Knee-Deep in Cal-Mex at the Trendy Red Onion

Mountains of food are served at the new Red Onion in Belmont Park--mounds of tacos, hillocks of fajitas, cliffs of carnitas rimmed by plunging precipices of frijoles and rice.

Situated at the upper end of the once-controversial Mission Beach development, this trendy import from El Norte (Red Onion is a long-established and wildly successful Los Angeles chain) lies smack between the ocean and the Big Dipper roller coaster.

The restaurant’s seemingly immense clientele finds the dining room to be a fiesta-bright space where the draw is simple and immediately understandable: a whole lot of food of the ever-popular California-Mexican genre prepared ever so faithfully.

Many of the items are fried and may be rather greasy; the food tastes at least as good as the Cal-Mex served elsewhere, and perhaps better; in any case, it is instantly recognizable to anyone experienced with the style.

The menu’s 10 crowded, busy pages list just about every Cal-Mex beverage and dish ever concocted, including a few--such as the Cajun-style fajitas (!)--that must be Red Onion’s own contribution to the genre.

The drinks page offers some outlandish inventions of the sort that used to be common (these bear names such as Sombrero Slush and Toucan Cooler) but generally have faded under the cooling influence of white wine taken as an aperitif. The choice of margaritas is heartening, however, because the restaurant will serve them on the rocks (the blenderized abominations that predominate these days are also available) and offers several elegant versions prepared with premium ingredients.

The appetizer list, like all the food pages that succeed it, offers an almost exhausting choice. Some selections are rather nice, but because both they and the entrees are outsized, an appetizer can make the rest of the meal pointless. There are quesadillas plain and fancy (as in seafood, spiced chicken and shredded beef fillings), several styles of nachos, a vaguely fondue-like dish called spinach con queso and the pleasing “Mexican miniatures” plate. This last offers relatively large versions of tamales, beef chimichangas, greasy but convincing tacos and crisp taquitos, and it will serve four with ease.

Dishes marked with a red, heart-shaped symbol are sprinkled throughout the menu and noted as prepared in accordance with guidelines established by the American Heart Assn. Several of these appear under the tostada heading and in reality are salads paired with soft tortillas; the Yucatan chicken salad consists of cubed, grilled breast meat tossed with vegetables, greens and avocado. The red snapper salad progresses along similar lines.

The name of the humunga-changa may most thoroughly express the Red Onion culinary philosophy. The headliner of the chimichanga section, it is described by the menu as “a monster chimi,” a tortilla filled with, among other things, rice, cheese, vegetables, carnitas and fajitas ; it is rolled into a tube, deep fried and served with the obligatory sour cream, guacamole and reasonably good salsa fresca.

A few sandwiches follow the listings of enchiladas and burritos, among them a fajitas “Philly” that mimics the City of Brotherly Love’s famous cheese steak with its garnish of fried onions. And, in this something-for-everyone establishment, there is even a hamburger.

What Red Onion has accomplished with this menu is the multiplication of basic items (shredded beef, cheese and tortillas, for example) into a remarkable number of permutations. These show up in the fancier-fare pages, such as under the Yucatan specialties heading, which generally lists the same old stuff rearranged in novel ways. The Quintana beef burrito, for example, is simply a carne asada burrito garnished with black beans rather than the more familiar frijoles refritos. (It should be mentioned that both the black beans and the refritos, which accompany many dishes, are right on target.)

Yet another selection of the menu lists dishes that, for want of a better description, could be called relatively formal, although the word seems decidedly out of place in reference to any aspect of the Red Onion. The carnitas appear here, and if these hunks of long-cooked pork are less convincingly seasoned than at Tijuana’s carnitas palaces, they are nonetheless good, and served with almost ridiculous generosity. The carne asada al carbon , or grilled marinated steak, appears to be a large fajita that escaped reduction into little fajitas. It, too, is good, and is joined on the plate by the customary cheese enchilada. There are also so-called camarones Yucatan for those who feel that they must eat garlic shrimp when by the water (or when in San Diego, for that matter).

Some dishes are billed hot and spicy, and the unifying element seems to be a hot sauce poured over various dishes that would not otherwise be hot and spicy. A choice in this realm that veers a little from the ordinary is the chile relleno topped with steak bits, cream cheese, red chili sauce and salsa picante.

With the exception of the flan, the desserts have much more to do with American restaurant entrepreneurship than with Mexican cooking, which rather perversely may explain the crowds that seem to besiege the hostess desk at all times. Ersatz choices here include deep-fried ice cream, an “adobe” mud pie and a “chocolate margarita” of mousse flavored with tequila and coffee liqueur.

* RED ONION

Belmont Park, Mission Beach

488-9040

Lunch and dinner daily.

Credit cards accepted.

Dinner for two, including one margarita each, tax and tip, $13 to $30.