Mexica: Upscale and Authentic

The Chinese Kitchen was a perfectly preserved ‘30s-era Chinese restaurant that could have come straight out of the pages of a Raymond Chandler novel. Every hip newcomer to Los Angeles ate there once . . . exactly once. The place was all looks.

Last year, rumors surfaced that the space was to be transformed into a high-concept restaurant called Chino Latino--a hybrid of Chinese and Mexican food served in an elaborate fantasy setting that was supposed to persuade customers they were eating in a Chinese restaurant in the middle of the Amazon. People worried.

But Chino Latino didn’t happen. Mexica did. The restaurant, at 7313 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 933-7385, is not quite the high-voltage place people feared, but an airy, pleasant room (high ceilings, interesting sconces, Postmodern Mexican realist-style murals) that is respectful of its ‘30s surroundings without being retro in the least. And only one kind of cooking is done here: Mexican.

It’s owned by Albert Solis, who’s put in time as a waiter and manager in some of the hippest restaurants on both coasts, including Angeli, Cha Cha Cha and Brian McNally’s Canal Bar in New York. He brought his parents in to work on the food, which is more authentic than you’d expect for such upscale surroundings.

A quesadilla, for instance, isn’t the plate-sized mass of flour tortilla, orange cheese and sour cream you might get across the street at El Coyote, but a tiny packet of cornmeal, sort of a cross between a pupusa and an empanada , stuffed with cheese and zucchini flowers, or sauteed chiles, stuff like that. There are standard enchilada platters too, but also red snapper Veracruz-style, chilaquiles and Yucatan-style pork pibil .

One more thing, when you say Mexica, say meh-SHEE-ka. The restaurant has Aztec aspirations.