Newly Planted Garden

Francisco Romero and his grandson Steve Gonzales have cloned their popular West Hollywood restaurant Garden of Taxco on Ventura Boulevard in Encino.

The new restaurant, like the first, offers a number of items you rarely see on menus this side of the border.

Most entrees come with two appetizers, and you get to choose from among an unusual array--for example, a small enchilada stuffed with spinach and topped with sour cream and salsa verde, a flaky pastry called pastel Azteca with cheese and peppers, or a corn-tortilla quesadilla stuffed with either sweetbreads, potato and chorizo sausage, grilled onions and peppers, or even squash flowers.

The entrees include a variety of familiar beef and chicken dishes plus a handful of unique shrimp offerings--shrimp in a cilantro and cream sauce, shrimp in a hot garlic sauce, shrimp in mole poblano, and shrimp in a spicy tomato ranchero sauce.

Prices go to $14.95, as a rule. Chef is Socorro Reyes, who hails from the state of Michoacan, west of Mexico City.

“This place is practically the same as Garden of Taxco in West Hollywood, which I opened up 26 years ago,” Francisco Romero says with a laugh. Except, “my grandson runs this one, not me.”

Garden of Taxco is at 17209 Ventura Blvd., Encino, (818) 789-9010. The original Garden of Taxco is at 1113 North Harper Ave., West Hollywood, (213) 654-1742.

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Obelisco Pasta & Grill in Woodland Hills has added three new items to its signature list of pasta dishes--noodles stuffed with either spinach, carrots or potato.

And in keeping with everything else on the restaurant’s menu, the prices, at $3.99, are so low you look at them in disbelief. The new dishes push the count of pasta offerings on the menu to no fewer than 34--none of them costing more than $5.50.

The pastas include ravioli cooked 10 different ways, tortellini stuffed with beef and a red pepper pesto, gnocchi, and a host of other offerings. Also new on the menu are pork chops griddled with garlic and olive oil, for $6.95.

Two of the pasta dishes hold places of honor for their rarity on local menus, though they are not new--varinique and kreplaj. Chef Javier Gramajo, who runs the restaurant with his uncle Fede Gramajo, makes his dough for varinique and kreplaj with beets. He stuffs the former with potatoes and onions, the latter with liver and onions.

Ashkenazi Jews, of course, would spell these dishes vareniki and kreplach, but the Sephardic Jewish tradition of Argentina, from which the Gramajo family hails, gives the words a Spanish twist.

Anyway, who cares about spelling when dinner costs only $3.99?

Obelisco is at 22140 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills, (818) 712-0105.

* Juan Hovey writes about the restaurant scene in the San Fernando Valley and outlying points. He may be reached at (805) 492-7909 or fax (805) 492-5139 or via e-mail at JHovey@compuserve.com