Covent Garden Night Market

In my opinion Covent Garden is usually a fairly hellish tourist trap.

Being a born and bred Londoner, I have tried to avoid the area for as long as I can remember. It tends to be full of annoying fire-eaters, bad mime artists, novelty gifts and hoards of Euro-tweens with bright ruck-sacks.

But...it is a beautiful area and filled with incredible history. It began as a Convent Garden in the  early 13th century under the reign of King John and after the dissolution of the monasteries, became a market. In the time of Samuel Pepys not only was it known as "the larder of London," it was the most important market in the whole country.

In an attempt to move Covent Garden back to its gastronomic heritage, a foodie Night Market is running every Thursday through August. It's great. I went last week with my dad and Francois - between us we managed to eat a vast quantity of wonderful food (Cornish oysters, Ghanaian chicken stew, green chili beef, Burnt Sugar fudge and Vietnamese coffee) and purchased lots more to take home with us, including more french cheese than we could carry.

If only Covent Garden could shift full-time into a foodie heaven like this, I think that it would connect again to the needs of real Londoners not just the needs of Euro-tweens.

Those smart folks over at The Pirate Geek are behind the PR which has been fantastic, everyone I know is talking about it and the press coverage was been amazing.

Comments

[Ca Phe Vietnam]

I saw your blog so put in a comment

We are involved in the Covent Garden Night Market with our business Ca Phe Vietnam. But are not in a very central location so you may have missed us!
We run a very successful SAIGON STREET CAFE at Broadway Market on Saturdays. We do not compromise to western tastes and serve real Vietnamese Coffee in the UKs first VN street cafe. - squatting on low tables & stools.
Prices range from 1.00 - 2.00 for triple strength coffees, we also serve Banh Cuon, Banh Bao, Sticky rice and other homemade delicacies see

http://www.caphevn.co.uk

We are the first people to attempt to sell VN coffee here -
we are independent & have all our products made at source in Dak Lak & Lam Dong by small producers.It is going very well for us
but challenging to pioneer VN coffee as no one has heard of it here, & the coffee industry here is fiercely anti VN because of the Robusta scandal of a while back. The domestic gourmet coffee is fantastic, and the antidote to boring corporate cappucino !
We also have an exciting range of fine teas - including the cult fav Artichoke Tea!!

[Fran Woodham]

Caphe VN is well worth a visit. Covent Garden night market needs the ethnic diversilty of a Vietnamese street cafe to avoid seeming too precious. The super strong coffee keeps you going for the rest of the night so try a little green tea as a chaser!