The South Melbourne Night market is back for 2018 and it started off with a bang tonight!
The event runs every Thursday night from the 4th January to the 22nd February from 5.30pm.
Olive at the South Melbourne Night Market
We have been the past few years and Ross made the call tonight that it would be the last time! I have to agree – let’s see if I remember next year!!
I love the event as I love the vibe of eating from food trucks and sitting outside but we just didn’t enjoy it this year because of the number of people – absolutely ridiculous. We arrived at 5.27pm and the few tables around were already full and queues were starting to form at the food trucks.
Yep, those crowds have put us off!
Crowds
We bought some calamari (which was delicious) and a serve of pork spring rolls (so so) while we waited for Ross who was coming on his bike from work and then had a look for our next course. We ended up at Ghost Kitchen for gua bao (Taiwanese burger) and a serve of sweet potato chips – which were delicious but not worth the $10 price tag.
Delicious calamari
I also wanted to try a Poke Bowl – the queue wasn’t too bad and the food came out really quickly (but the taste was a bit disappointing to be honest).
Will I ever have a meal without little fingers picking out the good bits?
Ross also tried some fried gnocchi (which is always amazing wherever we have it) but the queue there was crazy and the food took a really, really long time to be ready.
I took Olive to the toilet while he was waiting for the gnocchi and the crowds to get in and out of the middle of the market were just unbelievable – I would hate to see what would happen if people needed to evacuate in an emergency.
We were ready to go by 7pm but thought we’d have dessert – bad decision! The queue to order the Greek Doughnuts was quick but Ross was there waiting for them to be cooked and served for over ½ an hour. The kids were turning into little rat bags waiting!
Parking around the market is crazy at the best of times on market days. We always park over on or around Coventry Street and walk over. Parking was fine before 5.30 but there were people following us for our park when we left.
If we happen to go again then I will be feeding the kids before we go – they were starving and it wasn’t a cheap night out (for a market dinner) –
Calamari – $15
Spring Rolls – $14
Sweet Potato Chips – $10
Burger $12
Poke Bowl – $15
Gnocchi – $15
Doughnuts – $10
TOTAL – $91 – and I didn’t even see the bar to have a glass of wine!
Each week there is live music which adds to the vibe which I really like and there is a decent selection of food to choose from – I am sure everybody would find something they like – just be prepared to wait – those waiting for the BBQ meat truck were lining up for a very, very long time…
I also think there are some nice stalls set up in and around the market but you just couldn’t move to see anything! Last year we had a walk around and there were kids activities but given the crowds this year I am not sure what was on offer.
So, there you have it. I think we are done with the night market. I’ll be sad to not be going again but I just can’t deal with crowds like that!
For more information check out the website.
Cheers!
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