RESTAURANT REVIEW / LA PLAYITA : Fried and True : A Moorpark eatery gives diners memorable choices, some of which depart from traditional Mexican cuisine.

My first impression of La Playita was that it would make a great setting for a road movie.

Following the excellent word of mouth on the place, we found ourselves on a Friday night pulling into a dirt lot on one of Moorpark’s oldest streets. We parked alongside the painted, pale blue siding of the patio, with its fresh young palm trees and funky green corrugated roof. We sidled past a parked police car having a staring contest with the kids milling around the pay phone across the street. Then we made our way into a small, cheerful, familiar restaurant, typical of Mexican eateries all over California.

We had no sooner sat down than a freight train roared by not 20 feet from the back screen door. This wasn’t “Thelma and Louise”; it was “Fried Fresh Fish at the Whistle Stop Cafe.”

Not ordinary fried fish, either, but some of the best I’ve ever tasted--like the fish you cook in the morning on a camping trip after pulling it out of the river yourself. Only you never get this kind of garlic flavor on a camping trip.

In fact, over a couple of wonderful meals at La Playita, the litany of “the best” got longer and longer: the best octopus, the best guacamole, the best chicken soup, the best refried beans, the best Mexican rice, the best ceviche. . . .

They start your meal by bringing a small hot offering of soup--shrimp during the week, clam chowder on the weekends. Both soups consist of fish alone in a savory broth. The clams came in a broth similar to a corn chowder, sweet and rich; the shrimp floated in a sizzling hot liquid spotted with flakes of oregano and tiny chunks of garlic. It could have been used for salsa when cool. One of our dining companions had taken but a few sips when he announced, “So far, this is my favorite restaurant in the world.”

There’s plenty on the menu for those who don’t want traditional Mexican choices. A dish called cielo, mar, tierra ($10.50) consisted of half a Cornish game hen, flattened and fried; a piece of thin steak and three giant, delicious shrimp. It could have been served up at any rustic Italian trattoria.

A specialty of the house turned out to be pulpo a la Mexicana ($7.50), octopus with tomatoes, peppers and onions, plenty spicy and gratifyingly tender. Like most dishes, it came with refried beans as soft as mashed potatoes and Mexican rice sweetened with bits of corn, peas and onion. These are the same ingredients that make the hefty, pliant burritos so tasty.

La Playita features an assortment of combination platters for two, one of which came to the table piled with food and resting on a metal box filled with charcoal. It continued to cook as we ate. The platter held a terrific and very crispy whole red snapper, a number of chewy shrimp wrapped in bacon, and half a Cornish game hen. These were covered with big chunks of sweet onion and peppers coated with broiled garlic.

Garlic also played a winning role in the camarones al mojo de ajo ($8.90), a plate of succulent shrimp in a grand garlic and butter sauce. A traditional Mexican chicken dish-- mole poblano ($6.95)--had copious flavors, mostly bitter, salty and sweet. Feel free to order the light fantastic chile rellenos along with everything else because, surprise, there are no desserts on the menu. They’re not even missed.

The original La Playita is in Las Vegas, and there are other locations in Fillmore and Santa Paula, as yet untried. However, Moorpark’s La Playita fulfills everyone’s fantasy of driving into a small agricultural town and finding the kind of Mexican restaurant you only dream about. It would be a pity to waste it on a film location; everybody knows that actors only pretend to eat.

This is the real thing. Enjoy.

WHERE AND WHEN

La Playita Seafood, 104 E. High St., Moorpark, 523-1058. Lunch and dinner, 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays through Sundays. Beer and wine. Cash only. Dinner for two, food only, $21 to $56.