Eagles Meadow

Eagles Meadow is a £100million shopping and leisure centre in Wrexham which started being built July 2006 and opened up this time last year, in October 2008. I like the shopping and leisure centre and I think it has made a big improvement on the shopping side of Wrexham; it has made Wrexham go up twenty six places in the UK's best shopping towns for a start.
For Eagles Meadow's first, one year anniversary I thought I might write a review on it, as there aren't any on this site yet. So, here it is...

Shops

The shops in Eagles Meadow are all good quality high street shops, or I think they are anyway. As you walk across the bridge at the back of the shopping centre, the first shops you come across are Greggs bakery, Starbucks coffee shop and Millets outdoor shop (which always has some really good sales on).
Then as you walk through the clothes shops you walk past are:

• JD Sports
• River Island
• Jane Norman
• H&M
• Dorothy Perkins
• Burton
• Topshop/Topman
• La Senza
• Next
• M&S
• Wallis
• Bank

The shops to me are all really good and as every time I go to Eagles Meadow it's always busy they seem to be doing well. Since Eagles Meadow has been built there is so much more choice and variety it makes my shopping experience in Wrexham a much better one. This has to be the biggest advantage of Eagles Meadow, the fact that there is more choice and variety, and because of this I'm glad Wrexham now has an Eagles Meadow and the people of Wrexham don't have to rely on the old shops which weren't any where near as good as the new ones in my opinion.

Leisure

The Odeon Cinema which used to be nextdoor to Frankies and Bennys restaurant with it's own car park has now moved to the upstairs floor in Eagles Meadow. On this row it is still near restaurants, as there are restaurants all down this line: Nandos, Pizza Express and Frankies and Bennys. On the end of this row is also a Ten Pin Bowling which has bowling alleys, obv, and also arcades such as dance machines and also snooker tables at the other side of the big room it's all in. Ten Pin is always crowded up with teenagers and there are usually families bowling as well, so it is a great place to occupy the 'youth of Wrexham' which before were out causing havoc on the streets and getting Wrexham's brand name of 'Chav town of Wrexham'. This has to be another big advantage of Eagles Meadow.
Also there wasn't a bowling alley in Wrexham before, the only really good place in the area a family could go to was Odeon Cinema, so Ten Pin is great for that reason, too.

Odeon Cinema I would rate this cinema in Eagles Meadow as 9/10. I think it is a HUGE improvement on the old one and as I haven't really been to many other cinemas I think it is probably the best I've been to. The first time I went in it I thought it was really big, when you walk in there is a lovely lounge area and then there is an escalator up to a second floor which is where all the screen rooms are. There are about ten or maybe more screen rooms. The toilets are clean which has to be a good thing! There is a cafe area in the cinema with big glass windows looking out over the rest of Eagles Meadow. I recommend this cinema to anyone near the area who hasn't been yet to try this out. You can check which films are on by googling their website and they have cinema listings which are always until the next Thursday. The cinema also has Orange Wednesdays where if you are on Orange Mobile Network you get Buy one get one free on cinema tickets.

Ten Pin Bowling I would rate Ten Pin as 8/10. I have been here many times and always enjoy myself whenever I go here. It's a great place to hang out and definitely beats the old way to hang out in Wrexham which was on the streets, or the boring way of staying at home to do homework! I love the drinks area, which is open to people of all ages as far as I know, and me and my friends usually get a drink of coke and then sit in the drinks area. The tables in the drinks area are all along the wall, they are round tables with beads around each of the tables to separate them and make them more private from each other, and they have changing colours lights which makes sitting there seem really cool.
You can bowl on one of the 24 lanes or you can eat a meal on one of the cool tables.
I think this is a great place for friends and/or families to go.

Eating out

The places you can get something quick to eat or drink at in Eagles Meadow are Starbucks and Greggs. In Starbucks you can get a hot or cold drink, some are quite expensive for me but it is a nice place to sit down when shopping through Eagles Meadow and you're getting tired and thirsty. In Greggs which has really cheap prices you can get a sandwich, pasty, sausage roll, all that kind of thing which is all to take out. You can also get a drink which would be cheaper than Starbucks, the only difference would be better quality at Starbucks and you can sit down to have it in there but you can't with Greggs.
There are then three restaurants which are on the second floor of Eagles Meadow, which are Nando's, Franky and Benny's and Pizza Express. My favourite of these restaurants that Eagles Meadow has to offer is Pizza Express. The website of Pizza Express is www.pizzaexpress.com where you can look to for price ideas and what foods they have to offer, which is all mainly pizza and Italian based. The staff here seem friendly whenever I go, and once my friend had a birthday here and they brought out a cake (her mum had brought in earlier) and the man bringing it sang happy birthday to her.
I have not tried out Nando's yet, but have heard mixed opinions about it. Some people say they don't like it there and feel ill after the food, some people say they love the food and enjoy eating out there. I have yet to decide for myself.