RESTAURANT REVIEW : Beverly Hills El Torito Grill Is El Grande

Hold on, compadre , this is no El Torito. It’s an El Torito Grill , the new Beverly Hills branch of a tiny chain within the El Torito chain. Instead of dark booths and wrought iron, it has light-colored, adobe-like walls spotted with Navajo designs, a trompe l’oeil ceiling of a desert sunset, and imposing masses of neon and gleaming black tile.

There’s practically no overlap between its menu and a traditional El Torito’s, apart from the occasional Cadillac Margarita. For instance, that salad served on a base of cinnamon Navajo flat bread approximately identical to a sopapilla --I’m fairly sure I’ve never seen that at an El Torito.

In other words, the El Torito Grill is Southwestern rather than Sonoran, and the Beverly Hills branch is the grandest palace of Southwestern cuisine yet, grander even than the original El Torito Grill in Newport Beach. It has a new wrinkle for the chainlet, too, an applewood smoker in addition to the mesquite grill.

That applewood smoker comes in for surprisingly heavy use. There’s a salmon picadillo , like flat little crab cakes of smoky salmon in an equally smoky and faintly sinister red chipotle sauce. There are several smoked meats, including a surprise, a good Midwestern beer sausage with a bit of jalapeno flavor. The smokiest thing is the Santa Fe hash, which mixed a couple of apple-smoked meats with potatoes and a slightly mean hot sauce, topped with a poached egg and some hollandaise.

This place is positively rife with blue corn and regional Mexican dishes, such as an exotic version of carnitas cooked in banana leaf and arrestingly flavored with orange juice. In addition to the regular quesadilla , which features particularly flavorful cheese, there might be a quesadilla that includes strongly smoked salmon and fried pine nuts. Even cliches like enchiladas, burritos and nachos come with several unusual fillings.

It’s wonderful stuff, mostly. Sometimes the roughly fried vegetables that accompany one or another dish are overdone, and the chile relleno , interestingly not cluttered up with batter, has a texture I find disturbingly slimy. But if I have a serious quarrel with the place, it’s about some of the starches. (Some, that is, not all. The “corn cake” that comes with some entrees is wonderful, flaky and a little sweet like Southern spoonbread.)

I’m thinking of the tortillas. Hot and fresh though they are, from a revolving comal in the main dining room, they always have a bit of an underdone, doughy taste. The Santa Fe torte is made with chicken, cheese and a mild hot sauce layered with rather soggy corn crepes. I suppose that one might be comfort food, reassuring on a cold morning and so on. But the noodles in the camarones con pasta are definitely flabby and flavorless, though maybe part of the problem is the loud chipotle pepper sauce, which is a little hard on the shrimp as well.

The desserts are not Mexican or Southwestern at all, not even the “chocolate enchiladas,” which are actually chocolate crepes with a banana filling in chocolate sauce. They’re a French idea and a good one, like the “burnt cream” ( creme brulee ). The other desserts are muy gringo : a cinnamon-heavy apple crisp, a sweet potato pecan pie, even a strawberry shortcake. They’re all huge.

In fact, just about everything is huge under this trompe l’oeil Southwestern sky. Light eaters should think about skipping the desserts, and maybe the appetizers too. Mostly they’ll have an extremely terrific time.

El Torito Grill, 9595 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. (213) 550-1599. Open for lunch and dinner daily. Full bar. Valet parking after 6 p.m. All major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $26-$50.