THE NEIGHBORHOOD EATERY : Funky, Down-Home and Generous On the Good Stuff

You’re tired of those brass-rail-and-fern joints owned by some huge conglomerate and filled with guys in gray business suits talking about lease-back deals. You need something down-home. You need something funky.

You need Villa Margarita.

Located off Newport Boulevard, just behind the fabulous Dick’s Horseshoe Saloon, the Villa is the sort of place you want to take three or four friends, scarf up some excellent nachos and drink some very reasonably priced and generous-on-the-good-stuff margaritas. The reason for these moderate prices? Simple. This place is a dump. But it’s a nice dump, a homey dump, the sort of place where the neighborhood folk throw birthday parties.

There’s a tiny bar that’s usually full, country and Western music, and a dining room with saggy seats. The albondigas soup is really good, and everything’s cheap. You want fancy stuff, go to Newport Beach.

On a scale of 10, give it a seven for the cheap eats and for Reynan, your friendly proprietor.

Villa Margarita, 103 Santa Isabel Ave., Costa Mesa. Open daily, 4 p.m. to midnight, weekends till 2 a.m. (714) 631-6602.