South Coast Plaza

South Coast Plaza Review

If you look at the where-to-buy listings at the bottom of couture ads in glossy magazines, you'll often see, sandwiched between listings of shops in Paris and Beverly Hills, the name of Costa Mesa's most famous landmark, South Coast Plaza. This immense complex gets ritzier by the year as international designer boutiques jostle for platinum-card space. The original section has the densest concentration of shops: Gucci, Armani, Burberry, La Perla, Hermès, Versace, Chloé, and Prada. You can also find all the familiar mall stores like Victoria's Secret and Banana Republic. Major department stores, including Saks and Bloomingdale's, flank the exterior, and restaurants range from fast-food to haute cuisine (among the most prominent are Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale's and the acclaimed contemporary bistro Marché Moderne). A pedestrian bridge crosses Bear Street to the second wing, a smaller offshoot with a Room & Board store and several galleries and restaurants.