A New Spicy Thai Fried Chicken Take Out Window Opens in Highland Park

There’s yet another new name to know in the spicy fried chicken game: Hot Gai Chicken. The upstart Thai takeaway is doing dinnertime meals in the former Burgerlords space on York, which is little more than a window and small kitchen attached to the Hi Hat music venue.

Hot Gai has been up and running since last month, and carries a noticeable neon sign right above the window from which they serve. The menu itself is fairly compact, mostly concentrated on dishes like $7 fried wings, $10 phanaeng curry fries, and two-piece $10 plates that come with slightly spicy fried chicken and small sides of papaya salad and sticky rice.

Eater has confirmed that the Sticky Rice group is running the new restaurant, alongside their other popular outlets like the namesake stalls that started it all down in Grand Central Market. There’s also a standalone Sticky Rice storefront that recently opened in Echo Park, and owner TK also runs a weekend Thai food trailer at Smorgasburg in Downtown.

This new evening option (hours run from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday) picks up where the Burgerlords team left off back in May, running the night rounds while Belle’s Bagels takes the morning shift from the very same window. They’ve got much more competition at night, however, as Highland Park continues to embrace a variety of vegan street food options up and down York Boulevard. Burgerlords, for its part, has confirmed their plans to take over the Good Girl Dinette space off Figueroa, following a more than nine-year run by owner Diep Tran at that address.

Hot Gai Chicken. 5043 York Blvd., Los Angeles, CA.

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