About Jonker Street Night Market
Since 2010, Jonker Street Night Market in Melaka has been an icon of this historical city, offering a great night out for exploring the culinary delights, local handicrafts, and culture through its 450 and counting stalls.
Melaka’s Jonker Street Night Market operates on a three-day-a-week system on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
What’s interesting in Melaka’s Jonker Street Night market is that you will find food stalls offering classical Malaysian food, the local Nyonya cuisine, and the food of its most significant communities, the Chinese and Indian, and that of the neighboring country Thailand.
Read all about Melaka in our Melaka Ultimate Guide (19 Top Things To Do)
How much time is needed to visit Jonker Street Night Market?
Expect to spend between 2 and 4 hours at Jonker Street Night Market, depending on how many foods and drinks you try.
Does Jonker Street Night Market have an entrance fee?
There is no entrance fee for the Jonker Street Night Market in Melaka, and it’s free to enter for everyone.
Is Jonker Street Night Market expensive – are the prices inflated?
Jonker Street Night Market prices are about the same as they would usually be elsewhere and are not inflated.
We went all in at this night market. We ate quite a few things (papaya salad, veggie rolls, long potato, potato twister, candy). And we also had mango smoothies, coconut shakes, and herbal teas all in one night. And we spent maybe about $35 for both of us. So we’d say a good $10 per person would get you full and happy!
Some things might cost a tiny bit more, but that’s understandable since the sellers indeed have to pay some fee to be able to sell there. It’s more challenging and time-consuming to prepare things for selling at the market than in their “normal” setting.
Matej was selling plant seedlings on markets for many years and said to support the people and the local economy. Try all the foods you want and buy the things you like!
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Facilities at Melaka’s Jonker Street Night Market
The facilities at Jonker Night Market in Melaka include public toilets. Click here for the location of the public restrooms.
Unfortunately, the public toilets are not wheelchair accessible.
When is the Jonker Street Night Market open?
The Jonker Street Night Market in Melaka, Malaysia, is open on weekends, every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, from 6 pm to 12 pm.
Is Jonker Street Night Market open in 2024?
Jonker Street Night Market has been operating since 2010 and is still fully operational in 2024.
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What is the best time to visit Jonker Street Night Market?
The best time to visit Jonker Street Night Market is shortly after its opening, at around 6:30 pm, when all food options are available, as some limited items can get sold out.
For example, a lady had veggie rolls with only a limited number of fried ones which she premade at home. So you would have to come to her stand early to enjoy some. We only managed to do that on our last (3rd) visit, as we arrived at opening time.
How to get to Jonker Street Night Market
Jonker Street Night Market is held on Jalan Hang Jebat street and is easy to get to from the center of Melaka, as it’s right over the bridge from the Dutch (red) Square.
We always recommend everyone to stay in the center of Melaka because you can quickly get to the Jonker Street Night Market from the whole downtown. Still, suppose you’re booking accommodation a bit further out. In that case, we recommend booking a Grab car (like Uber) to get you to Jonker Street Night Market.
How to get to Jonker Street Night Market from Kuala Lumpur
Visiting Jonker Street Night Market from Kuala Lumpur for a weekend is easy as it takes just 2 hours to get there by car, bus, or train (150km).
We recommend coming to Melaka from Kuala Lumpur with a bus/van, as they’re super comfortable, and they drop you off at either your hotel or the central bus station.
On the other hand, you can also get to the Melaka train station from Kuala Lumpur by train in 2 hours. But as you arrive at the Batang Melaka train station, that’s actually a 1-hour drive away from central Melaka, it kind of doesn’t make much sense.
Klook.comUnfortunately, we couldn’t find any tours from Kuala Lumpur to Melaka that would include a visit to the Jonker Street Night Market. So it’s best to do it on your own, or if you join a full-day tour on the weekend, finish the tour there, and visit the night market, then stay overnight before returning to KL. Not the most convenient option, but hey, it works.
How to get to Jonker Street Night Market from Singapore
The best way to get to Melaka and the Jonker Street Night Market from Singapore is by bus in 4 hours for about $30.
What can I buy at Melaka’s Jonker Street Night Market?
Even though everyone (us included) focus mainly on the food at Jonker Street Night Market, you can also find an incredible range of other stalls with things like local handicraft, clothing, packaged snacks, herbs, spices, and teas, as well as jewelry, toys, and souvenirs. If you’re into tattoos, you can also get a temporary tattoo at one of the Henna stalls.
Best foods to eat at Jonker Street Night Market
We loved the food at Jonker Street Night Market, and some of the best things were definitely: Coconut Ice Cream, Durian puff, Papaya salad, fresh, pure Mango smoothies, and veggie rolls.
What’s interesting in Melaka is that they use their sugar called Gula Melaka, which is used in most, if not all, sugar-containing foods or drinks at the Jonker Street Night Market.
Tip: It’s quite hard to find a spot to sit down and eat whatever you just bought, so you can do as we did and just simply sit on the sidewalk. 🙂
Coconut Ice Cream
Coconut ice cream in Melaka is a delicious, refreshing dessert made with fresh coconuts. At Jonker Street Night Market, you can buy coconut ice cream served in an actual coconut with slices of coconut meat at the bottom of it. We highly recommend taking that one, as it’s incredibly delicious!
Nyonya Cendol
Nyonya cuisine is a fusion of Chinese, Malay, and Indonesian influences. Cendol is the most popular dish in this cuisine, and it is a dessert made from shaved ice, coconut milk, pudding-like strands, glutinous rice, and red beans.
Nyonya cuisine is primarily found in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and other South East Asian countries.
You can find the Nyonya Cendol in many places in Malaysia, but one of the most popular places to find it is at Jalan Hang Jebat in Melaka, which is the main street of the Jonker Walk and Jonker Street Night Market.
Durian puff
Durian puff is a savory pastry that is popular in Malaysia. The Durian puff dessert has a flaky crust, and the inside is filled with a delicious durian filling.
Durian is a fruit that many people love while some people hate it due to its pungent taste and smell. It’s also known as the king of fruits.
Eating the durian puff in one bite is crucial because if you don’t, you will get a mouthful of strong-tasting cream filling that might be too much for some people to handle!
The most famous place in Melaka to try the durian puff is Taste Better Original One Bite Durian puff.
Dim sum
In Melaka, Mr. Pau is the most popular place to go if you want to taste some of the best dim sum at a very affordable price.
Unfortunately for us, Mr. Pau said he doesn’t have any veggie options, so if you’d like that, you will have to find someplace else. However, we didn’t see anyone else at the market offering a veggie variant of dim sum, so if you go and find one, let us know!
Veggie rolls
We were happy to find a lady selling delicious veggie rolls at Jonker Street Night Market. Those rolls are essentially fresh vegetable wraps with delicious sauces inside or on the side. You can get either fresh ones or fried ones. But if you want fried ones, make sure to come early, as they sell out fast, as they premake them at home before coming to the market.
The fried veggie roll costs 2 ($0.5), while the fresh one costs 4 Malaysian Ringgit ($1).
BBQ Corn & sweet corn
Among the many options at Jonker Street Night Market is one of our favorites, the BBQ corn.
Long potato
While walking along Jonker Street Night Market, you will surely see countless people carrying paper plates full of long potato sticks drizzled with delicious sauces. The so-called “long potato” costs 10 Malaysian Ringgit ($2.3), and you can choose the sauce you want, like tomato sauce, chili sauce, and mayo.
It’s a very simple dish, but so so delicious.
Tornado Twist Potato
Ever seen potato chips/crisps on a stick? The Tornado Twist Potato is something like that, but it’s more like a long potato spiral that is fried and then shaken in a container or drizzled with your desired sauce to give it a delightful taste.
Papaya salad
The papaya salad originating from Laos but eaten throughout South East Asia is also a popular dish at Jonker Street Night Market. We found a stall from 2 Thai ladies that made a perfect one.
We ate that papaya salad on all three of our visits to the market.
You can adjust the spiciness of the salad to your liking. We recommend half of the chili if you’re not used to eating spicy food, as we had a whole chili or possibly even two on our last visit, and both our lips became numb. 😂
Mango smoothie
Choose a mango smoothie if you’re up for some genuinely fresh and filling drink that will leave you wanting more.
It’s super thick, and ours even came with big mango pieces on top. Yum!
Coconut shake
What’s South East Asia without a coconut dish? So get yourself a coconut shake which is more like a thick smoothie and is just purely amazing!
Shaved/husked coconut
Right at the entrance to Jonker Street Night Market, from the side of the Dutch Square, you can find the coconut stall (it’s tough to miss), where you can buy yourself a shaved/husked coconut.
We opted for a coconut shake, but we can imagine the shaved coconut being a delicious thing to eat!
Dragon’s beard candy
Dragon’s beard candy or Chinese cotton candy is made from sugar and syrup and filled with peanuts, coconut, and sesame seeds. It’s fun to watch the preparation process where they repeatedly pull, twist, and stretch it, where each time, the number of strings doubles.
Sugarcane juice
One of our favorite drinks in South East Asia is sugarcane juice, which is precisely what the name implies, delicious juice squeezed out from sugarcane.
We had plenty of sugarcane juice during our one year and a half living in Vietnam (Vietnamese: Nước Mía), where we could find stalls along most city streets and even in every small village.
Pineapple tart
Pineapple tart is a popular dessert in Melaka created by the Peranakans with a significant Portuguese influence. It’s a crunchy pastry filled with pineapple jam.
Sweet Potato Balls
The sweet potato balls are soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside, and the taste reminds us the most of doughnuts. It’s a delicious little snack, and it’s also quite fun to watch the guys prepare it as they roll the dough, cut it into equal size pieces and then fry it in super hot oil.
Nyonya Laksa
Nyonya Laksa is a famous spicy noodle soup with coconut milk and other ingredients. The dish is often served with either rice vermicelli or yellow noodles and topped with boiled egg noodles, fried bean curd, fish cake slices, fried crispy onion strips, and roasted peanuts.
Nyonya Laksa can be made vegetarian by replacing meat with tofu or tempeh. We found a vegetarian version in the fabulous Shui Xian Su Shi Yuan Vegetarian Restaurant.
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What else is there at Jonker Street Night Market?
There’s a part of the night market where you can find a kind of sit-down restaurant scene behind the Jonker stage at the junction of the streets Jalan Hang Jebat (the main street of the market) and Jalan Tokong. Click here for the location on Google Maps.
Also, if you’re in for a show, check out the coconut huskers throwing coconuts high in the air at the beginning of Jonker Street Night Market, right next to Hard Rock Cafe Melaka.
Is the Jonker Street Night Market wheelchair accessible?
Yes, the whole Jonker Street Night Market is wheelchair accessible, as it’s essentially just one generally flat street with stands on each side.
Is the Jonker Street Night Market worth visiting?
Melaka’s Jonker Street Night Market is worth visiting for its incredible vibe and mouth-watering street food, snacks, finger food, and a wide range of local handicrafts.
Our thoughts about the Jonker Street Night Market
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Jonker Street Night Market on three separate visits. Each night we left satisfied with full tummies and feeling great.
We highly recommend Melaka’s Jonker Street Night Market to everyone, especially because Melaka is easily accessible from either Kuala Lumpur or Singapore.
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