Perth Night Noodle Markets
The first thing to realise is that the Night Noodle Markets are not really ‘noodle markets’ – there are 20+ stalls but most of them don’t sell noodles. The second thing is to be prepared for crowds and queues. The markets first opened on 18 March to kick off Eat Drink Perth 2015 and are on nightly until 29 March from 5pm on week nights and 4pm on weekends. Perth Cultural Centre has again sprung to life.
The stalls are split across three main sections in the Perth Cultural Centre, each with places to sit and eat your food, and each with a licensed (bar) area with security staff at the entrance(s). Central Square (next to the State Library) has the Yalumba Bar; Museum Plaza (next to the WA Museum) has the Thatcher Cider Orchard; Urban Orchard (next to the Art Gallery of WA) has Coopers Beer Garden. You can easily spend your time in just one section in a night; if you’re keen to experience it all, multiple visits may be needed. Of course, some stalls offer better value than others.
The most popular stall is one for carnivores, not noodleholics. Hoy Pinoy’s usual home is Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, where they do a roaring trade. They’ve been at Night Noodle Markets around Australia and have come to Perth to captivate us with the smoky aroma of their charcoal barbecues and the promise of traditional Filipino BBQ pork belly and chicken skewers. If you’re keen to try Hoy Pinoy, definitely get there early. This queue starts the minute the markets open and doesn’t let up all night. During the busiest time, it can take an hour or more to get to the front of the line. The Hoy Pinoy stall is at Central Square and is hard to miss.
I tasted Hoy Pinoy’s BBQ pork belly skewer at the launch of the Night Noodle Markets. The chunks of meat are glazed with sticky banana ketchup and there’s just the right amount of soft, glorious fat – this is belly, after all. It’s AU$12 for two skewers. You can add steamed rice with atchara (papaya pickle) for $3. 
The queue for Hoy Pinoy can be ridiculously long. 
Say hi to the OzHarvest team at the Perth Night Noodle Markets. They do great work rescuing surplus perishable food from all kinds of commercial organisations such as supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, wholesalers, food and veg markets and so on, delivering it to charities that provide assistance to people in need. Find out more at their stall and grab a Good Fortune cookie for a gold coin donation.
Say hi to OzHarvest team. 
SpanThai in Central Square has a Thai and Spanish menu with pad Thai, pad see ew, sticky rice with mango, and chicken & chorizo paella.
Cooking up another pan of paella at SpanThai.
Let’s do yum cha, Central Square. Choose any 6 yum cha items (chicken dim sim, BBQ pork bun, prawn and chive dumpling, har gow (prawn dumpling), vegetarian dumpling and vegetarian spring roll) for AU$15. Self-service sauce station on the left. 
Choose your yum cha – no pressure.
Serendipity Ice Cream in Central Square. Ice cream by the scoop flavours include Strawberry Jam, Death by Chocolate, Sticky Fig & Honeycomb and Salted Caramel Swirl. Tub flavours include Vanilla Bean, Japanese Green Tea, and Black Sesame.
Low Key Chow House, Central Square. Their menu includes pork mantou buns, Nyonya chicken curry with rice and roti, Chow’s nuts (candied peanuts, chilli and ikan bilis) and Vietnamese iced coffee. 
From Low Key Chow House: chewy mantou buns with pork two ways (slow-cooked and crispy), crunchy chilli coriander slaw and Low Key’s caramel sauce (AU$7 one bun, $12 two buns) – fantastic snacks. 
The Yalumba Festival Garden next to PICA in Central Square makes excellent use of the available space with a 12-metre sea container that has been been fitted with undercover seating and a staircase to a rooftop deck.
The steps provide ample seating for punters at Central Square. 
Museum Plaza is wonderfully festive after dark with coloured lights and paper lanterns hanging from the trees. 
Teppanyaki Specialist – noodles cooked on the teppanyaki with chicken, beef or cheese. They also sell teriyaki chicken ‘fantasticks’ (more meat in skewers!).
Teppanyaki fried riceMy dinner came from Mei, Suresh and the team from Turban Chopsticks in Museum Plaza.
Potato ricotta koftas with butter curry and mini naan bread (AU$10), Asian noodle salad (with crispy tofu, rice noodles, fresh herbs and sesame dressing) and lychee lime and mint drink (AU$5) from Turban Chopsticks. Love those mini naan breads dipped in the curry. 
A cup of refreshing ice kacang (with red beans, creamed corn, coconut jelly, grass jelly and lychees topped with shaved ice and pandan rose syrup, AU$8) from Turban Chopsticks. Make sure you dig your spoon all the way through to the bottom to reach the red beans and creamed corn. 
It’s not just meat on sticks at these markets! In Museum Plaza is Waffle on a Stick (flavours include maple & sesame, warm Nutella, melted chocolate and caramel & lychee). Next door is Fu Manchu (menu includes Portuguese chicken rice, crispy skin dumplings and curry puffs). 
There is a decent amount of seating available (tables, chairs, benches and lawn) in Museum Plaza.
Thatchers Cider Orchard in Museum Plaza. This beer garden wasn’t as well lit as the others (Coopers and Yalumba). 
In the Urban Orchard, Pasar Malam’s menu includes Nyonya chicken lollipops, crispy chicken skins, chilli soft shell crab, sweet potato balls and lychee longan drink.
The Urban Orchard has a vibrant atmosphere but to me was the most congested of the three main sections of the markets. The walkways around the stalls are narrower than in the Central Square and Museum Plaza, though this shouldn’t put you off checking out the Urban Orchard. 
Urban Orchard
Lucky Chan’s Laundry & Noodle Bar, Perth’s first crowd-funded restaurant, sells its signature ramen and a selection of bao (pulled pork, panko-crumbed chicken and fried tofu). 
Shallot Thai’s menu includes red, green and mango chicken curries and massaman beef curry, all served with rice, and banana fritters.
Coopers Beer Garden has timber decking, tables made from converted barrels and views of our city skyscrapers. 
The giant Lucky CatWith any public event, it’s never merely a question of having enough space; it’s also about how well that space is used, and how the punters respond. Although the Night Noodle Markets have been run over east, this is the first time they’ve come to the Perth Cultural Centre, so no doubt there will be lessons learned. From my observations and own experience at the markets, talking with friends and fellow food lovers, and watching the chatter on social media, I think the Night Noodle Markets have been very well received by Perth. They’ve really brought a great vibe to a space that to many is just a thoroughfare on most nights.
Hawker market city
Don’t forget the original Twilight Hawkers Market, still going strong in Forrest Place on Friday nights until 24 April 2015, with 40+ stalls including some of Perth’s best family-run street food stalls. In fact, Friday may be the best hawker food market night if you’re thinking of going into the city after work. If the queues at the Night Noodle Markets prove too much, you can still grab dinner at the Twilight Hawkers Market.
Special events at the Twilight Hawkers Market during Eat Drink Perth
- Pop-up Dessert Garden
- Friday 27 March – meet celebrity chefs Adriano Zumbo, Sean Presland and Matt Stone
And it’s not just Perth city that has all the cool things – there are hawker food markets around the suburbs too – Maylands (Saturday nights), Victoria Park (Friday nights), Guildford (last Friday of the month), Inglewood (Monday nights) are just some examples.
Perth Night Noodle Markets
18 to 29 March 2015
(Mostly) Asian-themed 20+ stalls including 3 popup bars in the Perth Cultural Centre
Monday and Tuesday: 5pm to 9pm
Wednesday: 5pm to 10pm
Thursday and Friday: 5pm to 11pm
Saturday: 4pm to 10pm
Sunday: 4pm to 9pm
Cash only (no EFTPOS)
More info
- Perth Night Noodle Markets map showing entry/exit points and toilets
- Get a sneak peek at some of the stall menus
- Perth Night Noodle Markets FAQs
The Perth Night Noodle Markets are part of the Eat Drink Perth festival, which runs from 18 March to 24 April 2015 in the City of Perth.
Night Noodle Markets are held as part of Good Food Month in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra.