Dining review: Cúrate

It was 2011 and a buzz surrounded a newly renovated building on Biltmore Avenue downtown.

The restaurant it housed, Cúrate, spearheaded by chef Katie Button, garnered attention from that first day and there has been no turning back. Five years later, Cúrate is still one of the hottest meal tickets in Asheville. In fact, when I wanted to visit, I found weeks where the only reservations available were at 3 or 10 p.m.

By now, most probably know about Cúrate and its Spanish tapas. The question is, with all of its popularity, has the quality of food stayed a constant? Is it still worth the two months' of planning and fighting off tourists just to get a table?

Those who score a table are presented with a place mat-style menu with an abundance of options. Typically, I’m not a fan of large menus. However, when dining on tapas, you’re going to need choices.

If you’re worried you won’t know what to choose, or your Spanish is rusty, never fear: the servers are well-versed. Ours shared with us his favorites, answered questions clearly and even offered what he called the Spanish experience, where he would select the most popular and favorite items for about $30 per person.

I decided to choose my own adventure, starting off with a cocktail. The Rebujito, a combo of Manzanilla sherry, lemon, mint and bitter lemon, was refreshing despite the inherent bitterness. Meanwhile, my wife sipped Cúrate’s ultimate gin and tonic, always a good standby.

One special of the day was padrón peppers, small mild green chilies with a one in 10 shot of being spicy (we found one in our bunch). The peppers were blistered and topped with bonito flakes, dancing from the steam of the dish. It was simple and a perfect starter with our drinks.

The padróns didn’t hold a candle to the next dish, pan con tomate with Manchego. Rustic bread was sliced, toasted and topped with tomato fresco and thin slices of manchego.

An order of tabla de jamon arrived at the same time, featuring three varieties of Spanish ham: Serrano, similar to prosciutto, a slightly richer Ibérico ham and an Ibérico de bellota, offering more complexity and nuttiness. The price seems high at $20, but seeing as some of these hams can push $100 a pound, Curate’s price actually seems reasonable.

The ensalada de verano, a salad of petite greens featuring heirloom cherry tomatoes, soft sheep's cheese and corn nuts, all dressed in a honey-sherry vinaigrette, exuded summer. The star player was the compressed watermelon, resulting in vibrantly colored pieces that packed twice the flavor.

Dishes arrive as they are ready, and our fried dishes came up next. An old favorite, berenjenas la taberna, or fried eggplant, takes slices of eggplant and drizzles them in honey and rosemary. Sadly, the eggplant, though enjoyable, wasn’t fried quite as crisp as on past visits.

The next dish, croquetas de pollo, was chosen by my daughter and tasted like a bite of breaded and fried chicken potpie with a hint of paprika. It was good but not reorder-worthy.

While my daughter chose the croquetas, her favorite turned out to be the pulpo a la gallega. Also a favorite of mine, it’s a traditional Galician-style octopus dish. If you’ve never tried octopus before, Cúrate’s version is where you should start. Small, incredibly tender bites of octopus are coated with olive oil, paprika and sea salt and then served next to a silken potato purée.

The final dish of the night, by recommendation of our server, was setas al jerez and cerdo iberico a las finas hierbas, or sauteed mushrooms in sherry with grilled pork skirt steak, rosemary and thyme. The iberico pork was tender and incredibly rich in flavor, but it was the sherry that woke the whole dish up and made it a success.

Our server talked us into trying a couple of desserts. Alongside a couple of café con leches, tasty but sadly lukewarm at best, we dug in.

The espuma de chocolate was a thick, rich and creamy chocolate mousse topped with raspberry sorbet and hazelnut praline. We should have stopped there, but seeing our server said the desserts were small, we also ordered the tarta de pistachio.

The dish looked like one of those plates pieced together with tweezers. The accompanying lemon-thyme ice cream and blackberry coulis were quite good. However, the pistachio sponge cake, which ran slightly dry, looked like someone took a slice of cake, crumbled it and sprinkled it around the plate in calculated order. The lesson? Always stop at chocolate.

It was good to see that, despite Cúrate’s popularity, side projects and swarms of tourists (we practically had to step over them to get out the door at 10 p.m.), quality control is still in effect. It might be difficult to get in, but it’s definitely worth the fight.

IF YOU GO

The restaurant:  Cúrate, 11 Biltmore Ave., 828-239-2946, www.curatetapasbar.com.

Hours: Tuesday-Thursday, Sunday, 11:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m.

Atmosphere: There is an energy to Cúrate. People linger over their food and drink and a long bar holds a row of people excitedly watching the chefs in the open kitchen. The space doesn’t rely on Spanish paraphernalia hanging at every turn to dictate the theme. Rather, tile work, the color palate and artwork give evidence of the restaurant’s direction. While some historical elements were left in place, the restaurant is still very modern.

Dish to try:  Pulpo a la gallega, the Galician style octopus should be on your list. Pan con tomate is also a must order.

Beverage notes:  Beer, wine, sangria and cocktails.

Prices: $5-22

Service:  Knowledgeable.

Health Department score:  96.0

The bottom line:  After five years, Cúrate still feels current and the quality remains. While the per-plate price doesn’t appear that high, factor in that it’s recommended to have three-four plates each, and you have a high-priced meal. Combine that with the difficulty to get in and Cúrate is a dinner you have to put some effort into. However, you'll leave without any regrets. One suggestion: go with a couple of other people so you get twice as many dishes to try. If they are into swapping a bite for a bite, and you can discover new favorites, like the brandada de bacalao (cod and potato puree, which happened to be my kid’s second favorite).

Matthew DeRobertis is a chef, instructor and gastronomically obsessed writer who'd rather eat than sleep. Contact him at ChefDeRoWrites@gmail.com.