The best Mexican restaurant in town here is in a strip mall and we used to have a great Turkish restaurant in a strip mall. There also used to be a Chinese restaurant here in a strip mall that offered cool and unusual stuff like jellyfish as an appetizer (it’s kind of crunchy).
I’m just not sure what strip malls have to do with anything. You can make the atmosphere inside nice. If you’re super worried about people not enjoying the outside view, you can put curtains in front of the windows.