Richmond Night Market 2013

The Richmond Night Market (not to be confused with the International Summer Night Market that is also in Richmond) runs from 7pm to midnight Fridays and Saturdays, and 6pm to 11pm on Sundays and holidays near the River Rock Casino and the Bridgeport Skytrain station.  This year, as the picture below alludes, their theme is “Magical Duck Island”.

While admission is free to seniors over 60 and children under 10, the regular folk have to pay $2 to gain entry.  The $10 Zoom pass is a good choice if you’re going with friends (or for multiple days) because you get 7 admissions and you can bypass the long line at the front gate.

There’s plenty of free parking if you go early… just follow the signs on No 3 Road to the big gravel lot next to the casino.

There are a ton of food stalls here.  Aside from the large presence of asian food stuffs, it reminds me a little bit like the PNE (there’s a mini donut stall, one that sells deep fried cheesecakes, and cotton candy).

The BBQ Duck Wrap seemed like a good idea in concept.  Who doesn’t like BBQ Duck?  But unlike being akin to Peking Duck, this item is wrapped in a deep fried filo pastry.  It was crunchy but there wasn’t much duck inside.  Fortunately, it was pretty cheap.

Since there were a ton of asian stalls, we picked up a combination of pot stickers, har gow, and siu mai.  They were okay… not as good as you’d get at a dim sum restaurant and, despite having steam rising from the container, weren’t very hot.

I think the best thing that I tried on this visit was from Georgio’s Pinoy BBQ which, I think, is related to the Georgio’s Cafe and Pizzeria in Burnaby.  I grabbed the Combo B which came with a bbq pork skewer and a plate of pancit bijon (rice noodles stir-fried with Chinese sausage and veggies).

They don’t just have junk food here (although there’s plenty of that if you’re looking for it).  You can get fresh juice like the watermelon juice that we picked up below.

Similar to the PNE and other fairs, there’s a number of shops that you can stroll through after you finish gorging yourself.

Suffice it to say, if you’re in the market for a smartphone case or cheap socks, this is the place for you.  As usual with most night markets, buyer beware with the quality of what you get here.

As I mentioned previously, this very much reminded me of a Chinese version of the PNE.  They even had those carnival games where you could win stuffed toys and a small “Monkey Ball” area (where you get stuffed inside an inflatable ball that floats on water).

There are way too many food stalls to go over in one post so take a look at the large number of other blog posts on UrbanSpoon if you want to get a feel for what else is offered here.

8351 River Road
Richmond, BC