I have been wanting to visit the late night events at London Zoo for years now so when my sister pointed out tickets were on sale I jumped at the chance to go. It's the zoo...after closing hours....ages 18+...street food market, alcohol, shows, silent disco and plenty more! Whats not to love!! We were lucky to have great weather for the evening which meant not only was everyone in a really relaxed good mood but also the animals were outside also enjoying the sunshine. I checked out the street food market first to see what was on offer for dinner. There was a great selection with many stalls I remember from other food markets I have visited in London! 
I am always drawn to Indian Street Food at food markets, it smells amazing, its colourful and I always feel like you get a lot for your money, as opposed to a burger or wrap etc. I ordered my dinner from 'Indian Kitchen' and chose the vegetarian thali wich was a chickpea curry, potato curry, spinach curry, onion baji and a vegetable samosa, rice and some chutneys. It was great value for £6 and I thought each curry was delicious, although the spinach curry was definitely a stand out winner as it has the most amazing caramelised onions stirred through.
Other options available included Anna Mae's Mac n cheese, a stall I see around often now. I think it is a brilliant idea to focus on one dish but with different varieties and toppings. One day I will get around to trying this, though maybe not a whole pot to myself as I'm not sure I could cope with all the cheese!
If you have a sweet tooth then there was also a Dutch pancakes stall selling mini pancakes with syrup and nutella. These look amazing and although I didn't get to try them I have it on good authority that they were as good as they look!
The thai stall looked fantastic and I was going to get their pad thai but the queue was large every time we walked past (not a bad sign!). If I see these guys at another food market I will definitely try out their food as everyone was walking away looking very happy with big pots of hot delicious noodles.
We watched some of the Late show and I am so glad we caught these guys! So, three guys, with big beards, in animal morph suits, dancing like ladies too some pop music. It had us all in stitches and they looked like they were really enjoying themselves up on stage!
This was either a genius idea for a show or the guys worked at the zoo and snuck up there for a joke, either way it was enjoyed by everyone :)
I couldn't help but share some photos of the animals we saw, seeing as that was the main reason we were there.
This little cheeky chappy was happy posing for the cameras :)
Giraffes are such beautiful animals, we were on an elevated platform and they kept walking right past letting me take this photo. They are so regal looking!
This giraffe wanted to talk to the zebra really badly, he was leaning over as far as he could. I'm sure there is a great caption opportunity here!
We were lucky enough to see the zoos newest arrival, a baby sloth! There is something so cute about sloths, it may be the dopey smiles they always have on their face or the gentle demeaner of the way they move. This mother sloth surprised us all by lowering herself and her baby (look carefully you will see the baby clung to her stomach) and travelling across our heads.
We were all excited to see the sloth and her baby but also very aware we should try to keep back so as not to scare them. They didn't seem very shy though :)
Otters are my favourite! These little cuties had just been fed and were happily munching their way through some giant prawns and vegetables. They soon got back to being busy swimming around and playing in the sunshine.
I had such a wonderful evening and would recommend visiting the zoo, whether it is during the day or to one of their late night events. The zoo is quite large considering it is in the centre of London but small enough to see everything in a day. Just be warned, in the evening the zoo is open until 10 but the animals are put to bed between 8.30-9, make sure you see the animals before hitting the food and bars :)
What is your favourite zoo? Want to see more? then check out my write up of Toronto Zoo and the animals I was lucky enough to see there!
