Today we were at North Vancouver’s Christmas Market for its second year Also known as the Shipyards Christmas Market, as it is held at The Shipyards in Lower Lonsdale. The seasonal, open air market runs daily from November 28th to December 24th, featuring over 100 vendors, food, skating, and entertainment. It has been wildly popular due to its free admission, rivalling the historic downtown Vancouver location.
As with all such markets I look forward to the food offerings. Whereas the aforementioned market features specifically German cuisine, this one is a lot more open to non-traditional offerings like mochi toast, sugar shack maple treats, and deep fried potato spirals.
Today we stopped at Swiss Rösti, not traditional or authentic, but there is a Swiss connection through one of the owner/partners. This is essentially a hashbrown pancake topped with a selection of ingredients.
It is brought to the market by the same owners of the roaming foodtruck “Midnight Joe’s”. Both businesses are women own and run. They wanted to participate in this year’s market and thought their Sloppy Joe’s might not be the first thing you think of when you think of a Christmas.
Instead, they have traditional Swiss potato pancakes that are handmade and cooked fresh to order. You can actually watch this process by peering into their gated kitchen space. Each Rösti starts off with the same shredded potato hash base, pan fried golden, crispy, and gluten-free. You can either leave it like that, or have it topped with familiar breakfast favourites like smoked salmon.
We had the Egg & Sausage with an egg prepared your way and slices of sausages to its side. This ate like a full breakfast, that wasn’t very travel friendly. Thankfully the market offers several branded, Christmas Market standing tables, as well as the all year round seating available for public use. This made it much easier to eat with knife and fork.
Similarly, the Speck & Brie was a thin layer of salted pork and melted cheese over the same crispy potato pancake. I found this one more flavourful and much more lunch or dinner friendly.
For something more travel-ready they have Herb Roasted Mushrooms done Christmas Market Style: served in a paper cup. Tossed with Leek Butter and Herbs, and topped with a Creamy Garlic Sauce. The mushrooms were warm and savoury, however a little monotonous, and I found myself wanting something to cut into it as a break. Othewise, I would have liked the option of the same seasonings over nugget potatoes with cheese and rosemary.
Our next stop was Haxen Haus, formally setting up shop at the downtown Christmas Market, but now calling the Shipyard’s Market their home.
They are known for their larger booth with three banks of rotating shelf spits. Ever spinning, ever cooking pork hoc. Half the fun is watching the spins and being able to see the cooking progression. This is how it is traditionally done for Oktoberfest in Munich, and Haxen Haus is the only one that does it this way.
This is the only thing they serve, but the menu includes side options like sauerkraut or sourdough. Half a hock feeds 1-2 people, a whole 3-4. We would each get a whole, ambitiously thinking we could finish it all in one sitting.
I liked the idea of eating it straight off the bone, but it is easier to have the staff chop it down to size for piece by piece eating.
I found the meat salty and a little too sumptuous after the first three bits with crunchy skin, fatty meat, and gelatinous sinew.
Ketchup and mustard from their communal squeeze bottles were necessary to help cut into things with acid. Otherwise the pickled sauerkraut and neutral sour bread were nice breaks. I would recommend using all of the above to build yourself a sandwich for more even bites.
What we couldn’t finish we packed to take home, then decided to explore the rest of the market, in order to walk things off.
There are a large selection of retail vendors to shop from: local candles, chocolate, and gifting solutions.
There is mulled wine, Santa photos, and the ability to visiting day or night without the need to purchase tickets or book time.
Shipyards Christmas Market 2025
125 Victory Ship Way, North Vancouver, BC V7L OB3
(604) 985-2191
shipyardschristmasmarket.com
