Night + Market is a hip Thai street food restaurant located on Sunset near Doheny in West Hollywood. A critical darling, Night + Market recently earned on a spot on
Los Angeles Times food critic
Jonathan Gold's year-end top 10 list with their Pig Blood Soup
. (Gold's other favorites include
Jitlada in Hollywood and
Tsujita LA Artisan Noodle in West LA.) A weeks ago, I visited Night + Market for dinner for the first time with my foodie friend,
Jing.
We shared four dishes, family style. We began with the Nam Khao Tod, a crispy rice salad with soured pork, raw ginger, onion, peanuts, cilantro, and chile. In terms of flavor, it's skewed towards the sour end of the spectrum. Each bite was filled with so much flavor that it was a lot to take in. It was also spicy and had a strong ginger flavor. It was a bit overpowering for me to try a second time, but it was definitely worth trying something so different.
We then tried the Khao Soi Haw, my favorite dish. It's made with mae sai curry noodles with braised hanger steak, beef tendon, pickled mustard greens, bean sprouts, red onion, cilantro, chile oil, and crispy noodle. Again, the flavor was unique and the beef was very tender. A perfect spoonful would include some beef covered in the delicious curry and some noodles to balance the dynamic flavors. I would definitely order this again.
The third dish was Jing's favorite. It was the Beef Grapow made with chile, garlic, Thai basil, and a crispy fried egg. Like the Kaho Soi Haw, the beef was cooked perfectly as was the egg, which complemented the dish well. This goes well with a plate of rice.
The final dish for dessert was the Ice Cream Sandwich, which, unsurprisingly, was unlike any I've had before. It was made with homemade coconut ice cream and coconut rice, served on a sweet bun. Although the flavors individually were mostly sweet, they became sour when combined. We're not sure if this was an intended effect or just an ingredient in which we're unfamiliar. Next time, we might try the Mango & Sticky Rice.
Overall, this was a very interesting dining experience. I've never tried so many dynamic flavors together in one meal. I would definitely visit again, opting for a beef dish and a few new items on the menu.
If you've visited Night + Market in either West Hollywood or Silver Lake, what did you try?
