RESTAURANT REVIEW : A Version of Old Mexico in Pasadena

Odd. This isn’t the front door. It’s a door, and it’s on the front, but it doesn’t open. It’s a false door, apparently required by some Pasadena historical-appearances law.

Let’s not leap to a metaphor. Let’s just go in by way of the non-historical side door. We’ve got to know what’s going on here, because Catavinos Cafe, a pleasantly austere little place ornamented with Southwestern genre paintings, is jumping with Pasadenans.

The word catavino means wine connoisseur or perhaps wine scrutinizer , and the wine list is definitely a cut above the usual thing at a Mexican restaurant. Perhaps the food is conceived to be eaten with wine.

Maybe. Remembering to avoid that false-door metaphor, we can certainly see that it’s an odd menu. On one hand, that nearly extinct L.A. tradition, albondigas soup (meatballs in cumin-flavored broth), an OK ceviche, a puzzling dish of peppers sauteed with cheese, and some simple tacos.

But then there are mini- chimichangas that seem to be egg rolls stuffed with turkey. And a chicken salad with tortilla strips, suggestively named Keiko salad, has an Oriental sesame oil dressing. The shrimp cocktail is simply shrimp in salsa cruda , and one of our friends is rudely suggesting he could walk down to Trader Joe’s and put together the same thing out of cans.

There are also the oddest sort of pancakes. First, the crab and corn cakes taste like ordinary pancakes, with scarcely a hint of crab flavor, and they come with a sweet orange sauce. Then there are actual pancakes, tiny pancakes with a black bean filling and the same orange sauce. That’s right: pancakes, black beans, orange sauce. The idea that this might be Mexican food for wine lovers is starting to sound unconvincing.

Some of the entrees are like good Mexican home cooking. On a combination plate you can get tamales with a generous filling of well-browned pork, or a chile relleno that, for once, seems to have been fried to order rather than sitting around since early evening. It’s a medium-hot chile and the cheese filling is more flavorful than most.

And if the carnitas are not a large portion, they are the real thing, tender browned chunks of pork. The misleadingly named corn ravioli, on the other hand, are actually turnovers made of corn meal and filled with chicken, but a bit of black-bean sauce makes them perfectly enjoyable.

The best thing on the menu, to me, is the calamari steak, basically calamari treated like scampi, floured and fried and served with a strong garlic and lemon flavoring. The worst, by far, is the steak picado , tough chunks of stewed steak with tomatoes and onions.

After this, there are some simple dishes like fish tacos and perhaps a special of sauteed sea bass with garlic, chopped raw tomatoes and cilantro. A slightly mushy roast chicken has a good flavor, but for some reason more of that orange sauce. Maybe Pasadena has gone orange-goofy.

The desserts are to Pasadena’s sweet tooth. A key lime cheesecake, a standard walnut pie, a fruit chimichanga , meaning a flaky roll of fried pastry filled with banana. And then a dessert from Mars, a lime-pistachio sorbet: lime ice, that is, streaked with chopped pistachio. I actually liked it.

This is one of the oddest Mexican restaurants I’ve ever eaten in. Pasadena loves it, though, as I suppose it loves that absurd front door. Uh-oh, I went for the metaphor after all.

Catavinos Cafe, 119 W. Green St., Pasadena. (818) 578-1764. Open for breakfast Monday through Friday, for lunch and dinner seven days. Full bar. Street parking. American Express, MasterCard and Visa accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $23-$44.