Fodor's Expert Review Harrods

With an encyclopedic assortment of luxury brands, this Knightsbridge institution, currently owned by the Qatar Investment Authority, has more than 300 departments and 25 eating and drinking options, all spread over 1 million square feet on a 4½-acre site. Now populated more by window-shopping tourists and superrich visitors from abroad than by the bling-averse natives, Harrods is best approached as the world's largest, most upscale, and most expensive mall. The dining hall offers on-site dining options ranging from a Pasta Evangelists' Italian offering to fish-and-chips by noted chef Tom Kerridge, a traditional Grill, Michelin-starred Indian food, a sushi bar, and a wine bar with more than a hundred wines by the glass and food by Caviar House and Prunier, in addition to the new Moet et Chandon champagne bar, while downstairs there's a new restaurant from Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton. There's also a giant coffee-roasting station, ceiling-high shelves of fresh bread at the Bakery, and a new Chocolate Hall. The Beauty Hall offers cult brands, innovative "Magic Mirrors" that allow shoppers to instantly see a new makeup look via digital technology, an in-house "hair doctor," and more than 46,000 different lipsticks, as well as 13 treatment rooms where you can try on makeup in private. Brands such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Hèrmes have opened new in-store stand-alone boutiques, but even this temple to money-is-no-object shopping has embraced sustainability: there's a new Restory, where you can get your designer shoes and handbags cleaned and repaired.