Guadalajaran dishes with a fanciful touch

“THIS is unbelievable,” my dinner partner says as our waitress at Enrique’s Mexican Restaurant sets down his chuletas de puerco. The platter holds enough food to feed a small family. But it isn’t the portion size that distinguishes this dish.

We’d been intrigued by the menu description of center-cut pork chops served over a cheese tamal and our curiosity is well rewarded. The tamal, unlike most familiar cornmeal bundles, is delicate, as flat as a bread slice and cut to the exact shape of the grilled meat. Imagine inside-out stuffed chops: With each bite we get a taste of creamy cheeseinfused masa and a taste of juicy pork. The tart heat of crunchy fresh tomatillo salsa cuts through the richness of the chuletas and tamal.

It’s this dish that introduces me to the restaurant’s dual personality. On one hand, the place is a haven for throngs of regulars -- like the group of cops at the next table -- who come to chow down on burritos the size of Chihuahuas or the excellent enchilada combination plates. But on the other, it’s where chef Enrique Perez cooks the more sophisticated foods of his home city, Guadalajara, along with a few personal creations.

Perez employs familiar ingredients and keeps his flavor palette typically Mexican, but he often puts elements together in a fanciful or stylized way: Lightly grilled tail-on shrimp top a salad of watercress and spinach tossed in his sparkly lime vinaigrette with a sparse scattering of tiny white beans for added texture. A “paella” of chicken chunks in a cream and cheese sauce is knockout delicious.

Excitement on the plate

ALL this culinary drama is available throughout the day, but at mealtimes the restaurant bursts with energy. Upbeat ranchera hits pour from the sound system, and there’s a mix of customers that absolutely defines L.A.: golfers from the links across the street, manicure-shop ladies, students or staff from nearby Cal State Long Beach, office mates, girlfriends and families. Everyone seems totally relaxed, whether they’re snuggled into one of the tall velvet booths or sitting at the heavy, hand-painted wooden tables all in view of the gleaming stainless-steel hoods of the open kitchen.

On the menu, each item sounds more intriguing than the last and when the food comes, the dishes are even more appealing than their descriptions. If you enjoy small-plates dining, several appetizers make a wonderful tapas-style meal. Four people could easily share the caldo de almejas, a pound of small clams steamed in a chunky tomato sauce and served in a gleaming copper cauldron along with toasted bread and a saucer of melted butter for dipping.

Pasillas asados is the sort of dish you might find in a Diana Kennedy cookbook: Two flame-roasted peppers are filled with diced potatoes and a blend of Jack and blue cheeses that melts to form a puddle of sauce beneath the peppers. The slightly starchy richness of the filling melds into the pepper’s mild heat. A mound of chunky guacamole and another of tomatoonion pico de gallo accent the memorable creation.

Other botanas, as appetizers are called here, have the same well-thought-out taste and texture balance that seems to be an Enrique trademark. His tortitas de cangrejo, meaty crab cakes garnished with creamy chipotle-flecked sauce, come with a sharp contrapunto of lime vinaigrette-dressed greens. Traditional starters are good too. The decadent queso fundido con chorizo, a pot of melted cheese and lean, chile-laced sausage you scoop up with tortillas, makes a satisfying meal with a small salad or soup.

Salads show more evidence of the restaurant’s exemplary cooking. Not only are the dressings made in-house, but each complements a particular salad. For the house revuelta, or mixed salad, it’s creamy cilantro; for the ensalada de espinaca (spinach salad) it’s mustardy vinaigrette; for the Dona Perita salad it’s a citrus vinaigrette.

Entrees also deliver plenty of variety. The house specialty, whole pork shank stewed in tomatillo sauce, yields meat that falls from the bone at the touch of a tortilla chip. The trio campestre -- referring to the countryside -- is a mixed grill of marinated quail, a slab of carne asada and one of Enrique’s meaty chorizos. Another such mix, mar y tierra, holds about 10 skewered shrimp, an achiote-infused chicken breast and that lean chorizo, all from the grill.

Some of the desserts are far more accomplished than you’d expect from a casual restaurant. The creamy bread pudding studded with chunks of cinnamon-scented Mexican chocolate, centered on homemade caramel sauce, swirled with custard sauce and garnished with an oval of ice cream may sound baroque, but as always, chef Perez’s adroit balancing brings all the flavors into complete harmony.

Enrique’s may be casual, but attention is carefully paid to customer comfort and preferences. You may select black beans or pintos or substitute grilled veggies for either. The coffee is robust, served with real cream if you request it, and the Shirley Temples kids love are bottomless.

Many Mexican food fans invoke the margarita index when assessing Mexican restaurants: The larger the “margo,” they say, the tackier the food. Enrique’s, which serves beer and wine, dispenses with the party-hearty drink altogether, a justifiable sign of confidence that this cooking will stand on its own.

*

Enrique’s Mexican Restaurant

Location: 6210-12 E. Pacific Coast Highway, Long Beach, (562) 498-3622.

Price: Appetizers (shareable), $7 to $ 11; salads, $3 to $8; combinations, $7 to $ 8; entrees, $9 to $ 15; desserts, $3 to $5.

Best dishes: Pasillas asados, del mar salad, house pork shank, chuletas de puerco, chocolate bread pudding.

Details: Open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 10:30 p.m. Beer and wine. Visa and MasterCard. Lot parking.