Restaurants in Hendersonville

During his childhood in Mexico City, Mauricio Abreu found respite from his four older siblings' shenanigans in his mother's kitchen. There, he absorbed the Latin culinary traditions that would later become the backbone of his restaurant's menu. Though he planned for a career as a graphic specialist, Mauricio's steady transformation into Chef Mo was as fortunate as it was fortuitous.

At Chef Mo's Restaurant & Bar, imaginative dishes bloom from this base of Latin influence. Mo crafts many of the platters and all of the desserts himself, labeling his signature additions as "Mo-made." He also habitually patrols the dining room to converse with guests, augmenting the warmth that radiates from his oven as it teeters after him out of separation anxiety. His creative fusion of Latin flavors with traditional Italian, French, and American dishes has coupled with the spot's genial atmosphere to earn two OpenTable Diners' Choice awards: Good for Groups and Neighborhood Gem.

The brainchild of two husband-and-wife teams, Mark and Jenny Henegan and executive chef John Daniel Schwalje and his wife Dara, The Asheville Public fills its rotating menu of gourmet gastropub fare with locally grown produce, grass-fed beef, and other quality ingredients. Six kinds of house-made sausage encase meats and seasonings from around the world, from the far-flung merquez sausage’s morroccan-spiced lamb and the boerewors’s south african-herbed beef to the jambalaya’s local mélange of marinated pork, all-natural chicken, crawfish, and chow-chow. Served alongside rich breakfast and brunch dishes or a la carte on an organic bun during dinner, sausages don house-made condiments and compete with organic greens and all-natural Angus beef burgers and steaks for stomach real estate. The Asheville Public’s low-key interior fosters a homey vibe with wooden tabletops, chandeliers crafted from empty bottles, and armchairs wearing sweatpants.

The chefs at Rosettas Kitchen whip up delicious vegetarian and vegan dishes stuffed with local, seasonal produce. The eatery's menu combines various vegetarian cuisines, including korean barbecue tempeh and tofu-infused wraps. Slender tables set against a brick wall facilitate nighttime nourishment as late as 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. During its 10 years of life, a flurry of benefits, art shows, and musicians have filled Rosettas with spontaneous glee and more creative energy than a neutron with a liberal-arts degree.

At Bandido's Burritos, a chalkboard emblazoned with colorful script announces an ever-changing roster of burritos, tacos, and sandwiches, each forged with ingredients from the gardens of local organic farmers. Owner Justin Smudde, who flaunts nearly two decades of culinary experience and has never tangled his chef’s hat in low-hanging branches, keeps the menu flexible to incorporate seasonal ingredients and hormone-free meats from animals butchered on-site. The air fills with scents that hint at the culinary adventures underway in the kitchen, from jalapenos shedding their tough skin over flames before blending into crema for tacos to locally caught trout smoking slowly.

The cooks embrace a myriad of culinary restrictions, including vegan and gluten-free diets, beneath the eatery’s avocado-hued walls. Street carts rumble away from the shop, supplying pedestrians with tortilla chips made in-house each day in the shape of popular dirt-bike ramps.

The sandwich artisans at Frank's NY Deli cull inspiration from The Big Apple as they stack high-quality Boar's Head meats and cheeses between bread or toss them into fresh romaine lettuce alongside crisp veggies. Their hearty menu of Frank's favorite sandwiches includes hot pastrami and reubens, and diners can create their own sandwiches by pairing various ingredients. The staff precisely slices the same meats and cheeses at the deli counter so that patrons can recreate hearty handhelds or shrines to the first hoagie at home, and cater parties with platters overflowing with sandwiches, veggies, and cheeses.

For the past decade, Blue Sky Café owners Julianna and Mark Pletcher have continually added to a menu nearly as big and cheery as the restaurant’s namesake. Cooks are proud of their hefty, hand-formed burgers and their chicken—each served in a dazzling array of preparations—but there are just as many health-conscious wraps and salads and vegetarian and vegan dishes. A recent development is a creative, sweet-and savory brunch service, where cheese and garlic turn grits into a bowlful of decadence, prosciutto and parmesan put the Sicilian in a Sicilian frittata, and the kitchen’s all-day love of sandwiches is transposed into the Figgy-Honey: two slices of raisin-cinnamon toast clasping cinnamon goat cheese, honey, and fig preserves.

Kids get their own, more-flexible-than-usual menu, though they’ll have to weigh whether to dig in or finish what they’ve been drawing with provided crayons on the paper placemats. A further draw for tots is the playhouse that stands on an oasis of a patio, whose tall wooden fence encloses hanging lanterns, huge umbrellas, and plants trailing from every wall as they toward their goal of trying the sweet-potato fries everybody keeps talking about.