RESTAURANT REVIEW : Tecolote: Mexican With an American Accent

Oh, look, a restaurant with extravagant decor.

Tecolote is the Aztec word for owl , so Pasadena’s new Mexican restaurant by that name has a couple of tecolote statues scattered around, including one in the slightly scary, semi-leafless tree in the middle of the floor. The airspace up to the immensely high ceiling is thick with umbrellas and lamps, the walls are old brick decorated with gargoyles, and there’s a sound track of wind, running water and bird calls, possibly including the odd tecolote hoot.

Altogether Tecolote is so much fun to look at you’d just about expect the worst from the food, particularly since its owner boasts that it will appeal to people who “don’t like Mexican food.” In fact, Tecolote serves some of the sharpest Mexican cooking around.

Or perhaps Mexican-American; the menu pays mysterious tribute to “the American sisters.” In any case, you don’t find something like sopa tarasca in many restaurants in this area code: a smooth puree of dark red beans, slightly peppery, like a rich, bean-flavored enchilada sauce.

Not everything is as exotic as that, or the salad of cactus, pineapple, papaya and pork cracklings. Sopes, for instance, are pretty familiar by now, little tartlet shells of cornmeal masa topped with chicken, beans and salad stuff. But even more ordinary-sounding things like albondigas or guacamole are special, the meatballs coming in a mild chipotle sauce and the chunky style guac with four little quesadillas made with fresh tortillas, which you watched being cooked on a comal in the middle of the floor about eight yards from your table.

The only dullard on the appetizer list is the shrimp cocktail, which is actually more like the mixed seafood cocktail known as vuelve a la vida. It’s generous with the seafood, but the sauce is just about insipid.

That’s one of the very few dull dishes here. For the rest of the menu, how can you beat the choice of two chicken moles, a medium hot mole poblano and a mild, bittersweet mole oaxaqueno? There’s a tamale generously stuffed with soft, steamed-style pork carnitas and served in a tart tomatillo sauce with an orange-flavored rice pilaf on the side. Great stuff.

The surprising thing, in fact, is how good the items that don’t even sound Mexican are. Short ribs? Yes, short ribs, braised with a little tomato and some elusive spice, conceivably achiote: tender, meaty, and with a fascinating exoticism. Steak, with a little bit of chipotle sauce, topped with half-melted Mexican cheese; even a steak sandwich (or pork, or chicken, served only at lunch), on Mexican bread.

In fact, it may be that the dishes aimed at the people who “don’t like Mexican food” include some of the ones that sound most Mexican. The seabass baked in a banana leaf sounds wild but it’s just a pretty plain seabass that nobody could get upset about.

There’s an OK flan and an excellent margarita pie, pretty much a key lime pie with a salty crust, but the dessert to beat is the borrachitos: fried chunks of banana mounted on cake, topped with toasted coconut, whipped cream and buttery syrup.

Oh. There’s the cry of the owl now, I think.

Tecolote, 110 E. Holly St., Pasadena. (818)793-9222. Open for lunch and dinner. Full bar. Valet parking. All major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $32 to $62.