RESTAURANT REVIEW / PEPE’S : Burrito Beach : The relaxed Mexican place on Oxnard’s Silver Strand sells lots and lots of food practically for a song.

Things are pretty casual down at Pepe’s Mexican Food. Which is as it should be out on Oxnard’s Silver Strand beach area, itself a piece of early California beach town culture.

The Strand feels like the early ‘50s. The area is sandy enough so that it’s only natural that much of Pepe’s clientele is in cutoffs, abbreviated bathing suits or surfing trunks. These mix with a sprinkling of uniforms, filled with personnel coming out of the nearby Seabee base at Port Hueneme, and at lunchtime a few white shirts and ties worn by wandering and hungry businessmen.

Pepe’s is a tiny building, too small for any indoor seating at all, with a few wooden counter tables scattered around the front. It sits on the edge of an empty, sandy lot. A sign on the street nearby urges traffic to “Park off the pavement.”

From the small stretch of sand on the channel about a block away known locally as Kiddie Beach, where Victoria Street ends, mothers walk over to pick up lunch.

Pepe’s is a good deal for lunch. In fact, what has kept the place going strong for eight years is its value. The food itself is OK. There’s lots and lots of it and, more to the point, Pepe and Susie Perez, who own the joint, sell it practically for a song. The mothers coming over from the beach can easily feed two--probably three--kids on one burrito.

Pepe’s burritos are the heaviest I’ve ever eaten, the sort that bends your hand at the wrist as you lift them. The chile relleno model ($2.41) is one of the tastier examples.

Nearly all of the burritos get their weight from copious rice and beans, but they’re also stuffed with shredded beef, chicken, chorizo and egg, steak ranchero or, the most popular, carne asada. There’s a little salsa inside this giant folded tortilla, but it isn’t very spicy--perfectly safe for those kiddies down on the beach.

There are cheese quesadillas ($1.35), which you might order if the burrito seems like overkill. On the other side of the menu are the plates ($3.96) of two soft tacos, made with beef, carne asada, carnitas, chicken or fish. Some of these have a lot more character than you find in the burritos.

The Ensenada-style fish tacos, for instance, one of the biggest sellers, are loaded with heavily fried fish and a chunky salsa with tomatoes and onions and even some peppers, giving them the best flavoring on the corner. The taco itself is just $1.46. The chicken version, which lacks the texture, spice and body that same sauce would have given it, is nevertheless crammed with large chunks of perfectly cooked white and dark meat.

Pepe’s is a place where you don’t get a number when you order at the window, you just sort of hang around in the cool ocean breezes and wait for the dishes you ordered to be called.

The tostada, perhaps of shredded beef ($2.26), is a dull but filling item, the kind you can’t decide whether to attack with your hands--and have it crack up in space--or penetrate with a fork.

Pepe’s cannot sell beer for consumption on the premises, but they do sell it to go, either by can, bottle or six-pack. It must be the Hobie Cat enthusiasts down on the channel who buy it, since I doubt that the tykes at Kiddie Beach are ready for the stuff quite yet.

* WHERE AND WHEN

Pepe’s Mexican Food, 200 Rossmore Dr. (corner Roosevelt Boulevard), Oxnard, 985-2880. Open seven days, 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. No reservations, no credit cards, no alcohol for on-premises consumption. Food for two, $6-$10.