https://www.facebook.com/CurrasGrill
The plan:
Find the best barbecue on our way to the airport so we could fly home bathed in smoke and sauce to savor the whole flight home.
Reality:
A local told us...
"Oooo. You'll never get in there. They usually sell out by now. They might even be closed."
"So where do we go?"
We passed Curras many times during the week going to and from the Onion Creek Field for the Aussie Rule Football finals in Austin, TX. The place falls in the "hole in the wall" category, based on it's location and exterior: unassuming. Our Local told us she took ALL her out of town friends to Curras. Now we know why.
Steve ordered Carnitas Tacos. I had Chicken Mole. Our young waiter was happy to give us his opinion. He has Mexican heritage and had worked in several Mexican restaurants. He emphatically insisted that we would enjoy our food. He explained the complex preparations of both dishes. The mole had over 27 ingredients! He promised us we would enjoy our meal.
Highlights:
- Chips and Salsa: crunchy, thick chips, lightly salted. Complex and gentle heat in the dip. Fresh. No disappointment, but this traditional appetizer did not stand out from other great places we have enjoyed, HOWEVER...
- The mole tasted like eating perfume. Seriously. The flavors were subtle and complex. Light and satisfying. The chicken was TENDER. Whoa! Whew! Yum! Woo! Wow....
- The Carnitas did not disappoint.
Now, if you read my review of Hopdoddy this will sound familiar... Is it Austin? Will we find this at more restaurants here? WHAT is with these people?! They do not take any part of their menu for granted. For 99.99% restaurants a shell is a shell. Get it out of the bag, serve your amazing food on the shell and out ya go! Right? Not here. Just as Hopdoddy serves their amazing food on an amazing bun, Curras serves their amazing food on an AMAZING corn tortilla.
- Soft Taco Shells: Scratch-made at the restaurant, these corn tortillas were soft, tender, flexible, silky. Da BOMB! Steve could not decide whether the shells were flour or corn. He ordered corn. They smelled like corn. They felt like flour?! The texture (both to the hand, eye and the mouth) was CRAZY good! We were eating at a table by a window in the afternoon with lots of natural light! These shells completely elevated this dish.
If I sound effusive, I am. Plain and simple, our meal was simply amazing.
So our flight home was not wrapped in glorious clouds of smoke and BBQ sauce. Instead we were laughing about judging a "book" by it's cover. An unassuming restaurant can hold a pearl of delicious dishes, prepared with love.
Cinco NOMS out of cinco!
I can not wait to get back to Austin to try other dishes from Curras.
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