Restaurant Review: Taiwanese Street Food at 9-UP Night Market 

• Alex Springer
• 9-UP Night Market’s breakfast egg crepe

Visitors to the Downtown Farmers Market will no doubt recognize the feline-centric branding of 9-UP Night Market. Since 2023, the mobile version of this popular Taiwanese spot has been making waves at our annual celebration of all foods local. Earlier this year, our friends at 9-UP opened a brick-and-mortar storefront in South Salt Lake's sprawling Chinatown Supermarket complex. Before it found this more permanent location, 9-UP had been burning the midnight oil with its late-night deliveries, which is part of where the restaurant gets its "night market" moniker. As nocturnal street food is something I can always get behind, I was excited to check out 9-UP's new digs.

For starters, you have to go to the back of the Chinatown Supermarket proper to find 9-UP. This was honestly a new experience for me as I didn't know there were spaces back there; I was too blinded by my desire to dig into 9-UP's Taiwanese menu to get a good look at what was open behind the market. The 9-UP menu leans heavily into street food—about half of it consists of items that are under $10. There are familiar snacks like potstickers ($3.99 for 3, $6.99 for 6) and takoyaki ($8.99), and there are bags of "jiggle fries" ($9.99) that are meant to be tossed with your favorite seasoning.

It's perfectly viable to spend your time at 9-UP exclusively eating from this side of the menu—it's awesome, it's cheap and there's a wide variety from which to choose. Some of my favorites from 9-UP's street food menu are the pork belly bao buns ($5.99), the breakfast egg crepe roll ($5.99) and the ten yen cheese coin ($6.99). The bao buns are among the biggest that I've seen locally; they're roughly the size of a cheeseburger, stuffed with 9-UP's famous braised pork belly, which is absolutely fantastic.

The pork belly at 9-UP is subject to a 24-hour braise, so this stuff quite literally melts in your mouth. I don't think I've ever had a braised pork belly that is this tender. The bao bun is exactly as soft and pillowy as it should be, and the interior gets sprinkled with some crushed peanuts and cilantro. The pork belly can be customized as far as spice levels go, so diners can feel free to ramp up the heat as they so please. I'll always love a pork bun, but I do think the buns served up on 9-UP's menu are something special.

Perhaps one of the most surprising items on the menu was the breakfast egg crepe roll, which can be supplemented with a protein like ham, chicken, roast beef or tuna salad. The crepe roll has a lot in common with a traditional breakfast burrito—fluffy scrambled eggs with melted cheese folded inside a thin crepe. It's sliced into segments, topped with mayo and served with a bowl of onion sauce, which was a condiment I haven't encountered before—it's a bit like honey mustard, and it's dynamite. If you are a breakfast burrito fan of any stripe, you'll want to add this dish to your repertoire.

The ten yen cheese coin was recently added to the menu—last time I was there, the menu said it was coming soon, even though it appears to be on the regular menu. This grilled cheese pancake with the markings of a ten yen coin looked like a simple novelty, but it's got some interesting flavors going on. The batter has a slight sweet corn flavor that contrasts nicely with the salty cheese inside. It's a fun little snack that tastes much better than I was expecting.

For those hungry enough for a full entree, the pork belly rice bowl ($9.99 for kids' size, $15.99 for large) is the way to go. That glorious braised pork belly that we got to know in the pork buns is fully showcased here, piled on top of some fluffy white rice, slivered cucumbers and pickled daikon, served with a marinated hard-boiled egg. I've often derided the rice bowl format, but I'm keeping my mouth shut when the pork belly is this good. I'd recommend going for the kids' size portion if you're planning on including some of the street food options, as the portions are pretty huge.

While the street-food culture that most Asian countries enjoy may not be more than a pipe dream for Utah diners, I do like it when little tastes of that culture arrive in our dining scene. Places like 9-UP Night Market are doing a lot to lay the street-food appreciation groundwork, and I really appreciate the enthusiasm with which they're operating their business. While street food may not be totally a thing here in Utah, what's to stop me from getting a few snacks from 9-UP and wandering around South Salt Lake? Nothing, that's what.