A Tex-Mex Lover’s Guide to Dallas

Going out for Mexican food is not your normal culinary excursion. It’s a necessity of life, not a casual dining choice. It’s comfort food the same way mashed potatoes and gravy and chicken-fried steak are. It’s a Texan’s daily bread. Until recently, however, Dallas was considered by many to be behind other Texas cities in the quality of its Tex-Mex. All you had to do was eat at one of the great Austin or San Antonio Mexican restaurants to know how deficient we really were. Sure, we had all the big chains you could possibly want, but relatively few small, family-owned neighborhood restaurants with memorable cuisine.

But now, every Dallas neighborhood has a Mexican restaurant even San Antonio could be proud of. Some restaurants have been at the forefront of the trend: Matt’sRan-cho Martinez revitalized the old-fashioned idea of a chef-owned Mexican restaurant two years ago. Folks still flock from all over town to eat at Matt’s, and many drive even further to eat at La Suprema Tortilleria, where they can eat whole wheat enchiladas and feel virtuous about it. ZuZu’s simple menu of traditional, freshly made food is also a consistent hit. Now that we’ve been reminded of what good Mexican food is supposed to taste like, we have a whole new appreciation for the genre. And even better, we have a new collection of personal favorites from which to choose.

La Acapulquena. (Acapulco Mexican Food). This East Dallas cafe serves potent florescent-green margaritas in a setting vivid enough to match with colorful, hand-painted murals, fancy sombreros, neon-the whole works in Mexican restaurant decor. The menu appropriately emphasizes seafood (the fish soup is the real thing and appears to be a popular choice with the regular clientele.) On our last visit, we ordered shrimp fajitas which were sizzling and juicy in their tortilla wrappings, but the regular Tex-Mex is good, too. On weekends, there’s a hopping mariachi band; on a good night the waitresses join in at the mike, adding to the gone-on-vacation-anddon’t-want-to-go-home feel. 2706 Samuell Blvd. 828-0509.

Mi Cocina. This not-very-far-north Dallas neighborhood was a desert as far as Mexican food was concerned until Mi Cocina opened up last year. Michael Rodri-quez is in the kitchen and the food is better than at his mother’s restaurant (Mia’s) on Lemmon Avenue. The Tex-Mex plates are perfect portraits of Tex-Mex combinations. There’s a terrific bean soup (especially good enhanced by a dollop of the chunky pico de gallo) and the tacos al carbon are also something special-the meat lean, smoky and tender in flaky flour tortillas. This is truly a family restaurant-you can ask for a beer and get it, but you won’t find it on the menu, and the interior is comfortable and colorful without depending on the common cantina motif. 11661 Preston Road (Preston/Forest). 265-7704.

Mi Casa. The cantina decor is particularly well done here with funny wooden snakes draped from the ceiling grid and beer crates acting as room dividers. Tex-Mex platters are dependable, and speaking to its well-heeled neighborhood, Mi Casa also offers low-fat, healthy items such as Cobb-o-San Lucas (a Mexican-style Cobb salad) and a grilled chicken breast with cilantro and lime. Desserts are unusually elaborate-there’s an apple chimichanga and a strange flan brulée that is a deep-fried custard. I find both skip-pable, though the flan has its fans. 8301 Westchester in Preston Center. 890-9939.

Baldera’s. Bright and tiny, this Tex-Mex cafe is an excellent addition to the Oak Lawn neighborhood. Thin, fresh chips and fine cheese enchiladas prove the kitchen’s foundation is solid, but the best things on the menu are the specialties: grilled fajitas, for instance, and the pechuga a la parrilla, a pounded, boneless breast of chicken smothered with slivered and sautéed peppers, onions, mushrooms and a sprinkling of Jack and cheddar cheeses. The flan is outstanding-as light and tender as crème caramel. 2851 Cedar Springs. 526-2181.

Chapas. This rambling Tudor-style, slate-roofed house (complete with stained-glass windows) is at odd variance with the Mexican beach theme inside where the Saltillo tile floors, seaside murals, false portico and leather bucket chairs convey the feeling of Puerto Vallarta or some other place you wish you were instead of Lower Greenville. Never mind-the service is friendly, despite the occasional language barrier, and the food is what you want: soft tortillas, tender fajitas and the kind of cheese enchiladas I used to crave when I was out till4a.m. 1516 Greenville. 826-0625.

Cuquita’s. Polish up your restaurant Spanish and check out this little house on Henderson. Skip the enchiladas and the regular Tex-Mex (are and head straight for the guiso de res-spicy, tender beef chunks to wrap in hot, freshly made corn tortillas. Of course you can’t go wrong with the gor-ditas, which are cornmeal patties slit open and stuffed with chicken, beef or beans. Our server was extremely friendly and before we could even ask he brought us guacamole in a stone molcajete. That alone was worth the visit-no tomatoes, onions or sour cream (and very little seasoning) to adulterate the luxurious taste of perfectly ripe avocado. 2326 N. Henderson. 823-1057.

La Calle Doce. The wraparound porch of this old Oak Cliff house is charming and the service is congenial (the bar in back is a little dismal, but who cares). Many restaurants claim to be so, but this is truly a place for seafood. The sauce on the enchiladas verdes was a dismaying lime sherbet green (with nary a tomatillo in sight), but the catfish parilla was a whole, fresh fish, char-grilled, with guacamole and pico de gallo to wrap in flour tortillas. Plain old fried catfish was also excellent. This is another place where you can forget the Tex-Mex-the fish is the big lure here. 415 W. 12th St. 941-4304.

Las 4 Milpas Restaurant. To begin at the beginning, “milpas” means either corn or plant according to the rather confusing story printed on the menu. (Confusing would refer to the decor here, too, which includes a relief picture of the last Supper over the bar, a collection of neon beer signs, potted tropical plants, some wagon wheels and a suit of armor.) We preferred dishes like the came adobada, thin strips of chili-colored meat pounded till tender, grilled and then served with hot tortillas so you can roll your own. fajitalike. An extremely professional server added to our pleasure. 110 W. Jefferson. 948-8330.

Rodolfo’s Cafe. This is a personal favorite-and I’m not alone. Rodolfo’s has nearly as many friends as Pete Dominguez judging by the testimonials covering the walls. We liked everything we ate that was covered in salsa loco, an invention of the owner involving salsa and pico de gallo. We also loved a rather strange but famous dish called Idaho enchiladas. These tortillas stuffed with spiced mashed potatoes turned out to be the ultimate comfort food, at least for a Southerner-turned-Texan. 2002 S. Edgefield. 942-1211.

Tejano Mexican Restaurant & Club. Rambling and enormous, this is the big daddy of all the Oak Cliff Mexican restaurants; it reminds you of establishments from the ’50s and ’60s with its wide range of candies in the case at the cashier and photographs of the desserts on the back of the menu. No funky hole-in-the-wall, Tejano has three large dining areas decorated with Aztec reliefs and an enormous wrought-iron candelabra; the classic Tex-Mex menu ranges nearly as far. Service is excellent and standards such as cheese enchiladas and fe-jitas are terrific. Fancier stuff, like chicken Veracruz, a tender chicken quarter smothered in red sauce, or beef Tampiquenas, is equally good. Mile-high praline pie was a change from the usual dessert offerings, and though I usually save the last sip of my margarita for dessert after Mexican food, that pie was pretty good. 110 W. Davis St. 943-8610.

Martinez Cafe. There have never been many good Mexican restaurants in North Dallas, but the Martinez family-ever pioneers-aren’t easily daunted. They’ve established an outpost in Piano where they’re doing brisk business. It’s in a spick-and-span brick shopping center, and at first glance it seems as though this cafe has all the correct elements-turquoise, pink and lavender walls, neon beer signs, Mexican pottery and souvenir scrapes-but nothing truly authentic. However, the first taste of the salsa-the hottest I’ve been served in months-dispelled any culinary doubts. The food did not disappoint-crisp-fried papitas and creamy guacamole garnished a plate of three bulging flour tortillas filled with slow-cooked carnitas (shredded pork). And cheese enchiladas-for me, the true test of any Mexican restaurant-were covered with as much dark chili and cheese as one could ask for. 1900 Preston Rd. (Preston Park Village, Piano). 964-7898.

Mattito’s. Matt Martinez, who started the Tex-Mex renaissance in East Dallas, has now expanded his neighborhood to include the Park Cities and Oak Lawn. His large, new space in an office building is frighten- ingly unfunky-how could there be soulful Tex-Mex in a space this bourgeois? But Mat tito’s was crowded from the first night it opened and no wonder-the service is as smooth as glass, and the food is a clone of what made Rancho Martinez famous. The grilled tacos and flautas are a special treat and a welcome change from the usual greasy fried or stale tortilla shell. And the stellar chile relleno with raisins and pecans is still the best in town-possibly in Texas. 4311 Oak Lawn. 526-8181.