Chadstone’s shiny new Market Pavilion is a spectacle, but does it deserve the hype?

Grocery shopping, as a rule, is dull. But does it have to be? What if you put gelato stands in supermarkets and made the shops look like high-end fashion retailers? Could you still call it “doing the shopping”?

It’s a question the folks at Chadstone are asking with their dazzling new Market Pavilion, which opened on March 27. Not a food court but not quite a food hall a la David Jones or Marks & Spencer, it defies categorisation. All I can say for sure is that it’s a spectacle.

Wandering from the Market Pavilion into the rest of the shopping centre, you might feel like Harry Potter crossing from Platform 9¾ back into the world of muggles. Everything is a bit … flat in comparison.

There’s an indoor greenhouse with herbs. Soaring glass walls display row after row of dry-aged beef. Robots can make you coffee, if you’d rather not deal with another human (fair – there are a lot of them around). No one is striding purposefully with trolleys and reusable bags; they’re ambling like they’re in an amusement park: gawking, stopping abruptly, snacking often and whipping phones out for content opps.

Good Food visited five days after the precinct’s opening (which included a cooking demonstration by AFL star Christian Petracca), with two of us going unannounced to experience it as the average punter would.

At 12.20pm on a Tuesday, it’s much, much busier than you’d expect, and not just with retirees. Don’t these people have to work?

Career women are catching up over flutes of Moet ($24) and half a dozen Tassie oysters ($17, or $39 with bubbles). Lines snake out of the bagel shop and the pasta bar. Tradies, couples and colleagues take a good look at the shiny new stalls.

Among these are: a bubble tea shop, an acai outlet, a hot chocolate specialist, a doughnut stand, a boutique spice retailer, two bakeries, a chocolate shop, a place selling wine with personalised labels, a “food concierge”, and three spots for coffee and cake.

On wants versus needs, I’d say the Market Pavilion is definitely more focused on the wants side of the ledger.

You can buy ostentatious ceramic heads (“testa di Moro”) like the ones seen in season two of White Lotus for $850. There are myriad drinks to slurp on while you stroll, but fewer options for buying groceries. Pre-packaged meals, ultra-chunky cookies and Sicilian cannoli are in abundance. Finding lunch and a place to sit and eat is more of a task (despite the precinct having seating for 1933).

Here’s a user’s guide to shopping, eating and navigating Market Pavilion.

What are the best grocery shops?

There are nine places to buy food you can cook, including the “big three” supermarkets. But if you’re looking for specialists – such as butchers, fishmongers and greengrocer – there’s only one of each, so price competition is pretty much nonexistent. That said, Colonial Fresh’s fruit and veg is reasonably priced, comparable with what I saw at Queen Victoria Market over the weekend. There was some decent-looking alfonsino at The Fishmonger. Vic’s Meats, sibling of Armadale’s snazzy Victor Churchill butcher and supplier to many hatted restaurants, ain’t cheap – but when is wagyu ever a bargain?

What’s it like to use the food concierge and its AI recipe generator?

Chadstone reps will tell you that this is the world’s first shopping centre with a food concierge like this. What that means is there’s an information stand where you can chat to some very friendly people about where to shop for your next dinner party – then stow your groceries in their refrigerators so you can go and try on $500 sunglasses unencumbered. They might direct you to a touch screen where an unnamed “AI tool” is ready to concoct your whims into recipes (as few as five, as many as 10) that are yours to keep. They may not be the equivalent of Stephanie Alexander’s A Cook’s Companion, but you will get a matter-of-fact menu if you punch in “Greek Easter for six people” (Greek lemon potatoes, Greek chicken souvlaki, Greek salad and Greek tzatziki).

What we loved

Head and shoulders above every retailer – for range, quality and price – is Maita, the Asian grocer, a more upscale offshoot of Tang Food Emporium in the CBD. Prepare for overwhelm as you gaze at metres of curry paste, chilli oil, imported potato chips, rice varieties, frozen dumplings and more. Within the store are takeaway windows for onigiri (Japanese rice balls), Korean dishes, gelato and baked treats including Hokkaido cheese tarts. Illuminated signs and a minimalist fit-out feel much, much cooler than any other grocery shop we have in Australia.

What to eat

Unfortunately, everything we tried on our visit was a miss. But next time, based on what looked good around us, I’d share a monster-sized focaccia with ultra-crackly porchetta from That’s Amore or perhaps boxed nigiri from The Fishmonger. I’d also lean into the frou-frou of a Mork hot chocolate, maybe the sakura Black Forest featuring cherry blossom.

What to skip

The deli sandwich at Vic’s Meats costs $23 and is no doubt inspired by what you might find in a New York bodega (where it’d be half the price). Sadly, the one we tried tasted pre-made and a bit fridgey, and was no bigger than your palm. Get one of their hot sandwiches (maybe the Reuben) for the same price and thank yourself later. Cacio e pepe, the cheesy Roman pasta that uses just four ingredients, is, at $35, the most expensive pasta at That’s Amore, makers of mozzarella and other Italian cheese. Sure, good cheese costs money, but for that price, I’d want a little more cacio (and pepe, and pasta) in my bowl.

Where can I sit to have lunch?

Good question. At 1.30pm midweek, we struggled to find a seat at one of the three new restaurants upstairs. There’s food-court-style seating (more beautiful, of course) where you can bring sandwiches or sushi from nearby stalls, but if you want to lean into the fanciness of Market Pavilion and eat at Amalfi pasta bar or That’s Amore, prepare to queue (and then squish in).