Coburg Night Market 2025

We love the Coburg Night Market every year in December.  It is a perfect way to welcome in the summer relaxing in the shade of the trees with good local food and local live music in good company with the option of catching up on Christmas shopping at the craft markets.   This year Sylvia went each day and I went two of the three days.  It is one of the many reasons to love Coburg!

 

On Sylvia's first evening (with her dad) there she went to Nohadra's Kitchen for the (vegan) Taste of Iraq mixed plate with 2 crispy falafels, 2 savoury Kuba Haleb (crispy rice balls with mushroom filling), 3 tender Dolma, zesty tabouli, fresh salad, tangy pickled turnip, soft flatbread, and tahini sauce (no spicy sauce for us).  She loved it and I had it on my second day and loved it as well.  I was pleased that Sylvia finally was singing the praises of dolma (vine leaf wrapped rice). So much good food in the plate.
 

 

Sylvia also had an earl grey matcha RYU which she rates very highly.  It is a gorgeous green colour.  She went back the next night for a fine blueberry matcha. -earl grey
 

Mela Patisserie, who have a cafe in the Pentridge shopping centre, had a stall of festive bakes: minced tarts, puddings, fruit cake and gingerbread.  The puddings were wrapped in gorgeous cloth with star and candy cane patterns.  Sylvia bought a tree shaped stack of gingerbread stars.  I was so curious about the DIY gingerbread house kit for $40, which you can see at the right of the photos.  I am sure it must be better than those dry supermarket versions.

We have always enjoyed the gorgeous smelling candles in tins at Leaf Candle Co (see a photo in my 2024 market post).  Their gingerbread candles smell so cosy and spicy.  This year they had darling little fabric oranments that had been stitched in great detail by the owner's mum.  You can see some of the little houses with the door, windows and garden stitched in them.  Sylvia could not resist buying one.

 

I went on the second night with a friend while Sylvia was also there with a friend.  It gave me time to look around a buy for her without her about.  We both love this stall with all the dainty ceramic houses by Fiona Howes.  It is one of those displays where I want to bring everything home even if I don't have any space for it.  Sadly I know that at home it is easy to take for granted what seems so exciting and gorgeous when browsing.

 

Another regular stall holder is Elvedee Design.  She makes gorgeous cards, tea towels and coasters with illustrations of local icons such as Pentridge, Bin Chicken Island and the Coburg Drive in.

A newcomer was Claire Mosley Art.  I really loved her local flora and fauna artwork.  She had a few different cards and tea towels with creatures from the Merri Creek.

Continuing in the theme of unique Australian artwork were the Dancing Grass designs on tea towels, table cloths and bags.  It is great to see so much creative reimagining of flora and fauna.  I was very tempted by the tea towels and bags.  

By the time Jo and I had browsed the craft stalls, were ready for dinner.  This was when we bumped into Sylvia who recommended the Lucy Oi rice paper rolls with caramelised tofu.  By then it was so crowded that it was impossible to walk up to a order dinner without waiting.  It was even hard to get to see all the options.  

So we joined the Lucy Oi queue while Sylvia and co went to find us a seat.  They even found us some bean bags!  We had lots to catch up on so before we knew we were seated with our fantastic rice paper rolls - I wish I could roll a rice paper roll that tightly with such delicious filling.

Jo's family joined us and it was a lovely listening to the mellow music of Miss Emilia and watching the crowd as a hot day turned to a pleasant evening.  The roving performers from Sanctum Studio passed us by with what was described online as the "Braxadragon – an incredible intergalactic specimen cultivated from cuttings collected on Planet Bird Colourful Jelly Sparkle".  Excitable kids followed the giant pink puppet on the wagon yelling "eat me" and screaming when it turned their way.  

 

When we decided we wanted ice cream, Sylvia went to Billy Van Creamy for a chocolate ice cream for me and Jo's kids got her a lemon sorbet in an lemon from Taste of Amalfi  local lemon sorbet.  Then we were all ready to go home as the daylight was waning and the lights were coming on.

Here's more of the stalls we browsed:

Top row: Fiona Howes, Maho's Drawing, Fiona Howes, 
Middle row: Mela Patisserie, Elvedee Design, Bumi Botanicals
Bottom Row: WOZWASTE (a spinny hanging made from recycled toothbrushes), Claire Mosley Art, Green Candle Co.
 

The next day I returned to the market with Sylvia soon after the market started at 12pm,  It was so quiet after the bustling previous night.  Not even any music had started.  It was warm enough that people were gathered under the shady trees. 

Being there early meant there were no queues for the food trucks.  Sylvia had her eye on the Spanish leek and seitan sausage from Artesanos Catering and I bought myself a Taste of Iraq mixed plate from Nohadra's Kitchen that Sylvia had had on her first visit (scroll up to the second top photo for more info).  The sausage was nice but not amazing.  After we left Sylvia read that Mr Baller's meatball subs had vegan versions.  I hope they are there next year because if they are, we will not assume they are all meat.

The standout dish of the market was the vegan mushroom bitterballen from the Amsterdam inspired Mokum.  This stall was run by the staff of the cafe of the same name in Brunswick.  I have meant to go there for ages.  The fritters were freshly fried with a crunchy outside and a creamy herby filling with field mushrooms.  I was so impressed I have finally visited the cafe since the market.  
 

We also bought some stuffed cookies from Oh My Crumbs.  They were huge so we took them home for later.  Sylvia got a gingerbread cookie and I had a Dubai chocolate cookie.  

Instead of the cookie, I had half an Alfojores from the Coburg Primary School bake sale which were sandy cookies sandwiched together by a lovely dulce de leche.   Walking on we were happy to have a slice of watermleon from the Greens political party.  

Also on the above photo collage are Vegan Tibetan momos from Chemi's Momo and rice paper rolls from Lucy Oi.

Then Sylvia and I had a quick look at some favourite stalls.  We stopped to admire the charming display at Bumi Botanicals.  The woman behind the counter was interested to hear that Sylvia still has a dream catcher that she bought at their stall 2 years ago.  She seemed pleased it had lasted.

 

I also stopped at Kujoberry to take a photos of their gorgeous colourful felt hair ties and purses 

We saw a few other memorable stalls that I didn't photograph.   I tasted some of the banksia honey at BadBees which was excellent.  The min mini dilly bags by Baljil Art were really lovely and I was sad they were not back on my second visit.  I heard someone say that there are people who buy the calendar of local pubs from Able And Game and each month they visit the pub on the calendar.  Sylvia was delighted that Loco for Cocoa was there again.  And I really love the local artwork of inner suburb icons on tea towels, stickers and jigsaws by Lawz Drawz.

We didn't stay long on Saturday but were still feeling warmed by the memories of the fine evening on Friday when we mooched on beanbags with the sun setting behind the large palm tree.  This market is a great tradition that I hope will last for a long time.

Read previous posts about my visits to the Coburg Night Market in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019,  2022, 2023 and 2024.

Coburg Night Market
Bridges Rd Reserve
Thursday 11 Dec - Saturday 13 Dec 2025
www.merri-bek.vic.gov.au/coburg-night-market
www.facebook.com/coburgnightmarket