If you've lived in Cherry Hill for more than a couple of years, you already know the reflex: something new opens, and it's almost always inside the mall. That reflex is out of date. The most interesting food and gathering news of 2026 is happening on Route 70, at the Shoppes at Garden State Park, and on the lawns at Croft Farm and Barclay Farmstead. The mall is still adding tenants, but it is no longer where the story is.
Here is a working map of what has opened, what is close, and where the township itself is programming your weekends.
The Route 70 pivot: H-Mart's food hall reboot
The single biggest shift in local dining this year is not a restaurant. It's a grocery store rebuild. H-Mart Cherry Hill at 1720 Route 70 has been closed since summer 2025 for a full remodel of the lower-level grocery and a build-out of the upper level into a Korean-Asian Market Eatery Food Hall. Confirmed tenants so far:
- KyoDong Noodle, whose operators have said they are ready to open as soon as construction wraps
- JAWS Topokki & Gimbap, the Korean street-food brand behind more than 300 stores in Korea, targeting a July 2026 opening for its Cherry Hill location
- Paris Baguette, the bakery café, on the upper level
- A Korean fried chicken concept, with bubble tea and sushi options also expected
The Philadelphia H-Mart already has a food hall, and a source familiar with the plans says the Cherry Hill lineup will be built to be different from Philly's, which is why it's worth paying attention rather than assuming you've seen this format already.
The reopening date has moved. The most recent expectation reported by 42 Freeway is late February to early March 2026, with JAWS following in July. If you drive past the shell now and it looks quiet, that is the sequencing, not a delay of the whole project.
What actually changed at Cherry Hill Mall
The mall itself has done less than the noise suggests. Since late 2025, four openings landed: Coach, OFFLINE by Aerie, POP MART, and one restaurant, Suki Hana, a fast-casual spot doing teriyaki bowls, sushi, and hibachi-style plates. Kooma Asian Fusion & Martini Bar, a Pennsylvania sushi operator opening its first New Jersey location at one of the mall's pad sites, filled out the food side earlier.
The bigger mall story is the parking lot. The nine-story One Cherry Hill office building has been demolished, and Dick's House of Sport is going up in its place. This is not a standard Dick's. PREIT, the mall's parent company, says the complex will include a climbing wall, simulated golf bays, a multi-sport cage for baseball, softball, lacrosse, and soccer equipment testing, and an outdoor field, with an opening still targeted for this calendar year. Whether or not you buy sporting goods, it changes what that corner of Route 38 feels like on a Saturday.
The independent list that matters
Yelp's June 2026 pass at new Cherry Hill restaurants surfaces a group that reads noticeably less chain-heavy than the mall additions. Worth knowing by name:
| Spot | What it is | Why it stands out |
|---|---|---|
| Chibanos | Chinese-Cuban breakfast and lunch | Signature Chino breakfast sandwich on buns from a South Philly Chinese bakery, coffee from Ox |
| Waltz | New-arrival dining room | Repeat-visit reviews from diners who say the format is unusual for the area |
| LLevele Que LLevele | Latin | New enough that most residents haven't tried it yet |
| Soufiane at the Morris | Special-occasion dining | Reviewers are treating it as a date-night option |
| Oroshi Sushi Omakase | Omakase | Fills a gap the mall's sushi options don't cover |
| Sovo Càphé | Café | Newer coffee-forward addition |
| Bubba's Creamery | Ice cream | Warm-weather add |
| Liguria Pizzeria | Pizza | Independent slice option |
| Hannie Bite | Casual | Recent debut |
85°C Bakery Cafe, the Taiwan-founded chain with hundreds of global locations, also opened in Cherry Hill in late 2025, and Palnadu Indian Cuisine is the newer South Indian option on the map.
Just over the township line
Some of the openings Cherry Hill residents will actually drive to sit a few minutes outside the township, and they are worth flagging because they change the calculation of whether to stay in town for dinner.
- Tacoria Mexican Street Kitchen is opening at the Shoppes at Garden State Park, 801 Haddonfield Road. Co-owner Vishal Patel described the brand as design-forward and positive-messaging, with "life is beautiful" and "love is the answer" graffitied through the space. This is the chain's first South Jersey location.
- Angelo's Pizzeria is returning to South Jersey. Angelo's originally opened in Haddonfield in 2013, closed in 2018 when the team moved operations to South Philly, and is now taking the former Di'nic's Roast Pork & Beef space in the West Collingswood Heights section of Haddon Township. For anyone who has waited in the South Philly line, this is the shorter drive.
- Texas Roadhouse opened its first Burlington County location on Feb. 16, 2026, taking the former TGI Fridays in Marlton.
- King's Road Brewing Company is opening its third location in Moorestown, with the working title Community House Brewery. The build is inside Moorestown's Community House, a century-old mansion that has long functioned as an event space. King's Road already has taprooms in Haddonfield and Medford, so this is a familiar operator in a new setting.
Where the township is programming your weekends
This is the piece that gets under-covered. The Township runs a summer calendar that is free or close to it, and the venues are two historic properties most residents drive past without stopping.
Barclay Farmstead, 209 Barclay Lane. Music Under the Stars runs Tuesdays, July 14, 21, and 28, 2026, 7 to 8:30 p.m. Free admission. Each night pairs live music with food trucks and beer from Mechanical Brewery. Bring a chair. If you have not been to Barclay Farmstead, the setup is a working colonial-era farm with the concerts on the lawn.
Croft Farm, 100 Bortons Mill Road. Two programs to know:
- Al Fresco Affair, the food truck festival with a beer garden and live music, is the township's marquee summer evening. The 2026 kickoff ran May 21 at Croft Farm, and the closing edition has historically fallen in late August with roughly nine food trucks, Mechanical Brewery pouring, and live sets. Free to attend; food and drink are pay-as-you-go.
- The Ensemble Series at Croft Farm Arts Center, presented by the Cherry Hill Arts Board and supported by the Garden State Rotary of Cherry Hill and Susan Bass Levin and Harriet Bass. Recent programming has included A Star-Spangled Celebration with the South Jersey Pops Quartet. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. Seating is general admission, first come first served, and tickets are non-refundable. Parking is in the large lot adjacent to Croft Farm, with two foot bridges into the main property.
Both properties sit inside residential blocks, which is part of the appeal. If you drive to the mall for a concert, you're parking with everyone. If you walk to Barclay Farmstead from a neighboring street, you're arriving the way it was meant to be arrived at.
The read on all of this
Cherry Hill's food and social map is decentralizing. The mall is still adding tenants, and Dick's House of Sport will pull a real crowd. But the specific reasons to leave the house on a given week are increasingly Route 70, Haddonfield Road, or a township-run lawn, not the same interior corridor everyone has been walking since 1961. That is a quieter change than a new anchor tenant, and it is a better one for anyone who already lives here.
Save this list. Try one place from the independent column and one township event in the next month. The distance between "I've lived here for years" and "I actually know this town in 2026" is smaller than it looks.
When you're ready to talk about where in Cherry Hill fits your next chapter, McCann Team LLC knows the blocks behind every one of these addresses. Let's Build Your Next Chapter.
