Editor’s note: This is part of The Know’s series, Staff Favorites. Each week, we give our opinions on the best that Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities and more. (We’ll also let you in on some hidden gems.)
Denver has a few dishes the city is known for — the sugar steak at Bastien’s, bison frybread tacos, El Taco de Mexico’s green chile-smothered burritos, the sopapillas at Casa Bonita — but a surprising seafood dish is becoming a fast-rising star in the Mile High City’s culinary scene: the tostada de toro at Michelin-starred Mezcaleria Alma, the next-door little sister to slightly more famous Alma Fonda Fina.
Made with smashed avocado, charred habanero aioli, dry-aged toro (AKA fatty tuna) that’s sliced to order, sesame chile oil and an almost comically thick blanket of diced chives on a freshly pressed and fried house-made tortilla, this $23 dish is more than memorable. It’s last meal-worthy.
“I would say 50% of people that order that dish order it again before they even finish it,” chef Johnny Curiel said in a . And I believe him, because I’ve done just that — twice.
Have you ever loved a restaurant’s dish so much that you order it as both a starter and dessert every time you dine there? This kind of adoration is worthy of a great romance novel, so consider this my official love letter to a perfect Mexico City-inspired bite.
On paper, it almost feels like this tostada shouldn’t work. With four fatty components (avocado, aioli, the toro and a puddle of chile oil, never mind the fried tortilla), you’d think it would feel overwhelmingly rich, but it’s got a hit of acid from accompanying lime, plus smokiness and heat from the chile in the aioli and oil, that cuts right through the fattiness.
And then comes a burst of verdant, bright, aromatic freshness from the blanket of chives: 30 grams per tostada, Curiel says. With an average of 55 tostadas coming out of this kitchen every dinner service, that’s around 4 lbs. of chives per day. No small feat for such a tiny (and notoriously laborious to dice) herb.
When asked if such a beloved dish — that’s so popular he conceded to Bon Appétit that the restaurant can likely never take it off the menu — feels more like a blessing or a curse, Curiel waxes poetic about his love for tostadas, which have “always been one of my favorite things to eat in Mexico,” he said.
“I’m glad people love it,” Curiel said. “Itap become a staple of our menu because it represents what Mezcaleria Alma is all about.”
Mezcaleria Alma, 2550 15th St. Open 3-11 p.m. daily. highly recommended.
