cúrate

located in one of america's finest mountain towns of asheville, north caolina, cúrate is not a prototypical southern restaurant. while it offers pork, it is of the jamón serrano variety, dissimilar to the whole hog fare seen at local (delicious) carolina barbecue shacks. diners at cúrate are taken on a tour, not through dixie or a plantation, but through exotic spanish locales such as galicia and catalonia. it's not cheap, especially for middle class asheville, yet it was completely packed at 9:30 pm on a thursday night. we barely snagged a seat at the bar. intrigued? we sure were...

surprised by the negative reviews. i have eaten atcurateabout eight time and it has never disappointed. one of my top five places in asheville and the same is true of the friends i have asked. good value but the tab runs up quickly with spendy drinks.

curate is a well-known authentic spanish tapas restaurant led by chef katie button in asheville, north carolina. cúrate is a celebration of authentic spanish cuisine. for those who have visited spain, the cúrate menu will bring back memories of the country's best jamón ibérico, vermuterías, and lively tapas culture. in recognition of the restaurant’s all-spanish wine list, cúrate was listed as one of america’s 100 best wine restaurants by wine enthusiast magazine in 2018. cúrate means ‘cure yourself’ in spanish, reflecting the belief held by chef katie button and her family that there are curative effects in sharing good food and wine with family and friends. experience the essence of spain in downtown asheville… one plate at a time.

this is our go-to birthday and girls' night dinner place. sometimes i have mad cravings for the tortilla. we have tried so many things from cúrate and loved nearly all of them. i can't think of a single loser or even mediocre dish. as an iberian american raised in europe this is soul food for me. some reviewer who likes appleby's said that cúrate was not up to par yet with other asheville establishments and compares the food to other "hispanic" restaurants. if one is expecting hispanic cuisine at cúrate one may well be disappointed. spanish and hispanic (that would include mexican and other former american colonies of spain) are not the same. this is a spanish restaurant; that's a whole other thing. a whole different set of flavors. i don't make this as a snob point, it's just that equating spanish food to hispanic food is about as accurate as comparing it to italian food. it's just a different palette of ingredients because of the various influences of culture, geography and history.

always stellar. i've eaten atcuratenumerous times and it never fails to impress. in fact, it is my favorite restaurant period. service is great and the flavors of the food are amazing. definitely make a reservation several weeks in advance. this place is very small and the tapas experience doesn't turn over tables very quickly.

blown away. i don't write a lot of reviews although my fiance and i eat at a lot of the local restaurants. if something is really bad or really good than i will usually add my two cents. i had eaten atcuratewhen it first opened and before it got to be "the best restaurant in asheville" and all of the other accolades that it has incurred. my fiance and i had a reservation at the admiral on friday 09/05 but saw an opening forcurateand changed quickly to give it another shot. we eat at the admiral frequently and live fairly close so we decided downtown was a nice change of pace. it was our anniversary and we put that on opentable.com although i don't know if half the restaurants acknowledge this or care. we were seated promptly and our waiter was very knowledgeable although a little robotic. we ordered the specialty cocktails and six different tapas to share. the first five were some of the best things we have eaten and my fiance kept raving about how awesome this experience was. we ordered the jamon iberico, the rosemary eggplant and honey tapa, the meatballs made from the same jamon iberico pigs, a chorizo and potato puree tapa, and spanish goat cheese stuffed piquillo peppers. these were all incredible and my fiance was raving about them again last night. the end of the meal is what made me want to write this review because after we paid our bill, our waiter told us to wait patiently because the kitchen prepared something special for our anniversary. he brought out a really amazing chocolate dessert which was made with thin layers of dark chocolate, hazelnuts, and some other ingredient i can't remember. when a restaurant goes out of it's way to do something like that, they have a return customer for life. thanks curate!!

patrick and ariel

wish i had my $ back. my parents were in town for the weekend and wanted to go here. we only tried a few dishes, and none of them were anything special. the bill was over $200 and we only had one drink each. i think there must be enough unsuspecting tourists to keepcurategoing. the food is just soso at best. we had acorn ham, potatoes, asparagus and a couple others. there was an ice cream dessert too. nothing stands out.

sangria... tapas... pure freshness. finally got to visitcuratethis evening, and it did not disappoint!! we went all in and split a pitcher of sangria between our group of 4. it was delicious, and lightly sweet like you would find in spain. we started with the bread, tomato spread, and manchego app, simple and delicious. our waitress at the bar was fantastic and gave us great recommendations. we had the potato chip wrapped chorizo, sausage and white bean dish, and my personal favorite the goat cheese stuffed peppers. all were well prepared and so fresh tasting. i highly suggest sitting at the bar to watch the staff at work, truly amazing. cant wait to go back again!

 last night my husband and i went tocuratein asheville, north carolina for my birthday, and i was scheduled to meet chef katie button.  i always go into panic mode when meeting a new chef.  can i say their name correctly? do i know enough about them  last night's big hurdle was learning to pronouncecurateright before i stepped in the door.  four years of spanish and coo-ru-tay was the best i could do, so we went with it.   chef katie is  a rock star in my world.  she was a james beard semifinalist for rising star chef of the year in 2013, for goodness sakes!  they don't hand those nods out to just anyone. she was in full planning mode since her and husband felix meana's second venture, a speakeasy of sorts they are calling the nightbell, is slated to open in asheville february 2.   but, she did take some time to talk with me and i was so thankful! the james beard awards , in case you are wondering, are like the oscars of the food world.  i'm always glued to my twitter feed during f

very unimpressed. don't believe the hype.. with all the hype around this restaurant in a town brimming with incredible, unique dining options, i was expecting really great food. i have been tocuratetwice now due to social situations. i was not impressed at all the first time but gave it another chance and had a really bad experience the second time. out of the 8 or so dishes we tried, we loved the cheese plate and everything else was mediocre at best. top this off with bland/verging on rude service + a $200 bill and i will never ever support this restaurant again. with all the amazing choices in asheville, don't waste your time and money.

owned and chef’ed by award winning, katie button and her husband, felix meana,curateis a pretty famous and very popular tapas bar. chef button’s recipes have been featured in foodie mags like food & wine and southern living, among others. and she’s been a chef for maybe 2 years, with a couple of years experience in front of that. amazing! their small plates are unparalleled. their cocktails, gorgeous and creative. we waited 45 minutes for our table because they were totally booked for reservations. i’d say if you want to enjoy curate, book well in advance, get there very early or wait it out. it’s so worth it. you will see why she deserves all those accolades. next time, i hope to meet this rising star.

worth the trip. i discoveredcurate2 years ago by accident and have recommended it to anyone who goes to asheville. having traveled to spain on several,occasions, i thought i was on las rambles in barcelona. to say the food is outstanding does not give it proper acknowledgement. very dish i have ordered seems to be better than the last.

because this is a tapas restaurant, you can try tons of dishes without getting too full. they’re all reasonably priced – their current menu is here. one of my favorite things atcurateis their pan con tomate. tomato bread. local bread, fresh tomatoes, olive oil, and sea salt.

made me miss spain.... since returning from studying abroad in spain, i am always on the lookout for a good tapas bar, andcuratedefinitely fits the bill!

the menu is very typical spanish and includes many tapas i had not had since returning from study abroad. our table ordered: marinated olives, patatas bravas (fried potatoes with spicy brava sauce), pincho moruno (grilled lamb skewer), a bocadillo (typical spanish sandwich with spanish cured ham and cheese), jamon iberico (cured spanish ham, similar to proscuitto but more delicious, in my opinion), nc littleneck clams in a broth with spanish ham and pine nuts, and berenjenas la taberna (fried eggplant dirzzled with honey and rosemary). everything was delicious!

my only complaint: the sangria is only available by the pitcher which runs around 30 dollars. this price is not at all typical of spain. i understand the cost of importing wine may inflate the price a bit, but it should not to this extreme. i ordered wine by the glass instead, which was much more reasonably priced.

i would also like to share my opinion on thecuratevs. zambra debate: both!! although both are tapas restaurants, they are in no way clones of each other. both have excellent food and very different menus (with the exception of a few spanish tapas "staples" included on both menus).

overall i definitely recommendcurateand will certainly be returning!

four of us met for lunch at cúrate a couple weeks ago. i thought it was going to be a mostly business meeting, but it quickly became a mostly loving on cúrate session. flatware and drink lists tucked into stamped envelopes top placemats doubling as menus on casual wooden tables. seating is spaced in a way that keeps conversation semi-private at each table. during the day, cúrate’s interior is light and fun. as the sun sets, ambiance gradually shifts to a little darker and more romantic. we shared, feasting on tapas as they crisscrossed our table. it began slowly with one or two plates, getting more interesting as each new dish was delivered.  it all began with almendras fritas ($5) – fried marcona almonds with sea salt. butternut squash soup with smoked spanish paprika, crema de calabaza ($5) , topped with an artistic swirl and pumpkin seeds, was rich and deeply flavored. one of my favorites was the gambas al ajillo ($11) : sauteed shrimp and garlic served with roasted pepper and seaso