Queen Victoria Market Food Tour Review

Do you want to take a food tour in Melbourne, and are considering the Queen Victoria Market food tour?

Queen Victoria Market offers a 2-hour food tour.

Located in Melbourne, Queen Victoria Market has been open since 1878. It is the largest open-air market in the Southern Hemisphere.

Currently, there is a meat and fish hall, a dairy and produce hall, fruit and veggies, and a food court inside Queen Victoria Market. Outside, there are fruit and veggie stalls, shops, and restaurant stalls undercover.

I joined the Queen Victoria Market Foodie Tour with my 8-year-old daughter, who hadn’t been on a food tour since she was a baby.

Keep reading to find out how to join the Queen Victoria Market food tour and what to expect once you are on the tour.

General Information

Tickets must be purchased in advance. If the date you are looking at is low on tickets or sold out, check back as tickets open up closer to the tour date.

There weren’t tickets available when I first checked. Checking back a few days before the tour, I saw 4 tickets had opened up. There is a maximum of 10 people on each tour.

Queen Victoria Market Foodie Tours run on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 am to 12 pm.

Kids are welcome on the food tours. Kids 5+ have a discounted ticket price, and those 0-4 are free.

I took my 8-year-old, who was a great age for the food tour. We decided not to bring the 6-year-old. I feel, for my family, that bringing the kids as babies would be okay, but I wouldn’t want to be on a food tour with my kids as toddlers.

The tour involves standing for the entire 2 hours, which would be hard with younger kids. The market can get crowded as well.

Joining the Tour

The Queen Victoria Market food tour begins at the Information Booth. If you are not familiar with Queen Victoria Market, get there early!

The market is extremely large. Even though we visited the market just 2 weeks before our tour, we were dropped off at the other end and had difficulty finding information.

We actually missed the introductions and arrived about 10 minutes late. The tour guide called to see if we needed help finding the tour.

When we arrived, we were each handed a canvas bag with Queen Victoria Market written on it. Inside the bag were a paper plate, wooden utensils, a $5 voucher to use at any stall in the market, and a voucher for a free coffee, tea, or hot chocolate at a variety of vendors.

Inside the Meat and Fish Hall

The first stop on the tour was the meat and fish hall, where we learned about the various vendors. The tour focuses on a few vendors, generally family-owned businesses. They give information on many of the stalls, even ones where there aren’t tastings.

I was a little worried as I don’t eat a lot of meat, and there was no information on the types of tastings in advance.

We stopped in front of a stall and learned about offal. I was happy not to be offered a taste.

After a few stops in the meat hall, it was time for our first tasting. Our first tasting was smoked salmon.

I love smoked salmon, as does my 8-year-old. She was thrilled for the first tasting. Not only did she eat her sample, but she also ate the samples from those who did not wish to try the smoked salmon.

Tasting #2 was pepper kangaroo and chicken sausages.

While I don’t eat kangaroo, I can understand it being offered, and it is a good place for visitors to be able to try a sample. We have lived in Australia for a year and a half, and my daughter had not yet tried kangaroo.

She enjoyed the kangaroo and ate my piece as well, plus the pieces of those who did not wish to try it. She did skip the chicken sausage, which I ate and enjoyed.

Inside the Dairy and Produce Hall

This hall smells a lot better than the meat and fish hall! It does look generally the same, as both of the halls are indoors and made up of various stalls on the sides and in the center of the room.

Queen Victoria Market is usually a busy place, and it was exceptionally busy as it was a holiday weekend.

Tasting #3 was a mezze platter where we tried sundried tomato-stuffed olives, tzatziki on bread, and stuffed grape leaves.

There was more than one serving of each item, so everyone was able to eat basically as much as they wanted. We got way more bread than we needed, and someone (in this case, my daughter) got to take it home. The bread was the only leftover item during the entire tour.

We sampled 3 types of cheese, a quince paste, and crackers on tasting #4. They were all delicious, and there were enough samples for each of us to have another taste of our favorite if we wanted to.

Desserts on the Queen Victoria Market Food Tour

Our first dessert, and my favorite, was chocolate croissants from inside the food hall. There are chocolate shops and desserts both inside and outside Queen Victoria Market.

We each received half of a very large chocolate croissant on tasting #5. This croissant is probably the best I have ever had.

We continued to walk to various stalls and learn about their businesses before moving outside to the Fruit and Vegetable and Organics aisles.

There is a booth with a large variety of wine, limoncello, and other items. We were able to sample whichever drinks we wished at tasting #6.

Tasting #7 was vegan chocolate. We learned how to properly taste chocolate, learned about their particular type of chocolate, and where it comes from.

The last stop on the Queen Victoria Market food tour was at a gelato shop where we learned about their family business and how they chose to set up at the market in order to be close to the amazing produce to use in their gelato. We each got to taste the mandarin gelato, as it is their new seasonal flavor, before picking out a flavor for a full-size serving.

With gelatos in hand, we found seats under the awning by the specialty shops, and that is where the tour ended.

Queen Victoria Market Food Tour Wrap-Up

I am not sure how often the food changes on the Queen Victoria Market foodie tour, but we were very happy with the items that were chosen for us.

Though I was a little bit worried about my 8-year-old, this tour was perfect for her. It is short enough to keep her attention, and we never went too long without a food sample. The only things she didn’t try were the chicken sausage and stuffed grape leaves, both of which she has tried before. There were other options for her at both stops. Of course, she did not try the alcohol.

They recommend bringing a bottle of water, and we are glad that we did. Everything else is provided.

We were not able to go on our market tour until the last day of our vacation, so I gave away one of the free coffee cards to a member of our group who was staying longer.

Each kid got a $5 voucher to spend, and they bought toys. I was hoping for food, but by the end of the tour, we were in the specialty shops right next to a toy booth.

The amount of food is definitely enough for lunch. We had a small breakfast early in the morning. I was full by the end and unable to finish my gelato. It didn’t seem like anyone else had an issue finishing theirs, especially not my daughter, who ate hers and then mine.

You don’t cover much distance on the food tour, but since you are standing the entire time, it is important to wear comfortable shoes and not carry too much. I brought a backpack for our water bottles, and some guests brought ice packs to purchase items.

Some items, like the chocolate, are easy to buy as we were at the tasting, while others, such as the meat and dairy items, are best bought at the end of the tour.

Additional Cooking Workshops and Food Tours in and around Queen Victoria Market

• BBQ Class at Queen Victoria Market
• Multicultural Food Tour at Melbourne Markets
• Melbourne Bites and Sites includes the Skydeck and a tram ride
• History and Donuts Walking Tour

Queen Victoria Market with Kids

For those with young kids who want to explore the markets without taking the tour (or want to do both), there is a passport for kids that can be picked up at Information by String Bean Alley.

Kids walk around the stalls looking for specific vendors. They need to get a stamp at each vendor and return the passport to Information for a prize.

We had some trouble finding places, but the information booth did not check their passports. The kids got to choose from chocolate hearts and a gift bag with a magnet and a greeting card inside.

Queen Victoria Market FAQ

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