I've upgraded City Hall to level 17 (5 more stars to 18) and I've only got 3 department stores.
I've also put most of my homes into Brownstones and Luxury Appartments and laid them out with swimming pools and playgrounds.
As for looking like a real city, this game's quite limited in that you'd have to rapidly build up your city before rearranging everything to make it look like a real city. []