Best Quality Daughter — Restaurant in San Antonio

Every December for the last 5 years, I've had annual meeting in San Antonio where a couple work friends and I try to top the prior year's lunch spot. To say there's not a lot of pressure on the choice is an understatement. Fortunately, Best Quality Daughter knocked it out of the park! It had all the things we look for. Most important, impressive quality food that is unique in it's class. Different stuff that we usually don't get. Great staff that shows impressive ownership/leadership. And, a funky vibe location.

Best Quality Daughter had them all and for the fifth year, we can check that box: a great meal with great people. The sad (sad?) part is that we just order as much as we can to sample as wide a variety as we can. I wish we had the Anthony Bourdain budget, but we did limit ourselves to three apps and three entrees. In a miracle, I think they kept coming out better and better as each plate arrived.

We started off with the Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken. Great Asian Fried chicken and if the Thai Basil Ranch sauce was for sale, we all would have bought a jar to bring home! It could accompany so much. Next up were the very unique Mochi Cheddar Hush Puppies. Again, the accompanying Tai chili jam was off the rails. Most hush puppies are over cooked or at too high a temp. These were fluffy, almost pastry, versions of mac & cheese with a great parmesan(?) crust. We finished out the apps with the Impossible Potstickers. I love potstickers and these were new level. I'm not remotely vegan, but these were divine. Eat them fast while they are still warm and you will get a sublime pop of ginger in a way you've never seen.

Next up we seriously trolled the entrees. We shared everything family style which is what I highly recommend so you can sample more than you order. Be careful though, you may loose a finger if someone is digging in too aggressively. Be kind to your neighbor... We started off with Salt-n-Pepper Shrimp. I just can't find the right emoji that shows "Joy". Smiling, pleasurable, happy - Joy. That's all that came to mind eating that shrimp. Not overly sodiumed out, but an incredible spice of salt & pepper. Genius in a bite. Surprisingly, it gets even better. We were all knocked out with the innovative Red Curry Mole Beef Stir Fry that came next. That chocolate mole with mouth tingling warm (not painfully hot) curry was a pairing I would have never expected. But I enjoyed it. And the roasted sunflower seeds gave it a taste level and texture bump. As we sat there satiated and content looking to see if the seating could turn into a nap space, out rolled the final and supreme dish. I would NEVER order this as a meal. I would only recommend it as a shared experience. It was so rich and decadent that I would have to be hospitalized after over indulging if I went at it alone. It was the Pork Belly Ssam. I recommend this highly: order all your entrees and then plus this to share. It was like eating bacon butter with a chewy finish. Then when you add the pickled onions and INSANE-ly good sauces on the side....

Oh man, that finishes off my year with an EXCEPTIONAL meal. Ok, I've written too much in all caps. Trust me: bring your special someone(s) to this place and enjoy your heart out.

Apologies for the poor photos this time. I was too focused on getting my fair share of the food before my two lunch partners...

Let me begin my review by first saying I myself am an Asian American and daughter and granddaughter of Filipina immigrants. I first heard of Best Quality Daughter through an artist/friend whose artwork hangs inside the main dining room of the restaurant. Due to a recent unfortunate event involving a pretentious and hideous character lacking melanin whose name rhymes with none-shine, I felt emotionally and spiritually called to dine at Best Quality Daughter. I drove 4.5 hours from DFW to try the food, that's how drawn I was to try it. I came on a weekday afternoon when there would be fewer people because of Covid. To my delight, there were only 3 other tables being waited on. The interior decorating was remarkably charming. I forgot to take a picture of the bar, which had pink acrylic, mirror-like tiles on the ceiling above and a neon sign in the window that evokes old school Chinese restaurants. The pink floral wallpaper throughout the main dining room, flowery ceiling lights, and open seating made me feel like I was dining in the dollhouse of my dreams. Every little detail from the menu to the takeout boxes and chopstick sleeves demonstrates the thoughtful planning that went into every inch of the restaurant. I could feel the heartbeat of this place. I was greeted by the wonderful owner, Jenn, and sat in the pink dining room where I then met my server, a friendly young guy whose humor entertained me the entire time. Upon perusing the cocktail menu, a selection of libations from which I struggled to choose because they all sounded so good, not to mention the 4.5 hour drive back to DFW awaiting me, I landed on the Nightshades cocktail because I'm a gin girl. It was so good I had to stop myself from chugging it. I began my meal with the squash salad and fried shiitake mushrooms. The squash salad was the perfect summer salad. It was light, refreshing, packed with flavor, and absolutely delicious. I ate the entire bowl. My first bite of the fried shiitakes immediately brought me back to my childhood, to those special nights when my mom would bring home dinner and ordered my favorite side of deep-fried, breaded mushrooms. BQD takes that to another level by using shiitakes and pairing it with a delicious Thai basil ranch dip. Next I tried the crab boudin egg rolls with the Thai chili jam, which comes two rolls per order and is just the right amount for a small plate. I ended up taking one home as a leftover because I wanted to try the dessert. The dessert menu is short and sweet (pun intended). I ordered the milk oolong ice cream sandwich which is a block of ice cream covered in a chocolate shell sitting atop a fried rice bun. To my surprise, the bun was my favorite part because it tasted like fried dough you'd get at a carnival. Overall, Best Quality Daughter was top quality and left me wishing I lived closer so I could come back. The only downside of coming during a slow afternoon is that the staff could very well look at the security cameras and see me dancing for joy in my seat while I ate. Best Quality Daughter gives me a reason to visit San Antonio again and I can't wait...

We went to Best Quality Daughter for lunch on a weekend and enjoyed the charm of this unique Asian bungalow and its bright colored and playful Asian themes viewed around every turn; such as, using piñata pandas in between tables for social distancing and playful commentary on their custom chopstick wrappers. A lot of thought went into presenting Best Quality Daughter as unique to other Asian restaurants in San Antonio. Unfortunately, the presentation was the highlight of our experience at Best Quality Daughter. We ordered two apps and two noodle entrees. The peanuts were interesting with a play on peanut toffee but with a Sichuan spice mix that was lacking in peanuts and “mala”. The disaster of our meal was the Smashed Cucumbers -- this dish was entirely inedible and should be taken off the menu until repaired. Fair warning -- if you’re required to limit your sodium intake do not order this dish. It’s disappointing that the chefs at Best Quality Daughter did not learn how to properly make Sichuan Smashed Cucumbers. Instead they bastardized the concept with salt stuffed cucumbers that were cut (not smashed!) and mixed with bland red sauce (again no “mala”) that was topped with what seemed like a heaping scoop of “sorry this dish sucks” tahini dip. We asked for this disk to be taken back twice to reduce the salt. Unfortunately, less salt on our cucumbers was too difficult a task for the chef to execute. And yes, there are places in town you can get proper Smashed Cucumbers (for less $$).

Now onto the entrees. The Taiwanese Beef soup was just ok. Really nothing bad about it, but it’s nothing I’m going to tell my friends to go out of their way to get. The broth was ok - not as rich as I had hoped. The meat was cooked properly. Noodles were fine. Just average.

The best dish we had was the Panang Dan Dan noodles. I recommend this dish if you’re looking for something hearty and filling as it is heavy-- the sauce is almost an alfredo consistency. This dish is an example of quality I would want in all the other dishes at Best Quality Daughter. This is an excellent integration of Thai and Sichuan cuisine. If only our other dishes were as well thought out and executed.

The service was excellent.

Overall, this is a 3 star restaurant that could be a 5 star if they worked on their quality across dishes for a proper balance of seasoning. Also they should focus on enriching the dimension of their flavors so each dish stands out on its own (like the Panang Dan Dan noodles). I went to Best Quality Daughter searching for a bold fusion of Sichuan “mala” but instead got nada. Based on our experience, it seemed Best Quality Daughter put more effort into their Asian bungalow theme than into their cuisine. I hope they...