Brookside Marketplace — Attraction in Tinley Park

I prefer an experience when visiting a shopping center, mall, etc. Brookside Marketplace is clean, very clean and extremely convenient: lies along a major intersection off of Harlem Ave., and I-80. It has all the typical brand stores you’ll see anywhere else, along w/your typical cheap eateries. The reason I gave it four stars is bc the shopping center is well maintained and safe, yet it’s simply boring. There’s nothing that draws you. It’s a non-experiential center. There are no upscale dinings, or department stores to be had. It desperately needs that. There’s also no movie theaters in the entire village of Tinley Park: this would be the perfect venue for one. With the convention center directly in the area, the developers dropped the ball: the marketplace could a magnet for convention goers and those visiting/traveling along the major interstate(I-80), that sits directly alongside the Brookside Marketplace. I honestly think this mall would at least have better esthetics if it were at least and outdoor themed shopping center. I visit Kohl’s, I shop SuperTarget, I purchase from Best Buy. I live behind the center, so it’s an easy cruise up the street from me. I’m a Tinley Park resident. I’ll stop by Jersey Mike’s and buy a sandwich and maybe run over to The Saucy Crab for a bite to eat. Issue is, I’ll make one run to Brookside Marketplace and out. There’s nothing there that keeps me there: nothing exciting or appealing to the shopper who wants to spend money that draws my attention to want to spend much money. The Brookside Marketplace is simply BORING and yet convenient enough for quick purchases or a cheap meal and you’re out of there. I hope the developers read my review and consider making the Marketplace an experience. It’s your same ole generic...

We went to Juicy Crab, which is the new restaurant that moved into the old Boston's building. It was different. The menu was hard to understand and had to be explained. Our food came in a round pan with two large plastic bags holding everything we ordered. It wasn't appealing. They did give you a bib, plastic gloves (which don't fit a man's hands and ripped) and two wipes. You have to fish your food out of a plastic greasy bag which had 2 pounds of melted butter in it. They should have served tongs with it and a spoon in case you wanted to use some of the butter on the vegetables once you got them on your plate. It also should have been served in s oval dish with the bag pulled down already so people could have retrieved the food without getting there arms all greasy. This is definitely not for a first date when you are trying to make an impression. Your corn cobblette and small red potatoes are in the same bag with all your crustations swimming in the butter flavor of your choice. I guess this is why they call it a boil. The small lobsters which you can buy at jewel for 5.00 are 13.00 the one king crab leg was so hard to crack it broke the crab cracker they supplied. The shrimp you had to peel and weren't deveined. The service was excellent but it was 5:30 and it wasn't super busy. All in all it was...

It's a nice shopping center; very well developed (exception being the Kohl's side, those roadways are convoluted at best. Traffic management has improved over the years. Avoid the western Target entrance area if you aren't explicitly going to Target. It's also wise to skirt the median-split area between Subway and Panera unless you are going to one of those shops. If it's busy, such as lunch time, good luck. The Panera drive thru crosscuts the split one way roads! People who don't care ignore the 'No Right Turn' sign all the time and cause a nasty blockage.Youll understand when you see the signage (but hopefully, it won't be busy...)

Besides the few quirks of traffic management, this is a one stop shop (...ing center?). Just about every major store category is there, everything is fairly close together making it so, so much easier and faster to get things done than, say, Orland shopping center(s) where you need to drive across a few square kilometers occasionally. Everything is within the same domain. Most of the food available is franchise fast food (Arby's, Taco Bell, Subway, Panera) but there are a few sit-down places (TGIF, the weirdo seafood place, and there's some other place I've never tried, it's mostly expensive and not really a get-what-you-pay situation with some of...