Popular L.A. restaurant Night + Market has made a name for itself over the past few years, with owner Kris Yenbamroong’s fusion cuisine showing how flavors and dishes from different cuisines can go together. He’s not the first, of course, and it’s that Asian fusion scene that inspired him along with the experiences he had in his family’s restaurant while growing up.
With Night + Market, Yenbamroong took some of the most well-known Thai dishes and popped them up a notch. This “Thai drinking food,” as he termed it, hit a chord and attracted a following, with visitors from Vegas regularly making the trek to enjoy it. With Night + Market’s opening in Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, that trip was a lot shorter. In Vegas, Night + Market is a bright, vibrant place with a menu that makes your mouth water. Like the L.A. spots, a big focus here is on wine, of which you can find plenty, in red, white, rosé and orange! There’s champagne, too, plus cocktails like the spicy Thai chili margarita—with its combination of Yola mezcal, curaçao and Thai chili, it’s sure to wake you up.
Start with raw bar selections like oysters and scarlet prawn sashimi, enlivened with spicy sauces. Much of the menu here encompasses the greatest hits of the L.A. location—like som tum, a seemingly simple dish of mortar-pounded green papaya, with sugar lime juice, bird’s eye chili and peanuts. And one of the most striking is the chicken sandwich. Yes, a fried chicken sandwich on the menu at a Thai restaurant! And it works. It’s a tall sucker, built with northern Thai fried chicken, skin-on, plus papaya slaw. It’s also got jalapeños, cilantro and—ranch. That’s not the only surprising item, though. There’s five-spice pork belly, chicken wings, and crispy duck rolls, all with that fusion twist and all ready to be shared. Larb gai serves up spicy minced chicken to scoop up with rice, and there’s a vegan version of this as well, created with crispy tofu.
For a very substantial bite, check out the exclusive-to-Vegas three-flavor whole fish, swimming toward you through a sea of green beans. There are other Vegas-only dishes, too, like lobster pad Thai, with a boatload of lobster hanging out. Yenbamroong has also created a Thai steak frites, a 12-ounce charbroiled wagyu ribeye.
The grapow spicy basil chicken, minced chicken prepared in a wok with garlic chili paste and Thai basil. The fried egg served on top adds that extra interesting note. Tiger shrimp green curry is laden with Thai basil, Japanese eggplant, coconut milk and green peppercorn, which is actually an unripe fruit (yes, all pepper is fruit).
And if you happen to be dining with friends, sharing dessert is perfect to end the meal. Here at Night + Market, they do up a classic hot fudge sundae, a pretty way to disguise the ice cream hiding under all that sauce.
Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, 702.693.5000
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