Nuevo Beverly Hills

“What’s your secret?” a rotund gentleman asked the maitre d’, walking into Kaktus (400 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, (213) 271-1856) for lunch early this week. He looked around the bright, overcrowded dining room and pointed to the people waiting at the bar. “I can’t remember,” he continued, “how many restaurants have failed here.”

Kaktus is barely open, but the tables are already filled with people drinking margaritas while they dip warm tortillas into a tasty fresh tomatillo salsa. (That salsa, and a wonderful cilantro sauce served on grilled swordfish, were the best things that I tried.) They dig into huge salads (one is served in a hollowed-out pineapple), munch on flautas and enchiladas made out of sweet corn, slice into grilled breasts of chicken. The room has the buzz of success.

The portly gentleman waited for a table. He ate a seafood cocktail. He tried a quesadilla. He finished off with coffee and coconut flan. Looking around the room once again, he sighed softly to himself, “Upscale Mexican in Beverly Hills. Now why didn’t I think of that?”