Gold Dig #15

Night+Market is one of the Thai restaurants on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list. While his list includes quite a few Thai spots, each has its own unique approach. Night+Market does Thai street food, as clearly called out in their neon sign. It is located in West Hollywood, and there’s another location in Silver Lake called Night+Market Song. When you enter, go to the right to get to Night+Market. If you go to the left, you’re in Talesai which is owned by the family of the Night+Market chef.

The Dish

The format is drinks and small plates. Many of the small plates consist of some part of the pig. Tail, ears, neck, belly. I haven’t met a pig part I don’t like. Bring it on.

Fried Pig Tail

I’d never had pig tails before. I was envisioning the thin curly cues that poke out the back of cartoon pigs, and wondering how much there could be to actually eat. These were meatier than I expected, and man were they good. Crisp and salty on the outside, tender and juicy in the center.

Pork Toro

What they call Pork Toro at Night+Market is grilled fatty pig neck. The menu description says “salty like bacon”. Sounded good to me. And it was. Though richer and more juicy than bacon. It came with a chile dipping sauce, but was a tasty treat all on its own.

Khao Soi Neua

The Khao Soi is one of Night+Market’s talked about dishes. It is a curried noodle dish from Chiang Mai. You can get it with tofu and oyster mushrooms, chicken wings, or braised hanger steak and tendon. We went for the hanger steak and tendon, and weren’t disappointed. The coconut milk broth is thick and creamy. Once you mix in the fixings (pickled mustard greens, red onions, cilantro, bean sprouts, chile jam) and squeeze the lime, you get layers of sweetness, acidity, and spice cutting through the richness.

Gaeng Hanglay

The Gaeng Hanglay is fatty pork belly braised in a sweet Burmese curry with pickled garlic, ginger, and tamarind. Pork belly seems to be on every menu these days, but Night+Market seems to have a penchant for pig parts, so I figured their rendition had a good chance of standing out. It was all good things pork belly should be, and I loved it with the ginger.

Coconut Rice

Coconut Rice… yum. It was great with the pork belly. Though a fairly small portion. I wanted more.

Roti with Coconut Ice Cream

The menu actually lists this dessert as “home-made coconut ice cream (over roti with condensed milk add $1)”. Do I want to add roti and condensed milk for a buck? Heck yeah. I don’t know who wouldn’t.

Cocktails

“What we’re known for” according to the menu. They have great drinking food. Get some cocktails – we enjoyed all the ones we had.