I visited the San Diego Night Market around 5:30 pm the first night, and there was not much of a…read moreline at all. At least this year they were able to rent out part of the SDCCU Stadium lot, so there's a ton of parking and no need for a shuttle to get there.
There were a good amount of vendors, but the food was really just mediocre. You also really have to do your research on all the vendors before you go, because the one we decided to get was awful. The one we went to had these BBQ Squid Skewers which we ordered, and they were very undercooked. They were pretty much still raw. We took it back to them and they just cooked it a little bit more and the second time around the body of the squid was cooked better, but the tentacles were still very raw. Some of the vendors also didn't really plan accordingly because by 8 pm, before peak time, some of them were already sold out of items.
Most of the main course type foods were just average, overpriced food. I think the better items to get here are the drinks and the desserts, so I would recommend getting something to eat before you arrive, and then wait in line for the drinks and desserts.
There was absolutely no seating at all, so a lot of people, us included, just ended up sitting on the ground to eat our food. There were maybe like 5 tables that I saw in the entire venue which were obviously occupied very very quickly. There was a ton of open space, even with the amount of people walking around and the long lines, so there should definitely be a lot more tables than there actually were. I hope that next year they really rent out way more tables and chairs because this year it was just not enough.
Like I said, I arrived around 5:30 pm, and I was glad that I did, because by 8 pm, some of the vendors would run out of certain items, and the lines were just so ridiculously long, which led to a ridiculously long wait, for ridiculously mediocre food. When we left around 9:45, the line to just get inside was so long that it reached the concrete border at the lot and had to make a bend in order to not go past it.
If you're planning on coming here, I highly recommend going closer to the opening time because there is no way that I'd pay $5 to wait hours in line for sold out food. I went in early, so the wait times weren't so bad for me, which is probably why my experience wasn't as bad as others. It was still pretty bad though.