaurants and entertainment, and it’s great that it’s also covered in case it rains. If you’re too lazy to walk to the other level, you can always catch their monorail for a small fee.

The mall of the west haha
It’s everything you need if your not willing to drive to town.
The stores are all reasonably priced.
The only thing there are missing is a book store but they have everything from Macy’s to a theatre and good food places.

PEARLRIDGE??! YES PLEASE!!!
Lots of parking, it’s a challenge during the Holidays, so expect to be patient.
So many places to eat (my favorites; Goma Tei, CPK, Gazebo, Sizzlers, Pretzel Maker, Cinnabun).
And many places to shop! Everywhere is my favorite. :)

My favorite mall here lol. Yeah there is only two malls that matter here but it’s my favorite of the two. Once you get over parking, which is the only bad things I have to say about this place which isn’t really all that bad anyway, you can relax and go shopping. I love that pearlridge is an indoor mall, so it’s all air conditioned. It’s you typical mall, but doesn’t have many high end outlets which you can find at waikele or ala moana but it has the necessities; t&c, Macy’s, Ross, etc. lots of clothing stores for adults and children, a few «toy» stores and lots of kiosk without the badgering employees lol.
There are two parts of this mall, uptown and downtown, which you can drive, walk, catch the cart man, or take the monorail to get across lol. Both sides have a food court with great selections but I prefer the food court on the side with Macy’s. A lot better choices.
It can get crowded which I don’t like but it’s an island and this is one of the few good malls there is.
Sometimes there are events which are fun and good for kids and there is always picture taking with favorite holiday figures during the appropriate times. For the most part there is usually always something going on in addition to the regular stores here. The other day there seemed to be a little craft or handmade fair with booths set up in the center with different sellers so that was neat.
Overall, it’s the go-​to place to do some major shopping and there is something for everyone here.

I could’ve sworn I already wrote a review for Pearlridge, but I guess not. In any case, I have found a new appreciation for the Pearlridge experience. Skip about three paragraphs to get to the review, unless you want to go through story time: P
Favorite stores: Bookoff, Sanrio, Hot Topic, Jeans Warehouse, Razor, This is It, Palazio, and that one store upstairs on the Uptown side that had random assortments of fandom stuff and a mini R2-​D2 roaming around… if it’s still there. Whilst I don’t set out to just «shop,» I do love window shopping and finding what I previously know I needed or wanted.
Story time: I used to roam Pearlridge with my friends when I was in intermediate school and it was the «cool» thing to do. I used to wear this cropped tube top with black baggy overalls and put my hair up in these crazy long braids. Everyone used to think I had extensions and I looked like something from an early 90’s sitcom starring Brandy. Favorite stores at the time were Shirokiya, Sanrio and Suncoast…
In my late teens and early twenties I had actually come to hate Pearlridge. I loathed all the little kiddies running around doing exactly what I was doing before them: just «hanging out» without any money to actually buy anything. I would kind of roll my eyes inside and be like «where are their parents? What are they wearing? Oh god why are they acting so pretentious and full of themselves?» Oh, early twenties…
When I got even older, I was bothered less and less by those things and I came to like Pearlridge again. I realized that young girls will be girls – I was the same at their age. What bothers me now is when I see people my age acting very unbecoming of full-​fledged adults but that’s another story for another day. Luckily, I don’t notice too many older riff-​raff at Pearlridge. Definitely appreciate that.
Another thing I love is that the mall just «is.» It’s Pearlridge. I can count on it being Pearlridge and nothing more. I can count on it being a set size. I can pretty much count on all of the same stores being there for a long time. It’s not constantly under construction like Ala Moana. I like that the parking lots are simple. I like that there are no crazy constructed plywood walkways. I like that there’s no ugly coverings and boarded areas (except in the occasion that a new store is coming).
Granted, the mall has gone through a lot of changes. No more circuit city. No more Shirokiya. Rave is gone. No more Hopaco or Hobby Company. No more Radio Shack. JC Penny and it’s unit is completely gone… but a lot of good things have come in those places. The JC Penny unit was demolished and opened up and extended into the area where there is Palazzio, Fantastic Sams, Ross and stuff like that.
Overall, I think this mall is neither too small, nor too big. It’s just right. There seems to be enough of a variety of different things and if you’re one of those people who go shopping just to go shopping, I think you’ll be content in the fact that it’s not going to take you all day to go through. Fortunately, I’m not one of those people, but I do go around with friends who just go shopping, and I really don’t mind it here since the footwork is so manageable.
There are food courts in both the Uptown and Downtown phases of the mall. Sadly, I don’t find the food selection or quality here as good as it is in the Ala Moana food court, but at least there’s somewhat of a good variety if you combine both sides, plus the food places outside of the food court.
Lastly, for the most part it seems to be clean. I love it during Christmas time when all the decorations are up. The aesthetics as of late are not so bad, either. I couldn’t stand the urban grunge theme previously and please, Pearlridge, do not ever try to be «hip» again. As long as they stay away from the gimmicky themes, I’ll continue being comfortable frequenting this mall.

The Pearlridge Center is really 2 malls close by to one another, they are called Uptown and Downtown.
There is a monorail that runs every 15 minutes so you can get from one part of the mall to the other. It’s $ 1 each way and kids 8 years and younger ride free. There are also parking lots for both areas, but it can be difficult to find a spot. Especially at Uptown Pearlridge. It was easier for us to find parking at Downtown Pearlridge. There wasn’t a whole lot to see in the downtown mall. I do like the relaxed feel of that section though. It’s less busier and I can see how it’d be a nice place to just chill and grab a bite to eat.
The uptown mall is much more packed and the building looks more updated than the downtown one. We found some pretty good deals at the uptown location. Especially at their Express store. B had his eye on some suits at Express in our VA area. The exact same suits were so much more cheaper at this malls Express store. They even had an additional 40% off. Can’t beat that!

This is one of the smaller meals but it’s still nice, this isn’t the mall that all the tourist go to, but has all the essentials like sephora and Macy’s. The mall is spilt into two parts, Downtown and uptown. There’s a cool monorail that takes you from both places.
There’s a Ross and TJ max do if you’re looking for something cheaper than the rest of the stores, they also have some places to get your haircut and a massage place. They also have a movie theater and food court along with CPK if you’re feeling fancy. I like how it feels like a real mall, but with that there a lot of teenagers that also like to hangout there. The workers there are super sweet and more personable. If you want driving In from town you want to avoid Driving out around 3:30 — 5:30, if you do you’ll be stuck in horrible traffic! (At least during the week). But over all it’s a nice place to go and escape all the tourist.

I have been coming to Pearlridge Center ever since I was a kid. That was when Pearlridge’s 16 screen theater was still new and there were no theaters with stadium seating yet so it was still really cool and trendy. There was also a second theater with 4 screens near where Toys-​r-​us is and where Denny’s used to be.
I always thought the monorail was really neat because no other place that I went to had anything like it in Hawaii. I always wanted to ride it. The monorail connects the upper and lower parts of the mall. My favorite place to go to was Fun Factory because I loved arcade games.
Nowadays I have been stopping by occasionally to buy clothes and visit Starbucks. See I don’t shop for clothes often, but when I do I like to check out a lot of stores. That makes me really tired and the only way I can make it through is with caffeine! I also really like the Passion ice teas when I’m thirsty and not tired. My favorite clothing shops at the moment here are Macy’s and Express.

This mall just didn’t connect with me. It’s an overly dark, stale mall that lacks character. That said, it’s a good-​sized mall — including two large indoor mall buildings and several small outdoor sections — and has a variety of shops.
The «Downtown» building is primarily Sears as the anchor, a large food court (where the station for the «AirCab» is), a modern movie theater, a few stores on the middle level (from which you can walk to the «Uptown» building), and 3 – 4 more ‘stores’ — including a dialysis center — on the bottom level (which only leads out to a garage). This would be a tiny mall on its own.
The «Uptown» building is a good-​sized mall in its own right, with lots of different shops and restaurants. It’s anchored by Macy’s, with Ross and TJ Maxx on the other end. This building is fine but very dark.
The mall lacks good signage, inside and out — beyond a couple marquis in each building — so it’s unnecessarily confusing to sort out how to get from one building to the other without following people who seem to know where they’re going. Even where to find the AirCab stations aren’t wall marked on lower floors (except at those limited marquis). I’m sure it’s easy to remember after the first time through, but malls to me should have clear directions for first-​timers as well.
The free two-​hour charging for electric cars is a nice benefit. The $ 1/​ride «AirCab» monorail — slow and caterpillar-​looking — is also a nice touch, although I don’t know how necessary it is versus better signage directing people from one building to another and perhaps a long bridge to carry people over the traffic. (Possibly a large enclosed arcade with additional shops?)

What I like about Pearlridge mall is that they’re enclosed mall. I like to visit here on a very hot or humid day. This mall is also popular place for seniors for their morning walks.
I do wish that this mall wasn’t split into two separate locations. There is a monorail that runs every 15 minutes but if you don’t mind walking its probably faster. Parking can be busy. My favorite spot is the parking structure for downtown and rooftop for uptown.

Three cases where I would find myself at this mall:
If I need something for cheap
If I’m hungry for CPK, Goma Tei or Cinnabon (when I’m not in town)
Going to work
There are many things that really just make or break my experience anywhere I go: customer service, amount of PDA exposure, working escalators, slow moving customers and the line to the counter at Starbucks and the list just really goes on. If I could choose to go to any mall and not consider distance from my house my first choice would not be Pearlridge.
Great that it has everything! Well everything you may need for a good shopping experience that would be able to accommodate every kind of person. But the difference between this mall and others is noticeable. The customers are different, the workers are different. Maybe I spend a lot of time in town but there’s just this different feel about this side of the island than in town. Some make more effort than others to make conversation with you and some make no effort at all to help you. There aren’t as many tourists around here so you can see the high schoolers and their friends with their «other halves» walking around, holding hands, being really loud.
This is more of my go to if I’m on a mission for one specific thing so I’m in then out. I don’t like to spend more time here than I need to.

Pearlridge Center known as Pearlridge Shopping Center is Oahu’s second largest shopping center. It opened in 1972 amidst a lot of fanfare because the enclosed mall was divided into three sections, Phases 1, 2 and 3, and is connected by a monorail (Pearlridge Skycab). Even from the 1960’s, most of America only knew about travel on a monorail at Disney’s Tomorrowland (California and Florida). The Skycab is Hawaii’s only monorail system.
Phases 1 and 2 have been renamed to Uptown and Downtown, respectively. Uptown’s anchor-​tenant is Macy’s (formerly Liberty House) and Downtown’s anchor-​tenant is Sears. Phase 3 is composed of two strip malls, Pearlridge East and West. All of the sections are composed of well-​known shop brands and/​or boutiques. The shops have a more neighborhood feel to them unlike the higher-​end boutiques found at Ala Moana Shopping Center. You can find pretty much everything that you want or need from apparel, furniture, food, entertainment (movie theaters), medical care (Pali Momi Medical Center) and toys.