We went to Thai daughter Friday night. They were celebrating Thai New Years so the atmosphere was very festive with the staff in colorful costumes and a very enjoyable soundtrack of traditional(?) Thai music.
The restaurant was larger than I expected. The room was expansive and painted white and had a warm almost Mediterranean welcoming feeling. The waitstaff were friendly and efficient and things seemed to be flowing like a well oil machine. It was a nice contrast to recent restaurant experiences where the waitstaff are running around looking for things to do while ignoring the patrons.
Here is what we ate:
A grilled octopus appetizer served with grilled asparagus. I tend to like my grilled octopus slightly more charred then this was, but this was still an excellent dish. The fat spears of asparagus underneath were sweet and delicious. The sauce that accompanied the dish was well balanced and accentuated the flavors of the octopus and asparagus. When we were eating this dish, the music playing was some kind of traditional Thai music that was reminiscent of Greek music. So it almost felt like being in a Mediterranean taverna with brilliant white painted walls and grilled octopus.
Our second appetizer was one of the specials. It was some kind of fish cakes or fish dumplings and pork sautéed in a spicy sauce. This was the spiciest dish of the evening. The spice level was very hot -perfect for us though. The deeply flavored fish cakes had a softer texture than most versions of fish cakes which can sometimes border on rubbery. It was very satisfying when you ate a piece of fish cake and some of the umami rich pork and rich spicy sauce. Tasted like something transported from the streets of Bangkok.
The third appetizer we had was grilled pork sausage. This reminded us a lot of the version we used to enjoy at the long gone Ruan Pair restaurant in Berkeley. We recently had a similar dish at Larb Thai. The Larb Thai version was a bit too soft in texture and not as deeply flavored as the Daughter Thai version.
For the main course we shared the Southern fish curry Gang Tai Pla. Described as: “SPICY Pickled fish stew in turmeric, lemongrass & exotic herbs Squash, Thai eggplant, and green beans (No Coconut Milk) Served with Crispy Pork Belly, Vermicelli Noodle & herbs.” It came with herbs and raw Thai eggplant and Bok choy on the side. The vegetables were a bit awkward to eat but still good. The fish was outstanding- very deeply flavored. Very spicy and also very full of funky Thai flavors- earthy, umami, ocean. Definitely not for the unadventurous. But we loved it. We recently had a similar dish at another restaurant but the version at Daughter Thai was more fully realized. The other version (at Larb Thai) was blow your head off spicy but lacked the complexity and depth of flavor of the Daughter Thai version. The dish was served with vermicelli noodles and the pairing was excellent, next time I might ask for extra noodles. The addition of crispy pork belly elevated the dish, though I am
not sure it was essential. The dish was also served with the fresh dill on the side. I added some of the fresh dill to the fish and took a bite. It was a culinary wow moment. One of the moments of sheer taste enjoyment that you experience once in a while but not very often. This dish reminded my husband of a similar dish we had in Bangkok.
I am very picky about Thai food and am sometimes disappointed by restaurants others rave about (Lers Ros in SF is a good example). Based on our first visit I was very impressed with DT. The dishes we ate were very well thought out and well executed, had bold spicy funky Thai flavors (not just heat but funk), were not overly sweet, used high quality ingredients and were fully realized. Moreover the food seemed very authentic and reminiscent of Thai food in Thailand. I am looking forward to going back and trying more dishes from their interesting menu and seeing how consistent the food and QC is.
