South Melbourne Market

South Melbourne Market has been trading since 1867, making it the oldest continually running market in Melbourne, older than the tram network that now stops almost at its door. It survived a fire that took out two entire sheds in 1981 and, in the same year, two bomb blasts. It's still standing, still full on a Saturday morning, and still run largely the way a produce market should be: butchers and fishmongers doing business alongside a deli hall that takes its cheese seriously.

What the market is known for

The dim sims are the thing most people mention first, and for good reason. They've built a reputation well beyond South Melbourne, and the stall selling them can sell out before midday on a busy weekend. Beyond that there's an oyster bar, a run of stalls doing borek and gozleme, and a produce section stacked with the kind of fruit and veg that makes the trip worth it even before you've eaten anything. The tagline locals use, "bustling covered food market," undersells it slightly; it's less a food court with produce attached and more the reverse.

Parking is one of the more thought-through parts of the site. The rooftop car park, redone in 2012, doubles as a solar array and rainwater catchment, a slightly unusual thing for a 19th-century market to have sorted out. It means the practical stuff (getting there, finding a park, not melting in summer) is handled, so the market itself can stay focused on what it's actually good at.

Good to know before you go

Go on a trading day rather than picking a random weekday. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday are dead ends here. Saturday and Sunday mornings are the liveliest, if also the most crowded; Wednesday is the quieter alternative for anyone who'd rather shop than queue.