Curra’s Grill

The service prevents them getting more stars. Every time I have been here some sort of service problem is experienced. Long wait just to order when there only a few other diners — Which makes me ask does the water also cook the food and clean the toilets? And there is always a foul smell — shouldn’t the smell of Mexican food cooking over power the fishy smell? On several occasions we have had to ask for the fan to be turned on or move to another seat under an air vent due to the heat in the place.
That said the food is good the vegetable and chicken fajitas are both good and they come with several different flavored tortillas. The red corn tortilla is my favorite it is made with either chili powder or red peppers it is very flavorful. They are delicious rubbed with a little butter! The vegetable Enchiladas are also very tasty. The salsa and margaritas are both OK — not the worst but definitely not the best.

curra’s is the only place i get «over-​served.» being «over-​served» is not a bad thing. it’s actually a very nice warm feeling with as hint of creepiness. every single visit has been really exceptional. the food is excellent, the décor is interesting but the top shelf margaritas aren’t anything to Unilocal about. i am, however, in love with the frozen avocado margaritas. i hate guacamole and avocados but this concoction has me hooked like a junkie.
but back to the service. it’s like they are mentally one step ahead of me. they know what i need before i ask. i finish my oj and they swipe it off the table and replace it with a glass of water within seconds. it was eerie. our chips are looking low and out of the blue our server gracefully replaces the basket. empty plates disappear without notice. i could go on but you get the point.

Food is Great, Service is Terrible. Go to the one on Oltorf
First let me preface that I love Curra’s. So much that I have returned to the restaurant again and again and received bad service. I would guess I have been to Curra’s on Burnet 5 times in the last six months… each about a month apart as I was hoping that somehow the service would be at an acceptable level.
Of those 5 times the service has been what I would call good only once. Acceptable to me is being attended to by a hostess within 5 minutes of walking in the door. Acceptable is having your server greet you within 5 minutes of being seated. Acceptable is having your server drop back by after dropping the food off to make sure everything is ok. Twice I have had to get up and find the waiter or another waiter to help us with something.
They always have a sign up that they are hiring most of the time, so I guess it doesn’t surprise me. A restaurant that is always hiring is usually indicative of bad management. But I am not here to question their business practices, I just want their al pastor tacos and their tamales and margaritas.
I love Curra’s but hate the service at the Burnet restaurant
UPDATE: We gave it another chance last week, because like I mentioned before we love the food. After being greeted by a hostess who seemed put off by our showing up we were led to our table. I pulled out my watch to see how long it would take for someone to say hello to us, or just stop by and say «it will be just a sec», or bring us some chips, or some kind of human contact. After 6 long minutes of waiters walking right by us not even acknowledging us, we walked out. Never again, Curra’s Burnet, never again.

Another Friday night, and another frantic search for a Mexican restaurant. We always seek out to try something «new», so we find ourselves at Curra’s. The restaurant doesn’t look like much from the outside. It’s old, run down, and kind of dirty… in other words, it fits in perfect with Burnet Rd (OH! Diss!). The interior is what you would expect from the outside… it’s old, run-​down, and kind of dirty. The bathroom… one of the worst I’ve been into in Austin.
So, with all that said, the food is pretty dang good. the queso was excellent, but the chips were not. The enchiladas were pretty good, the burrito was better. All in all, a pretty good dining experience minus the atmosphere. It kind of seemed to blend in with all the other Austin mexican food resturaunts. I may go back, but I don’t see myself making the effort…

I took my mom to this restaurant this past weekend. We loved it!
We ordered and shared the following things:
1) Jr. Tamale plate (One of each: chicken, pork, veggie and sweet). It was good… not great. A little dry for my taste, but the hot sauce made up for that. The sweet one was a nice surprise. I wouldn’t order this dish again or recommend it.
2) Blacked fish tacos. Fantastic! Fish was perfectly cooked and the flavor was super. Would recommend it to others.
3) Chips & Salsa. Who has to pay for chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant. Crazy… That is why I gave them only 3 stars.
4) Avocado Margaritas. I could have drank a pitcher by myself. I will go back just to have more!!! Thick, tangy, full of surprising flavor!
Service was great, clean enough (just don’t look @ the ceiling vents — Mold city) and food selection was impressive. I will definitely be dining here again.

Curra’s is one of those places that you take people who are bored with Tex Mex. The cuisine is «authentic» without being too bizarro for the American palate. They have a ton of boss ass sauces that they will bring to your table and let you try. Very important when deciding on how to dress your enchiladas. I’m a fan of the good old Enchilada’s Curras. Simple cheese with hearty Carne Guisada topping. It’s like South of the Border comfort food. Top that action off with their Tres Leches Cake and you will be singing the praises of Curra’s and buying your pants about one size larger.
Not that great if you want to watch what you eat, but feel free to indulge because the prices are muy excellente!

So after driving past this place every day on the way to work for 2 years, a friend of mine finally insisted that we try it last night after spending some time at the Draught House. The short version is, while not great, you could do a lot worse.
When we got there the place was pretty empty and it certainly isn’t going to get any points for overall décor or ambiance (not that I really care, but I’m sure there are some of you picky types that do). The waitress was attentive and provided great service throughout the evening. My mexican martini was nice and strong, and my friend had no complaints about his margarita either, though both of these libations were quite a bit overpriced. The salsa is WAY too thin, but has a nice flavor and heat to it. The menu didn’t have a ton of things that really jumped out at me, so I finally settled on the blackened fish enchiladas. These were quite tasty with large chunks of moist fish. The black beans left a little to be desired, but weren’t horrible. My friend, having been born near the Oaxaca region of Mexico is a mole addict (personally I think the stuff is a crime against humanity, but to each his own), so he quickly zeroed in on the mole enchiladas. He proceeded to rave about these all night, and is now insisting we return for more as soon as we can. So if you’re a fan of mole I guess this is your place to eat in this part of town. While I’m not in love with this place, I’ll say the food and the service was good enough for me to return on my own accord, and in a town with as many tex-​mex joints as Austin has, that’s saying something.

I’ll be honest: my experiences at Curra’s have varied from mediocre to exceptional. The food is always good if not excellent, but I do find the margaritas overpriced, and occasionally the service is spread too thin. Still, the refried black beans, sprinkled with cojita cheese, are one of a kind, and I have had some incredible tamales at Curra’s. I went here once with a group of about 30 long-​time Austinites (so they do handle large groups!), and we ordered at least one of everything on the menu. It was all pure bliss, especially the interior Mexican dishes, the assortment of homemade tamales, and the snapper ceviche.

I’m not much of an enchilada guy… so Curra’s menu leaves me pretty flat. There’s not much else they have that makes me excited.
For the most part I find Curra’s to be over-​priced and over-​hyped.
I can second Sarah’s experience with questionable service and the over-​priced margaritas. Meh. These things will drop my star-​rating for a restaurant any day. Thus only 3 from me on Curras.

With my belly still full of vegetarian enchilada, I have no choice but to give Curra’s Grill 5 stars. The food came highly recommended and was absolutely superb. I ordered the veg enchilada with chipotle sauce and my friend ordered the veggie fajita. The refried black beans were very flavorful, and the rice was fantastic (I’m judging this by how much it did NOT taste like Minute rice)! Her fajita veggies were just right… slightly undercooked to preserve the crunch. My enchiladas were also prepared perfectly, leaving me scraping my plate to consume the last bits of tortilla, mushroom and fresh zucchini. As they say at the restaurant, «Panza Llena, Corazon Contento».
On another note, if us Unilocalers could give separate stars for separate aspects of the experience, I’m afraid Curra’s would not be so highly regarded. The cheesy background music and miscellaneous decorum didn’t do much for me, and we almost fell off our seats when we were charged $ 9.25 for an ice-​filled, meagerly salted traditional margarita. (The food is relatively cheap.) The service, unfortunately, was ghastly. I would like very much to give them the benefit of the doubt, but that’s difficult to do after our waiter spoke to us in a whisper and stared off into space as we attempted to order. The worst was when the poor boy sitting next to us asked him about the enchilada sauce. The waiter’s response? «You didn’t even read the menu, did you?» Yikes. But… don’t let this deter you from going… the food is phenomenal.
I encourage you to lick your plate clean.

I never knew tamales could taste like this — light, fluffy, flavorful. The rest of Curra’s menu rocks too, from the enchiladas Curras to the chicken mol. It’s all pretty good, and the prices are extremely reasonable given the food quality.