Jonathan Gold’s Bite Nite

What a nice a place. Cooks just the creators and gods food. I will definitely come back to you next. thank you very much

Great event at the LA Times printing building. Tickets were $ 125 this year, but it was all you can eat and free open bar! All the top restaurants and their chefs were there to serve their food, take pictures, and talk to guests. The event is not over crowded like some other events. Small lines, good DJ, good group of guests, and great way to try 20+ restaurants. Tons of food and drinks. More than enough to feed a small country. The ticket price is a great way to weed out the undesirable mob scene. 2 tickets limit to LA Times subscribers and limited ticket sales really made the event classy. Roaming servers were always around to clear plates and help out.
Here are some of the food:
Border Grill — Appetizer with grilled Mexican cheese, pea/​fava bean mush, and leafy greens all on top of a small slice of toast. (light and flavorful light start)
Providence — Salade aioli with seared white flesh fish. (Not impressed coming from Jonathan Gold’s #1 2014 restaurant of the year — bland)
Shunji — small bite of uni, shitake mushroom, and wagu beef on top of a?? potato (couldn’t tell). (delicious small delicate bite although I am not a big uni fan)
Guerrilla Taco — ceviche on top of a Tostito chip. (GROSS –so salty that I was not able to eat it)
Alma — English muffin with burrata cheese, uni, and caviar. (great homemade English muffin)
Little Sister — beef tartar with pickled quail egg and chicarrones. (genius with the quail egg) Also served a Lamb roll with kimchee. (Didn’t like the gamey lamb but kimchee was good)
The Hart and the Hunter — They had the most exciting and scary dish of the night for me. They had a deep fryer and I was very excited to smell something frying in the grease. When we got close to the table, however, I realized I have sucked plenty of this dish but never swallowed before. (okay, that just sounded wrong) Fried shrimp heads with a sweet and spicy house dressing. Sounds simple until you try to put it in your mouth with eyeballs looking at you and the tentacles poking at your lips. It turned out to be delicious. Crispy like tempera.
Rustic Canyon — Chicken paste on a parmesan cookie. (Delicious!)
Night & Market — Papaya salad that kicked my butt! (Super flavorful and spicy. Had to drink an entire Stella to cool my mouth.)
Chengdu Taste — 4 different items and could have sat down and had a full meal at just this one table. Cold noodle and mung bean jelly noodle with garlic sauce were numbing spicy and salty, but good.
Lucques — Squid, kumquats, and fava bean salad. (One of the best salads I have ever had. I didn’t even know it was squid. So tender and smooth.)
Mo-​Chica — Conchas shot. (Great sea snail marinated in soy mirin. Playful and fun one bite.)
There were many more, but I think I blacked out from eating too much. I wish I could have more stomach space for more food. There were Indian, Ethiopian, and Thai restaurants that could have been a full meal on their own.
Fantastic fun foodie event. Definitely go if you are into food.

So I bought tickets to both nights of Bite Nite, but after going around to all the stations 3 times on the first night, my stomach is still reeling 24 hours later. I haven’t eaten that much in… ever.
What a great event. There were around 20 restaurants with stations, and each was giving away small bites so that everybody could try different tastes of each restaurant. My favorites were:
Mayura: butter chicken, garlic naan, appam, special fried rice, vegetable korma
Little Sister: lamb wrap with lamb belly & shoulder, scallion pancake, pickled vegetables
Meals By Genet: injera and dorowat
I also loved that Chengdu Taste had five popular options from their regular menu: mung been jelly noodles with garlic; cold noodle with garlic sauce; spicy Chengdu beef jerky; toothpick lamb; Chinese hamburger.
There were desserts (filled brownies, gelato, molecular gastronomy-​style frozen yogurt) as well as fish and veggie-​themed dishes. Jonathan Gold went around saying hi to everybody, taking pictures with fans, etc. I had a really fantastic time and will definitely attend again next year (but will only go around once).

Awesome night, and well organized by the LAT staff and Jonathan Gold himself. Really impressed with basically everything (aside from the valet, which was clearly not prepared for this onslaught of cars).
The venue was surprisingly enjoyable. The «Los Angeles Times Events Center» doesn’t exactly scream «fun» but the lighting was fantastic, the décor was fine and there was plenty of space for patrons and purveyors alike. There could have been more trash cans, however, as the trash was piling up by the end of the evening. The building itself is grand, and supports fabulous views of the downtown skyline.
Food:
Kogi — short rib taco. Awesome.
Alma — almond milk ceviche w/​fried quinoa. Awesome.
Cacao — Clam crêpe with Sea Urchin sauce. Awesome.
Chicen Itza — ceviche, not memorable.
Jitlada — didn’t try it, unfortunately.
Night + Market — Pork neck was incredible, the rice/​peanut dish was awesome, if a bit spicy.
The Hart & The Hunter — Trout Toast. Awesome.
La Casita Mexicana — had about seven things including two moles, two flans, a ceviche, stuffed pepper w/​pomegranate & huitalacoche tamales — would have been better focusing on one or two.
Bestia — lamb heart skewer w/​salad and walnut bread. good.
ink. — so smart. only person to lead with a vegetable. asparagus smoked in hay (?!) on a wood plank with date sauce & horseradish snow.
Jar — surprisingly good pork bun/​croissant.
Guisados — honestly was a bit ‘full’ at this point but the tinga taco wasn’t sensational.
Salt’s Cure — charcuterie. Yum.
Sqirl — delicious rabbit with rhubarb jam, radish, crostini. Awesome.
Lucques — shockingly good salmon salad w/​carrot, beet purée, yogurt.
Spago — oversized, poorly-​executed ravioli that could have been amazing if smaller and cooked right. Even the bacon didn’t help.
Cut — great piece of meat with an interesting corn salad. Delicious, but too large of a portion.
Mayura Marit — typical Indian dish. Eh.
Meals by Genet — didn’t try it. was just too late in the night, too heavy. injera bread + ?
Corazon y Miel — Chicken heart ceviche. Good, too many ceviches on the night.
Mozza — Typhoon on a spoon. Awesome.
Guelaguetza — Mole w/​rice, also a mezcal cocktail. Too large of a portion (the food, not the cocktail) but solid.
Really, really fun and a great experience. Well worth the price. Definitely hope there are more.

Great event for foodies. Graze from table to table with some really exotic fare.
Lots of high end restaurants, and some not so high end.
Good music.
Lots of beverages included in tix.
Not cheap…$ 100/​but really one of a kind event.
I’ll be back, unless the Koch brothers do away with any semblance of humanity.