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Vancouver Chinatown Night Market
Categories: Shopping Food Specialty Food Shopping, Specialty Food [Edit]
Keefer St & Main StVancouver, BC V6A
Neighbourhoods: Chinatown, Strathcona
(604) 682-8998
- Hours:
Fri-Sun 6:30 pm - 11 pm
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- No
- Parking:
- Street
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
18 reviews for Vancouver Chinatown Night Market
18 reviews in English
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Review from Mathieu Y.
Vancouver, BC
7/24/2010
As an entire block of novelty items and one of a kind street fare food, the chinatown night market will entertain you for at least half an hour.
Shirts that go bump in the night, knock off converse that shine in light, LED strobe Kanye frames, wooden puzzles, poorly translated board games? All here, and more. Bad talent shows, weird donuts, old DVDs, assorted electronics, hilariously ugly coin purse wallets made of little beads...
You'll have fun if you like shopping for knick knacks. You'll be disappointed if you assume this is going to be a magical street market where you'll find anything actually useful... except for those spiffy electric fly swatters. Woo -
Review from Johnson C.
Vancouver, BC
7/8/2011
"So maybe I'll see you there
We can forget all our troubles, forget all our cares
So go Chinatown, things'll be great when you're
Chinatown - don't wait a minute for
Chinatown - everything's waiting for you"
Chinatown Night Market. Woof.
Don't come here expecting the food options or the vibe you get Richmond Night Market. It's one city block fair. Kinda sad because it used to be a 4-block grid at it's peak and killing it. Chinatown lost to Richmond in the night market wars. Motherfucking Richmond, Seriously.
The good:
- much easier to find free/cheap parking nearby
- less claustrophobic and no lines
- no crossing any bridges/tunnels to go to Chinatown
- you can find more 'authentic' (in my view anyways) Chinese night market wares here - cell phone accessories? Check. Shitty plastic toys? Check. Semi knockoff wallets? Check. Nonsense Engrish shirts, airbrushed wolf shirts and random hoodies from Colorado U? Motherfuckin' check!
The bad:
- much fewer food options and turnover is much slower. A dead street food stall is pretty much food poisoning waiting to happen.
- crowd is pretty much Chinese grandmas and grandpas trying to entertain themselves until the sweet embrace of death.
- not 'yeet lau' enough - you Cantonese speakers know what I mean.
Overall, seems like you only come here if the Richmond night market crowds scare you or you can't be bothered to drag your ass to Richmond and fight the crowds and parking.Listed in: East Van Life
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Review from Mark H.
7/18/2011 2 Check-ins Here
I've never been to the Richmond night market (I know wtf is wrong with me), so this review may be 1 star too generous.
Being small enough to be a drive-by market, you can walk through it in a minute easily. You got your selection of random Chinese crap to put it nicely. But hey if you're looking for sexy pair of granny panties you're in luck!
I tried some bbq stuff which was ok, but memorable discovery was wheel cakes. Specially nutella filled wheel cakes. $1 doesn't buy you much these days (except for McD's ice coffees), but when you eat these fresh off the wheel, you'll be happy. At least I was. -
Review from Lani H.
7/31/2011 1 Check-in Here
I enjoyed the street food, I tried the fried potato on a stick, the "little egg" waffles, and the fish balls - all very tasty.
The folks singing Karaoke at the end of the street is both embarrassing and heart warming. I like it. -
Review from Gary E.
8/19/2010 10 photos
We heard all about the street food here so it was on!
The Vancouver Chinatown Night Market had a number of food vendors that served up some good lookin' and interesting Asian delights for cheap. In addition, this place was like a flea market of sorts. Some booths offered discounted leather goods, toys, jewelry, clothes and others sold unique products and so on.
Even though there were no tables and chairs around, we hit the sidewalk and indulged in some dim sum, chow mein, fishballs and barbecued lamb, chicken and pork on a stick yummy! http://media3.px.yelpc...
We also got 5 for 20 dollar t-shirts and even a snazzy little doggie outfit for April for just five bucks.
I've been to Los Angeles and of course San Francisco's Chinatown. I'm so happy to add Vancouver's C-Town to my visited list.
Xie Xie... -
Review from Ed U.
Gosh, I didn't know the Chinatown in Vancouver was the largest in North America after San Francisco's. That should be reason enough to come to this small-scale summer night market in this neighborhood, but the event is frankly quite skimpy compared to the expansive night market in nearby Richmond. And yet it still has certain charms that make it a worthwhile stop for a passing tourist with a love for Asiatic tschotsckes, preferably the plastic kind.
Running on Keefer Street between Main and Columbia Streets, it's your usual array of street food and flea market wares amid the crowds that course along the central roadway. It ends in Chinatown Plaza where you can take in quite an amateur talent show complete with offkey singing, bouquets of congratulatory flowers, and rivers of tears...mostly from the enraptured audience. Someday I'll be up there... someday.
However, if you're in the mood for tornado potatoes or red bean custard cakes, you're in luck. Bobbleheads and tabletop fountains? No problem as they are easy to buy as well. Oh wait, it's time for me to sing "Slow Boat to China". Hey, why is everyone booing me? See my photos in the gallery to get a real flavor of this weekend event, and make sure to bring some earplugs. Darling, I'd love to get you... on a slow boat to China... all to myself alone.Listed in: Vancouver, Victoria, Veni,…
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Review from Kymberli C.
I actually thought the Chinatown Night Market was a lot more pleasant than the Richmond one. It is small, only about one block long... but it has everything the Richmond one had in a nutshell! It wasn't crowded at all and there were no lines for the food.
Listed in: Vancouver in 1.5 days...
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Review from Katie F.
7/26/2009
Wow, this market's tiny!
I don't trek into Chinatown that often since I think the best Chinese has migrated to Richmond. Ended up here this weekend since it was well after hours and all the bakeries were closed, but my out-of-town friend was totally craving some sort of Chinese dessert... my dessert cravings equal chocolate, so the night market was the only place I could think of that might fix the craving in this area.
As mentioned, this one is tiny. A variety of food places with some warm dough type things, grilled corn and meats, dim sum type items interspersed with music and clothing and accessories in tents.
I wouldn't make a trip to come out to see this one (if this is what you want to do, definitely make the trip to Richmond instead - downside to that one is the $5 parking fee whereas this one has tons of free street parking after 8pm).
A-OK but nothing to write home about... only to write on yelp about ;) -
Review from Roanna Z.
8/31/2010
We're not much for night activities so we got super lucky driving past Keefer Street when I spotted this small night market.
I had just been saying how I've not been to the giant Richmond night market and lamenting on how far it was as the Vancouver Chinatown market came into view!
At the market you'll find interesting and great smelling snacks, and all the usual Items made in China, often sold in shops at marked up prices, available on this street for pennies!
I finally found my initials for a bling necklace I've been wanting. The man found a leather (or faux leather) case for his i-thingy lol, and there was one booth where we met an actual artist, Ken. a pro Chinatown cultural artist.
http://littleshopofhap... His one of a kind silk screens are printed on tee's and canvas. http://littleshopofhap...
We walked around dopey with culture shock, laughing and enjoying the crowd. Next week is the last chance for this year to catch this outdoor event. -
Review from pete d.
Vancouver, BC
6/8/2010
As a local - I'm a big fan of the nightmarket in Chinatown. The area can get pretty seedy at night - so the happy and vibrant night market is a welcome break from the drug zombie plagued ghost-town that would otherwise be Chinatown after dark.
There's a reasonable selection of decent street food, affordably priced and tasty (had some absolutely delicious radish cakes and meat on skewers for less than $10). There is some shopping - and while interesting to browse, nothing really cuaght my eye (well, except maybe for the sterling silver skull head sword cane - - WTF?)
All that said, unless you happen to be in the area - this really isn't a destination by itself. The Richmond market is definitely bigger and better - but hopefully, with some of the new businesses and condos opening up in Chinatown, the market will grow -
Review from Gavin J.
Surrey, BC
8/27/2011
**Chinatown Night Market was Great!**
-Way Less crowds than Richmond much easier to shop and buy food from the stalls
-Paid only $3.50 for all night parking which was great since we stayed downtown for drinks afterwards
-Food was great not much great stuff to buy. Our favorite booth was the one near the stage with all the light up toys and inflatable chairs! They have this awesome laser light machine thingy which was great fun!
All in all a great little walk down Chinatown fun to see all the shops and booths. The Lion Dance here last night was much better entertainment than Richmond bad karoke. -
Review from Nancy C.
8/11/2011
Pretty small and not very packed. Not much food to choose from, and the Chinese singing was just unpleasant. At least I happened to score some free parking by someone who left an extra hour on the parking meter. If you want the real deal, go to Richmond!
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Review from Eugene G.
6/1/2010
This place is not very big, but it is short and sweet. I spent about an hour walking around, exploring, people watching, and eating food. I enjoyed myself for the whole hour. Even the karaoke was fun even though some of the people were awful. It is nice to see people enjoying themselves singing their hearts out even if my ears were hurting.
I tried the egg puff the original and chocolate, I suggest sticking with the original. The bubble tea was okay, one of our friends thought it wasn't that good.
If I didn't want to go to the richmond night market, I could see myself just going to this one as an excuse to get into the city. -
Review from Chloë E.
Vancouver, BC
12/5/2008
We visited the Chinatown Night Market after the Richmond Market. And wow, was it a let down.
The stalls string out along Keefer St. between Main and Columbia. There are all the classic items you'd expect to find at a night market: cheap-looking jewelry, scarves, socks, underwear, lucky bamboo, hats, belts, sunglasses, movies, music... I suppose the list will be really long if I continue on.
But despite the broad variety of the Chinatown market, there isn't much volume from which to chose. The trump card, however, is that this market is located in historic Chinatown. So while the surroundings are pretty to pause and sample from the food vendors, for serious shopping head to RIchmond instead. -
Review from Joe L.
Vancouver, BC
9/9/2009
This will be a short and unsweet post because it is not worth a visit and there's nothing really worth talking about. As much as it is advertised to the locals and tourists, the whole market is just about one city block. Food on one side and cheap merchandise on the other. We walked through it less than 5 minutes. It's absolutely not worth the cost of gas or public transit to get there unless you have a Farecard, you live around there and you have nothing to do and want to kill a few minutes.
To my opinion, it should not be allowed to be advertised to tourists because it is an embarrassment and I don't want tourists to have an impression of that's what Vancouver has to offer despite the hype of its advertisement. It is certainly not an attraction.
Go to the one in Richmond which I gave it 4 stars. -
Review from Eva B.
5/25/2011
The only reason I go here is to take 'out of towners' when I'm to lazy to drive to the Richmond Night Market. I honestly hope that this market grows and improves. If it did I would likely go a lot more frequently.
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Review from Wing M.
8/10/2009 2 photos
Definitely a pretty good market food-wise. Lots of delicious, authentic, cheap food. The folks are all very friendly and invited us under their tents when it started to rain. The shopping isn't all that great but the food more than made up for it.
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Review from vidhu t.
6/2/2010 1 photo
When i entered chinatown ...everything was seemed to be closed for the day and was very empty. However i kept walking thinking i had not yet hit the actual chinatown...I saw the night market and wanted to explore it. The stalls were being put and few vendors were still settling in. I saw a few police officers stationed too and was a gr8 relief for a tourist like me.Well coming back to the market...Me and my husband totally enjoyed the 1hr plus that we spent there....there were about 8-10 food vendors and we tried some new delicacies. I had the potato tornado which was sooo pretty and tasted good. The dumplings were ok-ok. I did not enjoy the Hot pot much...but the cold noodles at the hot pot stand were real yum ...spicy n flavorful and the lady at this stall was so sweet to us while we took our own time to decide.
Coming to the shopping here ...its nice to just walk n check a few things. Found some nice jewelery vendors at the very end of the market. $1 earing gave me some cheap thrill !!
Also there were some performers and a singing group who were quite a noise ...(not 'coz i did not understand the language) but i should mention that they were sooo enthusiastic n were having a great time.
Overall a good experience n I came out happy eating some street food. !!
