On our final night in Asheville, we decided to go try a place that we had seen a couple times on our walks up and down Biltmore Ave. Tucked back on a side street off of Biltmore, we were intrigued with Limones and we decided to eat there that evening.
Hugo Ramirez is a native of Mexico City whose mother was a wonderful cook. Hugo eventually ended up in San Francisco working for - and learning from - a number of top chefs in the area. Many of the restaurants he worked in featured French-inspired California cuisine made with locally-grown produce, meats and seafood. Ramirez would experiment combining the flavors he learned from his mother in Mexico City along with the California-style of cooking he learned.
Hugo and his wife, Amy Cavanaugh, decided to open their own restaurant, and along with their one-year-old child the family set off across the nation ending up in Asheville in 2003. They found a small place in downtown Asheville and opened Limones sometime in 2004. From the first day, Hugo Ramirez garnered a reputation of having unique Mexican foods with a California twist. Menus changed quickly depending upon what fresh foods were available to him. And he continued to talk with his mother in Mexico City to pick her brain about the different intense flavors he could use in his foods.
After getting a shuttle from our hotel to downtown Asheville, we walked down Biltmore Ave. and took a turn onto Eagle Ave. About a half block off Biltmore, we found the front door to Limones. (see map) Now, it was a weeknight and we didn't figure that we would need a reservation. But the long narrow place was packed with diners and the hostess told us that we would probably be waiting 30 to 45 minutes. We were still intrigued enough to stay and we went down to the small bar at the back of the restaurant. The restaurant, itself, looked more like a traditional Southern restaurant - much more than one that served Mexican food with a French/California-cuisine twist.
While we were seated at the bar, we had just ordered margaritas - a regular margarita with Herradura tequila for me, and a coconut-infused margarita for my wife - when the hostess came up to us. She told us that she just had a cancellation for two and said that she could seat us right away. She led us to a small table in far back corner of the restaurant not far from the bar and asked if the table was all right for us. "Perfect," I said. It was cozy, away from the heart of the restaurant that featured a number of banquette seats that I detest so much. We were given menus to look thru and our server for the evening, Anthony, came over to greet us. Anthony seemed to be distracted and indifferent throughout the evening.
Since the menu changes on a regular basis depending upon what Ramirez can procure from his fresh food vendors, the menu we saw that evening was printed on paper. (Click here to see the current day's menu from Limones.) One of the first things we saw on the appetizer part of the menu was the red snapper ceviche. The lime-marinated red snapper was delicious enough, but it came with some fresh guacamole on top along with some chopped red onions. Fresh tortilla chips came on the side with the ceviche. It was a wonderful start to the meal.
I'll have to say that as intrigued as we were with just seeing the outside of Limones, we were very intrigued looking through the menu. Some of the features they had that evening were a seafood stew with lobster, mussels, scallops and a white fish with roasted tomatoes, cannellini beans, chipotle peppers and basil; a slow-roasted short ribs dish with grits, asparagus, and a red Spanish sauce; and duck confit sopas with a roasted corn/green chili relish. To say the menu was interesting was an understatement.
I ended up getting the lamb barbacoa enchiladas they had that evening. The enchiladas came with goat cheese and pickled cauliflower and was drizzled with a green chile/tomatillo sauce. The lamb enchiladas were absolutely delicious. The lamb was tender and tasty, and the chile/tomatillo sauce had a smooth, yet spicy taste.
Now the most interesting thing about this was that Anthony brought my enchiladas out a full two or three minutes before he brought my wife's entree to the table. He silently sat my enchiladas down in front of me, turned and walked away. I sat there with these wonderful looking enchiladas in front of me. My wife told me to dig in, but I didn't want to be rude by starting out before she got her food. When Anthony finally showed up with her meal, he once again sat it down wordlessly in front of my wife, turned and walked off. We just thought his behavior was rather strange for a nice place like Limones.
My wife's seared sea scallop dinner was very interesting. It came on a bed of pureéd carrots with chopped asparagus, roasted mushrooms and organic spinach. The scallops were topped with a chopped cilantro mix. The scallops were big and meaty, seared lightly in butter. The scallops were so moist and tender that all that was needed to cut into them was a fork.
While everything we had for our main meal was very good, it wasn't all that filling leaving us room for dessert. We ended up getting the bread pudding with a scoop of raspberry ice cream on top. The bread pudding was warm and drizzled with a caramel sauce and served with fresh blueberries and a sliced strawberry. The bread pudding was sinfully delicious and very rich.
I can see why Limones is one of the more popular restaurants in Asheville. Considering that we didn't have a reservation - we didn't think we needed one since it was in the middle of the week - our timing was impeccable as a reservation was cancelled just moments after we walked in. The menu was intriguing and interesting, the decor and ambiance was upscale old South, and about the only thing that was sort of out of kilter was the rather indifferent attitude of our server that evening. My food came out a good two to three minutes before my wife and there was no explanation as to why that happened. Other than that, we felt our experience at Limones was top notch and it was one of the better places we ate at during our trip to Asheville.
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