Does San Antonio's dining scene need new energy? I kept asking the question when parsing through San Antonio Express-News restaurant critic Mike Sutter's recent ranking of the Top 50 Restaurants of 2025, a newly expanded format that adds another 25 contenders to the traditional top 25. Except for a few upstarts, it seemed to paint a portrait of a culinary landscape that's, well, stuck.
The top 10 list included six repeats from last year and the same top two. The four restaurants that dropped out of premier placement — Bar Loretta (No. 11), Aldo's Ristorante Italiano (No. 13), Cured (No. 15), and Bliss (No. 16) — still kept bragging rights. Only Chad Carey's Petit Coquin, coming in hot at No. 3, offered some surprise. But not really. Sutter gave the tiny French bistro a rare five-star rating in April.
This year's top 10 are as follows:
1. Mixtli
2. Clementine
3. Petit Coquin
4. Shiro Japanese Bistro
5. Cullum's Attaboy
6. The Jerk Shack
7. Leche de Tigre
8. Bohanan's Prime Steaks & Seafood
9. 2M Smokehouse
10. Brasserie Mon Chou Chou
To be clear, my vexation has nothing to do with Sutter. His witty work at the Austin American-Statesman helped form my approach to criticism when I began writing restaurant reviews for the Austin Chronicle. Nor is it an indictment of the restaurants themselves. I might have a slightly different personal top 10, but Sutter's picks have a chokehold on my top 25.
Sutter's intro paints a restaurant scene alive with possibilities. Certainly, San Antonio is currently fascinating the national press, Michelin Inspectors, and James Beard Foundation judges. He points to all these developments as a reason to increase the restaurants listed, split into a two-week rollout.
"So why split the reveal?" Sutter wrote. "We did it to drive home an inescapable point: San Antonio's restaurant scene has evolved far beyond the Top 25 rankings I started in 2023. Getting to 50 was the easy part. Keeping it to 50 was a beast."
But only seven of the top 50 restaurants were not already opened by 2023. After an electric burst of culinary activity from 2019-2022, San Antonio has seen few remarkable independent restaurants while huge corporate chains are gobbling up as much commercial real estate as they can. Economic realities have made running a food business more difficult than ever, but I'm starved for new projects offering refreshing points of view.
Even if the Express-News' latest list did expose a dining scene that's craving new ideas, there's still plenty to digest. Here are a few stray observations about Mike Sutter's top 50 restaurants.
Winners and losers
The biggest success story was the aforementioned Petit Coquin, which catapulted to the top 10 mere months after opening. The snubs were much more noticeable. We'll assume Sequin's Burnt Bean Co. didn't make the list because it is not actually located in San Antonio (we nominated it for a Tastemaker Award anyway). Still, one restaurant glaringly fell off the top 50 entirely. Nineteen Hyaku, last year's No. 18, was nowhere to be found, along with other Carpenter Carpenter concepts like Restaurant Claudine.
Whither Asian cuisine?
Sutter's list did include a few Asian standouts like Sichuan House, Madurai Mes, and Kimura, but San Antonio could use more culinary diversity. While one will turn blue waiting for a San Antonio H-Mart, surely San Antonio can support more than Panda Express? The recent outcropping of promising Chinese concepts — Duck & Dumpling, Ping's Sichuan Kitchen, and Luscious Dumplings — is certainly welcome.
Herding the golden cows
Sutter has never been afraid of San Antonio's culinary establishment. One of his first reviews for the Express-News was a thorough drubbing of the late Lüke, called a hit job by many. Restaurateurs who once dominated the city's culinary conversation, like Johnny Hernandez and Andrew Goodman, were left off the list. Only one of Jason Dady's many concepts, Tre Trattoria, earned a spot.
Michelin, Schmichelin
Michelin Guide recognition did not sway Sutter, with Little Em's Oyster Bar and Barbecue Station failing to make the cut. James Beard semifinalist nods also weren't an express pass to the newspaper's list. Best Quality Daughter and El Pastor Es Mi Señor both had chefs make the James Beard Awards semifinalist round, but that didn't guarantee inclusion by the critic.
Pearl plunges
San Antonio's Pearl, arguably the city's premier culinary hub, had a so-so showing on Sutter's roundup. Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery, Brasserie Mon Chou Chou, Cured, Ladino, Supper, and (surprise!) The Culinary Institute of America's Savor were in. Best Quality Daughter, Full Goods Diner, Boiler House, and Carriqui were out. Only half of Pullman Market's restaurants were selected. Mezquite and Nicosi were the favored siblings over Fife & Farro and Isidore.
Small quibbles
When talking about San Antonio restaurants with a distinct point-of-view, it's hard not to think of Best Quality Daughter — a razor-sharp exploration of identity through food. Pumpers' anarchic spirit always exhilarates and is an antidote to the self-seriousness of some chef-driven concepts. And Il Forno and WonderSlice Pizza are both upper-crust.