Budaixi — Restaurant in Jalisco

I rarely give 5 stars reviews. In fact I can count how many I have written but I think Budaixi deserves a five star review. Let me explain why….

I never like to eat Asian food outside of Asia because I was disappointed so many times. We found this little restaurant in a quiet back street. Nothing fancy about it. The staff were very friendly and did a good job explaining the various dishes, how it’s cooked and what are the ingredients. We tried Wonton Szechuan, Budai Bao, Pork Dumpling and their House noodle soup which is a Taiwan beef noodles.

First bite on the wonton I can already tell that it is 100% handmade. The skin is chewy, very well done. The pork filling is not mushy but instead tasty and firm. The dipping sauce is just the right amount of spiciness and sweetness. Very well balanced.

The Bao is like a sandwich - a steam bun with a piece of stewed pork belly, preserved vegetables, cucumber, and a sprinkle of sugared peanuts. You can order a side of sweet potato fries or spicy cucumber salad with it. The flavour is incredible. The noodles are definitely in-house handmade. They have the right firmness and chewiness. It is served with stewed beef shank. The soup base is aromatic and full of flavour. They also gave us two condiments. Doubanjiang which is a chili bean sauce and a chilli oil which I suspected is homemade too.

If this restaurant is in Taiwan I probably would give a 4 star because although their food is very good it probably wouldn’t stand out surrounded by restaurants serving similar cuisine. But this is Mexico and Asian ingredients are extremely hard to come by. I know because I spend months checking every international section of every major supermarket and I couldn’t find much. I talked to Mrs Chung, mother of the chef. They make their own ingredients every morning. And I applaud them for their effort. Their food is exactly how I remember from our numerous Taipei night markets excursions. The details they strive to serve the authentic taste of Taiwan deserve a Five Star...

I desperately needed an authentic (actually asian person certified authentic okay!) asian restaurant in PV. We found it in Budaixi! Not only authentic, it has homemade flavors and delicate technique for preparing the food. In particular, the chef is highly skilled with getting rid of the meat odor from pork, which is an important concept for asian food. Also, I appreciate this restaurant with my wallet everyday because they understand how to balance the flavor, salt and oil. You can tell the chef is actually Taiwanese and not someone who is trained for a few recipes but doesn't understand the cuisine bc it is not overly greasy, not overly salty. Like I told them, anyone can add salt, sugar to a dish for flavor but a skilled chef brings the flavor from the ingredients directly and find the right balance of salt and oil to make it a dish you can tastily and healthily eat everyday. For people complaining about the thickness of the bao, these are just white people who are used the standard north American restaurant way of cooking bao for peking duck. In Taiwan, people have variations in how they cook they cook bao, just like any ethnic cuisine. The essential thing is that the bao is fluffy and smooth which is actually is the best guo bao I've had in this respect. Best guo bao, best cucumber, best peanut noodle I've had and I love to eat all the other dishes as well. Compares even better to many taipei restaurants, as there are no shortcuts or extra fat added to the broth. Lots of love and labor in the food. Thank you so much. Also shootout to Diana and all their...

English / 中文 below ↓

100% auténtica comida taiwanesa! De hecho, es el mejor restaurante taiwanés que he probado en todo México, incluyendo los de CDMX. El caldo de los fideos de res me transportó directamente a casa — soy taiwanesa, y eso no me pasa muy seguido.

La mayoría de las versiones que he probado fuera de Taiwán suelen ser planas y sin profundidad, y es que lograr un buen caldo como este requiere tiempo, cariño y compromiso con la calidad de los ingredientes.

En Budaixi lo logran a la perfección: el caldo es profundo, sabroso, con muchas capas de sabor — ajo, jengibre, cassia, anís estrellado (y seguro más, cada receta tiene su secreto).

Hasta el aceite de chile es tal cual se sirve en muchos restaurantes en Taiwán (muy diferente al estilo sichuan que se suele conocer más en América).

También súper recomendados los wontons. Platiqué un poco con el dueño y me contó que su papá tenía un local en Taiwán, y que las recetas de Budaixi vienen de su familia. Sin duda volveré para probar el resto del menú!

100% authentic Taiwanese food — actually, the best Taiwanese restaurant I've tried in Mexico (puts the ones in CDMX to shame). This is the place to go if, like me, you’ve been living outside of Asia for a while and are craving real, proper Asian/Taiwanese food.

The broth from the beef noodle soup completely transported me back to Taiwan. Most versions I've had outside of Taiwan are, sadly, flat and one-dimensional, as it's a serious labor of love and commitment to quality ingredients to get this broth right.

Budaixi nails it — it's deeply savory, layered with aromatic flavor from garlic, ginger, cassia, star anise (a whole array of aromatics goes into it, everyone has their own secret recipe). Even the chili oil is exactly how they serve it in most restaurants in Taiwan (it's different from Sichuan-style chili oil, which most people in the Americas are more familiar with).

Really recommend the wontons, too! Chatted with the owner a bit and found out his father used to run an eatery in Taiwan and he's using family recipes at Budaixi, so will have to go back and try the rest of the dishes!

100% 道地的台灣味！在墨西哥吃過最好的台灣餐廳（連墨西哥市的都比不上）。他們的牛肉麵一入口就讓我瞬間回到台灣，湯頭超香超濃，卻清澈不油膩，能把這麼多層次的香料與牛肉的鮮味濃縮在一碗湯裡，真的很不簡單。

連辣油都跟台灣小吃店的一模一樣，唯一小小的願望是麵和湯再多一點點 😅...