STYLE / RESTAURANTS : SOPES FOR A SONG

When I heard months ago that the owners of La Serenata de Garibaldi in Boyle Heights were branching out on the Westside, I started calling to ask when the new place would open. I must have called 17 times, I was that eager to try it. But always a cheerful voice replied: “We’re still waiting for a few things to be delivered” or “A couple of days more.” So I began cruising past the Westside Pavilion, looking for the old Osteria Romana Orsini space just west of it. The small stucco building had been transformed with vibrant washes of purple and pink, the windows hung with handsome striped shades. The sign read: “La Serenata, Gourmet Mexican Fast Food.” I winced at the wording. And then, in early December, I noticed umbrellas and tables set up outside. Finally, it was open.

I strolled in for a late lunch and went back the next night for dinner. I returned two days later and ate there again twice the following week. I kept seeing the same faces, all fans, like me, of the original Mexican seafood restaurant, ecstatic to have a Westside venue for the Rodriguez family’s cooking. Though I can’t order the camarones in brilliant green cilantro sauce, the halibut in smoky chipotle salsa or the sea bass Veracruzana served in Boyle Heights, whenever I get a hankering for Mexican food, I come here for pristinely fresh fish tacos garnished with avocado and cilantro or pudgy empanadas or gorditas bursting with rosy shrimp. If I want, I can also indulge in a splendid solitary lunch of sopes, thick disks of masa piled with chicken breast or with savory pinto beans and chile verde.

Truth be told, I had reservations about reviewing a restaurant as small as La Serenata. It seats just over 40 (and is already full almost every night, thanks to word-of-mouth). On the other hand, I can’t resist writing about a place I like so much. And it is open all through the afternoon, so even if lunch and dinner are mobbed, there’s ample opportunity to stop in between peak hours.

Fresh tortillas are a big part of La Serenata’s appeal for me. At the all-stainless-steel open kitchen to one side of the cafe, two women, their dark hair tucked into hairnets, deftly knead pale, moist masa, slipping walnut-sized balls of the dough into a tortilla press. These supple, fragrant rounds bear little resemblance to day-old or even hours-old commercial tortillas served elsewhere.

Sopes and gorditas also are patted out by hand and cooked on a hot griddle. Quesadillas are made with thin disks of fresh masa: The best are stuffed with shiny dark-green strips of poblano peppers and a mix of Gouda, Monterey Jack and cotija cheese, and look more like Cornish pasties than the usual flat flour-tortilla versions. Good, too, are the little empanadas, or turnovers, pinched out of cornmeal dough. I especially like the pork version of chile verde in a coverlet of molten Gouda and chihuahua cheese, the crescent-shaped pastry cloaked in an exquisite salsa verde. And let’s not forget the soft taco with gently stewed chopped tongue, onions and sharply fragrant cilantro, and the gordita, or thick pockets of masa, stuffed with sweet rock shrimp.

This “fast food,” though, is slightly mislabeled because you do sit down at a table to order and, except for the bowl of smooth, rust-colored salsa and chips, food doesn’t come out of the kitchen all that quickly. (In fact, so many customers pointed out the misnomer that the owners changed the sign recently.) It’s more like medium-slow food, which is just fine with me. Now that I’ve eaten practically everything on the menu, I can say that, at $7.95 to $10.95, the entrees and combination plates are a steal for cooking of this caliber, whatever the serving speed.

Of course, given this cafe’s provenance, I look first to the seafood section. I can tell you that the enchiladas, stuffed with those same sweet, firm shrimp and cloaked in a zingy green sauce, are fabulous. Every entree comes with a ring of buttery yellow rice unmolded onto the plate, a carved radish rose and a small bowl of soupy, delicious pinto beans, plus a basket of warm, fresh corn tortillas. One night when the waiter brings out perfectly grilled halibut in a delicate pale green avocado sauce, he sets down a bowl of cumin-scented black beans instead. “It goes better with the avocado sauce,” he explains. And he’s right. Another excellent dish is grilled sea bass, beautifully flaky and moist, served with smoky poblano peppers and waxy potatoes. Usually, you get your choice of three kinds of fish; most often they are halibut, salmon and Mexican sea bass. And unlike some of the major seafood houses in town I could name, this kitchen knows how to cook fish to retain all its flavor.

Among the meat choices is shredded beef, salty and chewy, wonderful rolled up in a fresh tortilla with a splash of the smoldering red guajillo salsa. Chilorio here is thin slabs of marinated beef and pork in a sauce of finely chopped pork simmered with peppers and tomatoes. But my favorite has to be pork medallions in Molcajete sauce, meltingly tender pork in a sauce of roasted tomato, avocado and onions sparked with chiles. (Nothing on the menu is searingly hot, but this is one place you won’t want to blast out your taste buds.)

The dessert selection is modest, including very sweet, very dense vanilla, mocha or coconut flan; cajeta, a goat’s milk version that’s even richer; and guavas with cream served in a stemmed goblet.

Courtly owner Jose Rodriguez and his wife, Aurora, stop in almost every night. She’ll explain to regulars from her downtown restaurant that the cafe’s framed prints and Mexican folk pottery are from her own collection. The building may be nondescript, but the Rodriguezes have managed to make it inviting. They’ve also hired a terrific young staff that adds personality and warmth to this new venture.

“Look at the cooks on the line,” says one enthusiastic friend, who ate here eight times in the first two weeks. “These guys take real pride in what they do.” Perhaps therein lies La Serenata’s secret.

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LA SERENATA

CUISINE: Mexican. AMBIENCE: Cheerful cafe with pink walls, blue-green chairs and folk art. BEST DISHES: roasted poblano peppers quesadilla, any of the sopes, fish or tongue soft taco, shrimp enchiladas in tomatillo sauce, grilled fish in avocado sauce, pork medallions in Molcajete sauce. FACTS: 10924 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles; (310) 441-9667. Open daily for lunch through dinner. Dinner for two, food only, $20 to $40. Parking in city lots or on street, with valet service to come.