Is Hay Street Market worth it - Sydney Travel Guide

Premier Chris Minns will open the new food market at Paddy’s in Sydney on Wednesday.
It’s a foodie hub with multi-cultural fare and stalls from just about everywhere.
But some of the prices have already caused questions online.

We’re sitting at Little Midden in Hay Street Market, Sydney’s new foodie market in the middle of Paddy’s Market in Chinatown.

Beside us, a Malaysian lady and her Australian partner have just been served BBQ skull prawns with eucalyptus butter and desert lime aioli. She doesn’t look impressed.

For $14, she has just received two prawns and a small tub of dipping sauce. Her partner has popped over to the Greek stall for a souvlaki. It’s a smart move.

Little Midden is the latest enterprise by Mark Olive (aka ‘The Black Olive’), Australia’s renowned Indigenous chef with a global TV series called The Outback Cafe.

Little Midden at Hay Street Market — *BBQ skull prawns at $7 each (photo: Peter Lynch).*

His website says: “Opening Midden by Mark Olive at the Sydney Opera House on Tubowgule, Gadigal country, is a dream come true.”

“Mark Olive gives guests a real taste of our millennia-old history and maybe even inspire some of them to cook with our vibrant native Australian ingredients at home as well.”

He is doing great work to create Aboriginal food in the fine dining arena. He has a restaurant at the Opera House which serves high teas for $75, pre theatre dinners at $90 and grazing plates for $44. Given the venue, the prices represent good value.

It’s just what thousands of tourists from all over the world are looking for. An authentic Indigenous experience.

But back to Hay Street, a venture with Doltone Hospitality Group, we’re here to try the street fare. The food is good—but the online buzz is that prices are steep.

r/foodies_sydney AnorhiDemarche says on Reddit: “I assumed I would be able to go around and try all the cheap ($10 or less) options like I can at most markets if I look hard enough and do a little review of each. The only thing (not including deserts) I found for under $10 was skewers.

“This single chicken heart skewer is $6. Average at absolute best. Some of the more expensive options might be worth it (even under $15 there is not much options) but I was so disappointed I just gave up. And honestly with all of Chinatown just out the door, why wouldn’t you just leave?”

It’s a question that recurred on almost every channel. But was it fair?

We’d also come to try the food. We opt for the prawns, a serve of smoked blue gum barramundi and a bell pepper skewer with salt bush and pepper berry. It’s $16 for one skewer, but much better value than the prawns.

While the prawns were ok, the dip was a stand out. But once you had eaten your prawns there was nothing to dunk in it (yep – I thought about taking it home!).

The barramundi, on the other hand, was definitely a step above. Succulent, well-cooked and delicious with much more depth of flavour. Ok, sorry Mr Olive, I dipped mine in the eucalyptus butter. Yum!

Olive told our writer Amy Hughes on the evening before Hay St Market’s official opening: “We are targeting a market that is not very clued up an Aboriginal food, and having Midden at the Opera House has really showcased that [need] because people [from] all around the world are blown away by the food.”

That’s great. We feel this is a terrific opportunity to get real tourists to try Indigenous food.

Our suggestion: let’s look at the portions and make sure we are giving our guests real value.

What’s the best time to go to Hay St Market?

Between the Sydney Travel Guide team, we’ve visited Hay St Market three times since it opened on Wednesday, March 26. There’s still a lot of nuts and bolts for Doltone Hospitality to screw in, as they reveal the full market in stages, including the old bones of Paddy’s Market reimagined with modern providores and shops.

Was it busy? Was it ever!

Lunch seems to be the worst time to head down to Hay St Market. Which makes sense. It’s the “shiny new thing” in Sydney, and many people work and live around Haymarket and the CBD. It’s in a fantastic, iconic location that is also easily accessible for visitors, and the light rail now makes it infinitely easier to get from Sydney Opera House to Hay St Market in a matter of minutes.

What I found most surprising, however, was that not all the food vendors are made equal as of yet. Popularity is clearly biased towards the vendors that are more affordable and provide bigger serving sizes for the price. The best example of this is Madam Banh Mi, one of three stalls with involvement from Luke Nguyen, one of the two named chefs involved in the market, the other being Mike Olive with a condensed version of Midden.

Little Midden was closed when I went. Some of the stalls seem to be shut on Mondays and Tuesdays. Some of the other stalls were shuttered as well. But teething issues are to be expected.

Is the food at Hay St Market any good?

Madam Banh Mi undoubtedly drew the biggest queue with several banh mi options, including signature Bo Kho ($14) which translates the underrated Vietnamese beef stew into one of those densely-packed rolls. You get a generous heaping of wagyu brisket with salted cucumber, fresh coriander, pickled carrot and fish sauce with a side of light, salsa-like consommé. It’s not only delicious and large, but it’s one of the most affordable things that I could find in the market, with most dishes leaning more towards the $20 mark.

Nguyen was also involved in Pho Chu Lap, sitting just a few stalls from the banh mi spot with a focus on some of the chef’s family recipes. The Pho Tai Nam ($20) with raw beef and brisket sits in a light soup served in a large paper cup that’s double-cupped because of how hot it is. The service is fast and friendly and while the noodles and soup are tasty, the brisket is chewy rather than tender.

Dumplings at Hay St Market — **Left**: *The Singapore chilli crab dumplings ($12) from Luke Luke Dumplings (photo: Chris Singh).* **Right**: *The butter chicken ($19) from Curry House (photo: Chris Singh).*

More of Luke’s influences can be found at Luke Luke Dumplings. Most of the signatures were sold out by the time I got around to this stall but I did manage to try three pieces of Singapore chilli crab dumplings ($12). The dumplings themselves are wonderfully soft and packed full of flavour, but the chilli sambal that these pockets swim in lacks that punchy flavour you’d expect when reading “Singapore Crab” on a menu. Other options include Laksa Dumplings ($10 for 3), Peking Duk spring rolls ($18 for 3) and prawn and crab toast ($16).

The last thing my stomach could handle was some butter chicken ($19), hot and reasonable with a tonne of fluffy white rice on the side. The chicken itself was delicious but the butter chicken sauce, much like the sambal, lacked the richness people typically expect the Western-Indian favourite. A beautiful banana lassi ($6) is refreshing and sits on the tight menu alongside Malaysian beef rendang ($19) and yellow dahl ($19).

There aren’t too many dessert options aside from Scoop & Sons, where one scoop will set you back $7. The brand, a spin-off from the reliable Ciccone & Sons, offers interesting sorbets like guava, creamy coconut and ginger with orange, while also tracking across rich chocolate, vanilla, pistachio and buttermilk.

Our Verdict

It’s hard to piece apart just how Hay St Market will be received in the coming weeks when consumers are looking for value everywhere they go. It’s an exciting, necessary project that’s been bought to life in one of Sydney’s most iconic spaces. In the perfect location, nonetheless. There’s a gorgeously energetic atmosphere flowing through the space, boosted massively by several bars including a circular, European-style salumi bar near Little Midden and a bigger central bar with a great wine list, extensive beer selection and soft drinks.

I think one of most exciting features not many people are talking about is the fact that this is the first food hall in NSW that has secured a flexible liquor licence that allows guests to roam around with a drink in hand, so they can shop while sipping some wine. The fact that this is a big deal still tells us Sydney has a very long way to go before it steps up to Europe and the USA, but we’ve already seen red tape being shed all across the board.

Prices differ quite a bit, which isn’t much of a problem if you’re just popping by for a quick feed. You’d expect to pay $20 for lunch in Sydney in this current economical climate. But if you want to really tackle the market experience, grab a booth (you can reserve those lovely looking retro booths in the middle of the market) with some friends and sample from many different stalls, with drinks, then you’re looking at a costly night out. It’s a good thing that the atmosphere is electric and fun.