~ Curious Charlie ~

The Night Market @ Queen Victoria Market @ Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Charlie dined as a guest of the market.
Wednesday 7th December

The first week-ish of summer, after a one day preview a couple weeks ago. With longer warmer days comes Queen Victoria Market's Summer Night Markets! Wednesday Nights 5-10pm.

A quick note - Unlike the last couple food festivals where it was card only, this market is mainly cash only! Yes there are atms, but only ANZ/Westpac, and the event atms, there will be fees.

We've been to the Winter Markets (link) but it's much smaller than this! There were three long lanes of stalls, and massive crowds.

There's a coconut stall ($6). After you finish drink it they offer to cut it in half and scooping out the flesh for you! It was pretty awesome too - I've never seen a stall that does that, and we've pretty much being to all the festivals. You can drink your coconut and eat it too!

Snacks & Entree

Spoilt for choice there were so many different cuisines and things to try! The only thing I didn't see was a yum cha bar and deep fried bananas, there was even a deli that offered custom baguette and sandwiches!

So many stalls... what to eat? This is the most crowded event I've ever been to (well second, white night was the craziest), and so getting through the crowds took a while to check out all the menu. So here they are - the majority of them. This is for snacks and entree, scroll down to see main and dessert menus.

You're looking at $12+ a dish, and you'll probably have three. Best to bring friends and share everything. Also bring wet wipes.

Near the entrance we saw Cave Feast with their turkey drumsticks!! Looks like something Asterix the Gaul and his friend Obelix would eat! I love the cave man theme!

Pimms was the drink of choice tonight by the crowd, though we like to go for what is rare and hard to find. Sugar cane juice or fresh coconut from a coconut? Both are $6.

At $6 for a cup of sugar cane juice with 25% ice that's pretty good. You could get a bit of extra coconut milk, passionfruit or two other flavours to go with it. We went with coconut though it didn't really taste different.

Main Menus

Slow cooked marinated lamb with feta, lots of lettuce,

and a piece of garlic bread. With a garlicy yoghurt sauce. $15

What did we eat? Well Wonderbao looked interesting , but their "burgers" were more like sliders and chips were a filler. Though I still love baos.

We went right to the back (of the market, middle column) for souvlakis. There's no menu as they only offer one thing - less carby lamb souvlakis at $15, served in a cone. While the lines were long they went pretty fast.

How was it? Delicious! Succulent and juicy, only one piece was too chewy. The top of the cone contained the lamb, and the bottom the lettuce and caramelized onion. So pretty much you ate all the meat then the salad. Great presentation but not so practical. A platter would have better idea, also more feta with the lettuce.

If you're castaphobic this is your worst night. The combo of bbq smoke, a roof and the crowds, along with potentially being little. Nope. But if you arrive slightly before the market starts it'll be ok.

With not enough seats there were plenty of people sitting on the ground, all paved, there isn't any grass around here. I would have liked to have seen a fake grassy area with white picket fences.

As well as food stalls there were stalls that sold things they made, clothing, accessories, homewares and decorative stuff! It was your one stop for Christmas shopping and dinner!

I just looking at this shop on the main street outside the market, the tram goes past it. So much stuff.. how does visual merchandising go about this?

Dessert. Takis Balls, Apples, Egg Waffles or Pavlova? Those were the best sellers for desserts. I've been eyeing that pavlova since winter and so couldn't resist!

Last time we had the takis balls, deep fried oreos and milkshakes (link).

Black Forest Pavlova $12

It's so perfect... we stared in awe of that magnificent structure. Did it deliver? In flavours yes, but like a drum it was a bit hollow on the inside. Quite airy, served with cherries and cream. I prefer the denser more marshmellowy version at our favouite cafe, the Green Refectory. Being a sorta festival it was $12 though worth about $8, with the hollow-ness.

Jas was stuck at work and couldn't make it so we bought some macarons from 'Macaron de Paris'. They were jumbo size! $3 Though unfortunately were a dud, being crunch and hollow. Almost like factory made cupcake bad, or lindt on a bad day. If they fell they'd shatter like a porcelain doll.

Pretty much every cuisine that cooks on the spot was covered except Vietnamese (I'd love to see those mini yellow pancakes!), jap, mexican and korean. I would love to haven see a deep fried banana stall (Vietnamese). With the ones that use lots of rice you'd need crazy rice cookers, perhaps that's why we didn't see Japanese curries and broken rice dishes.

We had a great time, it was crazy busy. Our advice? Come early, and bring cash. Also wet wipes, you'll need those. Next time we'll be getting the giant turkey drumstick, paella, coconut and mango! We'll also be there at 4.45pm.

With Christmas less than a week away now's the perfect time to pick up those last minute gifts, and grab a bite at the same time! Each week at the market there's a different theme and live music to help you celebrate the festival season!

Come up to the market this Wednesday 21 December 2016 to celebrates the last Night Market for 2016 with a Christmas theme! Santa will be roving the Market from 5:00pm with his elves looking to take the ultimate Christmas ‘selfie.’

The market is open longer this week than any other week with a Christmas Festival on this Friday 23 December. And for the first time in the Market’s 138-year history, it will be open until 9:00pm!

Join us for The Night Markets at the Queen Victoria Market from 5:00pm– 10:00pm. Every Wednesday from 16 November 2016 – 8 March 2017. Excluding 28 December 2016.

Parking: $10 event parking from 4.30pm – 11pm, though we highly recommend taking the Elizabeth tram, any tram on that street, one stop up from Melbourne Central.