Night Markets are not worth the hype

The smell of burned meat and frying oil surrounds me as I walked through the Alameda fairground in Pleasanton. Overpriced food is advertised on every stand I pass. I ended up spending $30 on one drink and a bowl of fries — grossly overpriced for what they were.

As a person who loves food, I had been looking at going to a food market for a long time, but the farther locations, typically held in Pleasanton, made the trips harder to pull off. 

Night markets are generally an event held for people to discover new foods from trendy food trucks and restaurants. Honestly, at first glance, it looked like a dream: The market resembled all of the posts of super aesthetic food, which seemed like it tasted as good as it was plated. And many like me who love to try new Instagrammable foods are drawn into going through social media posts.

When I finally had the chance to go to the annual NorCal Night Market at the Alameda Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, I was really excited and made sure to do my research before going. I had looked at all the foods offered and made a list of which ones I wanted to try. The main ones were the lobster noodles, churro ice cream and french fries with hot cheetos and cheese on top. 

The long commute to the market was first to ruin my excitement. It took me nearly an hour to drive to Pleasanton on a Sunday. It was also raining that day, so the drive was even more complicated. 

The actual market was disappointing as well. In the pictures, it seemed organized and clean, but when I actually got in (after paying a $5 entry fee and $10 parking fee), the food section of the market was pretty messy. It didn’t look as nice as the pictures and instead looked like a really busy farmers’ markets with a lot of unhealthy food. It was also pretty hard to take instagram worthy pictures of the food since there was trash all over the ground, ruining the background. 

In the end, I bought a refillable drink in the shape of a baby bottle, churros (without the ice cream) and fries with cheese and cheetos on top. The food was pretty good, but it definitely didn’t live up to all the hype around the event. When I got to the market, it was only around 3 p.m., but most of the really popular foods like the fried chicken and macaroni in a waffle cone were already sold out. 

After going to the NorCal night market, I decided to give the Cupertino night market in Memorial Park a chance in hopes of having a better experience there. Unfortunately, it was pretty similar and just on a smaller scale than the NorCal one in Pleasanton. 

The lines at the Cupertino market were significantly longer though, since there were only around 10 to 15 vendors there, and most of them were local restaurants that I could’ve easily gone to on my own, like BonChon. The place was super crowded since it was a smaller location, but it was a lot more accessible because the park was only 15 minutes away from my house.

Going to a night market for the first time was a good experience to finally know if I was missing anything or not, but apart from the overpriced food and disappointing environment, I don’t think anyone who has never been to one is missing out. If you’re considering visiting a night market any time soon, I’d say save your money and spend it somewhere more worthwhile.