For as long as I've been a resident of Etobicoke I've always considered Sherway Gardens to be the de facto go to mall of the west side of Toronto. Besides being the closest mainstream mall it was also easier to navigate and enjoy much more than Woodbine or Square One.
There was a time where the socioeconomic target demographic for Sherway was the same as Cloverdale but each mall while riding the same road with each other for years finally took different paths for different reasons. Sherway ended up going the route of the more affluent mall with newer and more popular stores and Cloverdale went the route of being the value mall.
Before this review and my last visit to Sherway (1/20/2016) I honestly cannot remember the last time I actually stepped foot in that mall for any reason. It may have been years ago when HMV was still in there to buy a CD for my wife... that's a while ago. I've always hated the parking at this mall because it was always so difficult to find. For me it was practically a deterrent for even going which is probably one of the reasons I haven't been to Yorkdale in probably over a decade.
While my last visit was during normal business hours during a weekday so I'd expect to be able to find more parking, the north side of the mall has essentially been "completed". This section is the NEW section with all new parking and all new stores and a complete new food court and the relocation of one of the larger stores (Sporting Life). I went to the new section for the first time which is basically a half loop from the north middle "square" of the mall that meets the north west "point" of a square figure 8. That is how I've always explained Sherway Gardens in the past. It's a single floor, squared figure 8 but now instead of having an "arm" that extends to meet Holt Renfrew in one of the last additions, this now half loop is continuous and meets another part of the existing mall and doesn't just end.
Because of this new section and new food court the entire south central portion is being revamped and there's a lot of construction going on for the south side of the mall now. The former 2 level area where the Sporting Life used to be along with the "White Tent" food court is set to be demolished and/or revamped but now that entire side of the mall is void of parking space so yet again this mall is without an entire side of parking. Supposedly this is where a new Nordstrom will be. This will essentially add a 2nd American anchor (the other being Saks) to the mall.
I'd have to imagine after the renovations are complete again that parking will be part of the fix as well. Saks on the east side of the mall is supposed to open in February both for Sherway and the Eaton Centre. The Saks store lists on their wall that there will be a Pusateri's market in there which will be pretty swank.
Sherway seems to be in a constant state of evolution never standing still for too long. So many new stores have entered the Sherway fray and it seems more and more are coming especially the popular American stores. While Sherway isn't quite at the echelon of Yorkdale having many high end designers and other stores that cater to a higher income customer base, Sherway is pretty much in a comfortable 2nd arguably over Square One as far as large GTA shopping malls go.
One of the things that would be nice would be a RAPID transit to Sherway Gardens much like how Yorkdale and Scarborough Town Centre enjoy. For non-drivers the TTC buses come here but being as popular as Sherway is it's still a bus mall.
The entire area along Queensway near Sherway Gardens is basically big box shopping so if you can't get it in the mall there's other stores nearby too.
While Sherway may not have rapid transit they do have their own highway exit going westbound on the Gardiner split at the 427 north on ramp. For motorists going east bound towards the city the exit would be The West Mall/Evans avenue and for those going south on the 427 the exit would be the Queensway. The boundaries of the mall are basically Queensway to the north, Sherway Gardens road to the east/south, Evans avenue to the south and The West Mall to the west.