Save room for the appetizer Save room for the appetizer (June 04, 2004)

The best chips and salsa are at Chapala

By Mandy Erickson

Good chips and salsa go a long way in a Mexican restaurant, and Mountain View's Chapala has plenty of both.

The tortilla chips, which arrive on the table soon after you sit down, are hot from the fryer. They're not too thin, not too thick, with a rich corn taste. The accompanying tomatillo salsa (you get two salsas, which arrive in syrup pitchers: go for the green one) is spicy and tangy, with a hint of cilantro. And if you order guacamole ($2.60 half order, $4.25 full), you'll find a rich pulp of mashed avocado flavored with lime and tomato -- no sour cream or other guacamole extenders.

Chapala also has a few winning dishes that are several notches above the standard Dos Sombreros Mexican restaurant. The star of the menu is mole poblano ($9.95), poached chicken breasts topped with a velvety sauce of ground seeds and cocoa beans. The deep-brown sauce is mildly spicy and earthy with hints of chocolate, and the chicken is tender. Mole poblano enchiladas ($7.95 for one, $9.95 for two) are another hit, with the same delectable sauce and chicken.

The steak fajitas ($11.50, served after 4 p.m.) are juicy strips of steak marinated in lime juice and salt, then quickly grilled along with red and green bell peppers and onions. The meal comes with tortillas -- your choice of flour or corn-- sour cream, guacamole and pico de gallo (Spanish for rooster's beak), a salsa made of chopped tomato, avocado, cilantro and onion, and flavored with lime juice. My only suggestion to the kitchen would be to offer more of the pico de gallo and a few lime wedges.

I also liked the huevos rancheros ($6.95), two fried eggs topped with the same tomatillo salsa that accompanies the chips. It's a simple dish, but the salsa is good enough to carry it. Huevos rancheros is usually served with a tomato-based sauce, but I preferred the eggs with tomatillos, a small, tart green fruit grown in Latin America.

However, other than its chips and salsa and those few specialties, Chapala's food is everyday Mexican-American fare. You know the drill: enchilada, chile relleno, crisp-shell taco and every combination thereof, served with a reservoir of refried beans and a mound of Spanish rice.

Unfortunately, most of these dishes are on the bland side, though the ingredients are fresh. A chicken chimichanga ($9.50), for example, was filled with fresh poached chicken, celery and tomato and expertly deep-fried so it wasn't greasy. But the chicken was dry and flavorless. The chimichanga's saving graces were the mounds of guacamole and pico de gallo.

Similarly, the soup and salad that come with lunch or dinner for an extra $1.50 are prepared with fresh vegetables but lacking in flavor. The salad is a full plate of crisp iceberg lettuce, with slices of carrot and red cabbage and your choice of the usual dressings. The soup of the day during a recent visit was chicken vegetable: green beans, potatoes, corn and breast meat in a deep-red broth that looked like it'd pack a punch, but only simpered.

Chapala's tacos, enchiladas, chiles rellenos and tamales ($6.95 for one as an entree) are standard. The meat is fresh, as are the lettuce on the taco and the chile in the chile relleno, and the beef is shredded, not ground. But the dishes are uniformly uninspired. On the tamale, the masa -- the corn flour dough that encases the meat -- was disappointingly thin.

And while the decor of Chapala is tired (velvet sombreros embroidered with silver thread, a few garish paintings of stereotypical Mexican scenes, American flags), the service is excellent and the dining room spotless.

There are other nice features on Chapala's menu, too, for example, the children's plates -- taco, enchilada, burrito or quesadilla, all with rice and beans for $3.65 -- and an extensive beverage list. The restaurant offers the usual in soft drinks, plus Snapple, hot chocolate, ice tea, orange juice, beer and wine. There is also a full line of Penafiel soft drinks, popular sodas in Mexico that come in flavors of grapefruit, apple, tamarind and sangria.

And the waiters at Chapala provide excellent service: professionally dressed in black pants and matching white shirts, they slip in and out of the dining room unobtrusively, showing up just when you need them.

Chapala is a fine place to go if you want basic Mexican-American food -- or if you're craving good mole poblano or steak fajitas. Just make sure you arrive hungry because you won't be able to stop eating the chips.

Dining Notes

Chapala Mexican Restaurant

570 Shoreline Blvd.
965-8019

Hours: Monday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

reservations:no

credit cards: yes

valet parking: no

alcohol: yes

takeout: yes

high chairs: yes

catering: no

outdoor seating: no

noise level: low

bathroom cleanliness: very good

E-mail a friend a link to this story.