The Dubai Mall is already a mammoth space, with more than 1,300 retail outlets, <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/fashion/first-look-dubai-mall-extension-is-now-open-1.711573">a freshly expanded luxury fashion</a> section and an internal floor space of 5.9 million square feet. And it just got bigger: a 200-metre-long footbridge has now opened to take shoppers across to the Zabeel extension. Shoppers can walk over the multi-lane Financial Centre Road to get to the new building, which is actually in Zabeel, rather than in Downtown Dubai like the rest of the mall. The Dubai Mall currently welcomes around 80 million visitors annually, but is expanding in order to be prepared for their target of more than 100 million shoppers per year. The walkway to the new part of the mall is located on the second floor, in between the entrance to Galeries Lafayette and the main Grand Parking entrance. The extension's interior has an edgier vibe than the main mall: think raw concrete, lower ceilings and exposed pipework. First and foremost, it adds 3,000 more car parking spaces to the mall. It also, however, means more shops. When completed, the extension will house 63 retail units, and while most of those are yet to open, we had a walk around the extension on Wednesday evening, and found these places welcoming visitors, or about to in the near future. The extension means there's now another supermarket in The Dubai Mall. Grandiose sells plenty of French brands, such as Luchon, Bouton d'Or, Captaine Cook and Cotterley. They also offer a lot of loose products, so you can fill your own containers with herbs, spices, rice, pulses, oil, vinegar and more. Another flagship of the extension is Ekart, an electric go-kart track where you can take a ride for Dh95. <a href="http://ekartzabeel.ae/#pricing">See the website for more information.</a> The extension adds a third food court to The Dubai Mall: the fast-food options here include fried chicken at Marrybrown, sweet treats at Cereal Society, Indian snacks at Zambar Express and Hungarian chimney cakes, tempura hot dogs and burgers at Side Kick. There's a standalone Krispy Kreme, a Turkish restaurant and ice cream spot Maras Turka, as well as a signboard for a new restaurant called Peppers, which promises to serve Nashville hot chicken when it opens soon. It certainly looks delicious: The popular gym already has branches in La Mer, Al Quoz and in Abu Dhabi's World Trade Centre, and they now have an outlet at the Zabeel extension, too. <strong>Click to play: </strong> The streetwear brand has a permanent Dubai store in the extension. This fashion store is not for the faint of heart, and sells designs that are all about embroidery, lapels, sequins and the like. This beachwear brand sells flattering clothes and home accessories that are all made in Dubai, and they now have a small stall in the extension. The former sells small robotics that can be used at home (from vacuum cleaners to mobile nail printers) while the latter will print lifelike figurines of people, ranging from 10 centimetres to life-size. The durable watch brand by Casio now has its own standalone store in the expansion, whether you're after a colourful Baby-G or an all-out military style Rangeman. The popular bookstore, which really now is more of a stationery and games store than a traditional book shop, has an outlet in the extension. There's also a Super Trim gents salon for those who need a shave.
