Hawker 88 Night Market QVM Melbourne

As someone who ate hawker food almost every day while living in Singapore, it’s a given that I ought to visit Hawker 88 Night Market in QVM, which spanned only two Wednesdays this month.

I have been to QVM plenty of times, usually for either the Winter or Summer Night Market and recently for the Ultimate Foodie Tour, so I had some expectations of what Hawker 88 would be like.

Unfortunately, my expectations weren’t met this time.

The make-shift market was built on the same ground as the other night market but covered only half the area. It’s as if they were expecting a smaller crowd compared to other events, which is weird because Asian life revolves around food. Or, wait, is it just mine?

Also, the 88 in “Hawker 88 Night Market” made me assume there would be 88 stalls, at least. It’s not even close to half of that. It’s just one row of hawker food, maybe 12 stalls in total? Which was another disappointment.

In one stroll, I noted down a few interesting hawker stalls, such as Indonesian Indomie, Thai with Mango sticky rice on the menu, the viral Korean fries thingy, and a Filipino stall. But no Indian. Why not?

There were also non-food stalls. The most noteworthy one is the arcade, which couldn’t have been more Asian. There were dragon lamps and a live band. Other than that, there were Chinese-style wall decorations, crystals, amulets, and a henna stall that looked dead AF.

I spent a good two hours there, eating Indomie, and not because it was tempting, but merely out of curiosity (it wasn’t good) and to support the Indonesian stall (they didn’t seem to understand my Bahasa, though, so I had to revert to English when placing my order).

Would I go again? Yes, if it’s with friends, to reminisce about our Asian food saga. Also, since this was my first visit to Hawker 88 Night Market, I want to give it another chance to do it better, bigger, and more varied next year; they might even have Indian food.

Should you go? Maybe, if you are keen on trying the hawker food that you’ve never tried before. But living in Melbourne, the capital city of food culture, you wouldn’t miss much if you skipped it. You can still get better Asian food at many Asian restaurants here.

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