A premium mall with the requisite glitz on the outside, but it is a dead husk on the inside.
Pavilion Damansara Heights Mall is a premium lifestyle destination that brings a touch of luxury to the Damansara neighbourhood. It is the much-touted sister of one of Kuala Lumpur’s most popular malls, Pavilion KL. Conveniently connected to an MRT station, Pavilion Damansara Mall mainly serves as an opulent thoroughfare for white-collar workers in the area rather than KL’s upper class.
Layout
Pavilion Damansara Heights Mall is a simple, curved corridor. The wide middle lane will have about five escalators to get to the other floors. Sounds like such a straightforward layout, but there are a couple of confusing parts. Some tenants are completely cut off from the rest of the mall and can only be reached via a specific route.
The prime example of this is The Food Merchant grocery store and the surrounding tenants (Zok Noodle House, Caring Pharmacy, Dodo Korea) on L1. You’ll need to take the escalators along the left edge of the map to reach this isolated section. If you take the other escalators in the middle or opposite side of the mall, the path will be blocked by restaurants.
Similarly on L2, a handful of the cafes (such as % ARABICA and Artelier Coffee) do not have an entrance from the mall. You have to exit at Pavilion Damansara’s Damanlela Entrance and enter these cafes from the outside.
Shopping at Pavilion Damansara Heights
Online sources claiming that Pavilion Damansara has “around 380 outlets” grossly overstate the number. Perhaps this is the goal once the mall’s construction phases are complete (projected in 2029). However, physically counting the tenants listed in the shop directory puts the current number at just over 200 stores.
I found that there wasn’t much shopping to be done at Pavilion Damansara Heights. There are no usual mass-market clothing brands you find at bigger malls, like UNIQLO, Padini and Cotton On. The few fashion tenants were luxury brands out of my price range like Coach and Maglifestyle.
I noticed a surprising amount of jewellery stores for what is a relatively sparse shopping mall. This includes gold and wedding jewellery shops such as Tomei, Zhou Liu Fu and Fa’iq Jewels, as well as watch brands like Bell & Ross and Tudor. There are also many footwear shops in a range of styles including Crocs, Vans, and FitFlop.
Skincare and cosmetics had a fair presence at Pavilion Damansara. MAC and Nars are mall staples, while WOW Beauty sells a collection of more affordable Korean brands. Laneige and Clarins are familiar names, but Pavilion Damansara also carries more obscure ultra-luxury brands I hadn’t even heard of before, including Clé de Peau, MDSUN and The Whoo.
I walked the entire mall, and many of the stores at Pavilion Damansara Heights were niche shops full of stuff I didn’t need, for example, luggage, recliners, even cars. What was most depressing was the high number of empty “coming soon” shoplots. Pavilion Damansara opened in 2023. That means there have already been several rounds of tenant turnover at the mall, due to the obvious low number of shoppers.
Food at Pavilion Damansara Heights
Pavilion Damansara Heights doesn’t have a food court like most other malls. Instead, the food and beverage tenants are spread out across the five floors.
The cuisine is overwhelmingly pan-Asian: Japanese (Rakuzen, Chirashi King Kong), noodle restaurants (Ho Min San, Le Shrimp Noodle Bar), and Malaysian favourites (Oriental Kopi, NALE – The Nasi Lemak Company). Even the token pizza place, GOPIZZA, is Korean-inspired. If you’re looking for Western-style food, you have just a handful of options such as Michelangelo’s Pasta Fresca, Five Guys, or D’Empire.
Washrooms
The washrooms at Pavilion Damansara are very classy. The facilities I used during my visit were all large rooms with many stalls and sinks. They were always spotlessly clean and the stalls stocked with toilet paper. Since foot traffic at the mall is so low, there was never a queue to use the toilets. Each washroom also has a dedicated baby-changing room equipped with a water dispenser.
Extras
Ladies Only Parking
Pavilion Damansara has designated parking spaces exclusively for female shoppers located on B1, B2 and B3. These seem to be spaces in the regular parking bay as opposed to a whole level or section for only women. Presumably, they’re closest to the entrance for safety and convenience. Whether or not anyone will enforce the rule is dubious, but the spaces are there.
Saturday Worthy?
Pavilion Damansara is trying very hard to be an upscale shopping destination like its big sister, Pavilion KL. Unfortunately, the only people visiting Pavilion Damansara are the modest office workers in the area, not datuks and millionaires. These mall visitors pour in at noon to grab a lunch set under RM30, then reappear at 5 pm only to hurriedly speedwalk to the MRT, not shop at Lacoste.
Why would anyone looking for a luxury shopping experience choose this mall over Starhill or Suria KLCC? Pavilion Damansara doesn’t even have a particularly posh ambience, and the many empty shoplots make the space seem darker. This dead mall is not a pleasant shopping experience or a place you can spend a long time in. Considering the sad state of Damansara City Mall across the street, I don’t know what the developers were expecting. If you’re looking to spend big bucks, go to the aforementioned alternatives. Regular shoppers, do yourself a favour and stick to 1 Utama or Mid Valley Megamall.
Pavilion Damansara Heights
Address: 3, Jalan Damanlela, Pusat Bandar Damansara, 50490 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
Opening Hours:10 am – 10 pm Daily
Nearest MRT Station: Pusat Bandar Damansara
Stores and Floors: About 200 shops across 5 floors
Shop Types: Luxury brands
Anchors: The Food Merchant, TGV Cinemas
Mall Website: https://pavilion-dh.com/
