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Talk to me for any longer than, say, ooh, ten seconds, and I will inevitably steer the conversation towards the fact that I used to live in Los Angeles. As soon as that shameless clanger is dropped, it won’t be long until I start banging on about Night + Market Song. I became wildly obsessed with this small and endlessly enjoyable Thai restaurant in Silver Lake thanks to its fabulously sweet and sticky ‘party’ chicken wings, dangerously refreshing minced larb salads, and fondness for blasting out huge bangers while a steady stream of customers cooled their mouths from punchy papaya salads with a lengthy list of natural wines.
Though the first Night + Market Song opened in 2014, spawning two other outlets in LA, it’s taken until now for chef Kris Yenbamroong to bring the concept over the Pond. After a successful pop-up at Rondo La Cave in Holborn’s The Hoxton, it’s now found its London forever home at the newly opened Shepherd’s Bush branch of the same hotel chain as Chet’s.
A gloriously gloopy blue-cheese-slathered wedge salad, complete with candied pork jowl and garlic nam jim dipping sauce, was more like a soup
The London menu isn’t a carbon copy of what’s on offer at the three LA outlets – which, surprisingly, I am actually fine about. Instead, it dives into Yenbamroong’s deeply Californian take on Thai food. Sure, a few trad dishes are present and correct: there’s authentic larb gai with chicken, lime, mint and coriander chilli, as well as smooth, rich coconut and lemongrass seared sea bass fillet. But Chet’s goes hard on the Americana angle to give British palates a beautifully balanced taste of the Golden State.
Take, for example, the gloriously gloopy blue-cheese-slathered wedge salad, complete with candied pork jowl and garlic nam jim dipping sauce. It was less a salad and more a soup and all the better for that. The fried chicken khao soi was another majestic mash-up, with perfect katsu-style chicken plonked on a bed of creamy Chiang Mai curried noodles with bean sprouts and roasted chilli oil. For extra kick there are bespoke Chet’s bottles of culty fermented fave Kold Sauce on every table. Bliss.
Food here is fun as well as thrillingly high quality. Fried pineapple rice with optional – but massively encouraged – crab came piled into half a pineapple, while there’s also a version of LA’s hottest hype dish, the smashburger, available. Portions are hefty, so sadly much of the menu went untasted on my visit, but it’s great to see that those iconic sticky party wings are one of the LA menu essentials that’s made the trip to London. As a hotel restaurant, Chet’s is also open throughout the day, with flashy breakfast offerings such as caramel-battered babka French toast and mushroom and cheese roti for lunch.
An exemplary cocktail menu nods to Yenbamroong’s love of natural wine, most notably in the perky Pet Sounds, which combined Campari, pomelo sherbert, pomegranate and sparkling pet nat in summer-y spritz form. A sweet and sour lychee Martini meanwhile was the perfect Martini for people who don’t actually like Martinis, while the impressively stiff Thai-ball mixed cheffy spirits like Branca Menta with Chivas Regal and Thai spirit Mekhong.
It might have taken almost ten years for Night + Market to make its way to the UK, but now it’s here we should protect it at all costs. A true gem. Did I mention that I used to live in LA?
The vibe Cult Cali restaurant Night + Market Song comes to London, situating itself in the newest branch of The Hoxton hotel in west London.
The food Thai comfort food with a sparkly LA sheen.
The drink Inventive, dangerously drinkable cocktails and natural wines.
Time Out tip Miss out on the divine pineapple rice at your peril. And drink yourself silly (responsibly of course!).