Dining Out:

When you choose The Best Fish Taco in Ensenada as the name of your restaurant, you instantly subject yourself to potential sneers of derision. It’s one thing to claim you have the “best” of something, but to be so bold as to make it your identity? Well, a new joint in Glendale did just that, and it measures up nicely.

There seems to be a certain mystique to fish tacos that puts them into a separate category that’s almost elitist. It’s only recently that you can find them on the menu at the well-known Mexican fast food restaurants and they are the proverbial staple of beach bums, but now it’s time to let the rest of us in on this little delicacy.

The overwhelming theme to this restaurant is simplicity. The décor is four colorful serapes draped on the wall and some ceramic fish you’d find at a flea market. That same lack of complication is true for the food. It may be ideal for anyone who has trouble when faced with too many choices because there are exactly two items on the menu: fish taco ($1.50) and shrimp taco ($2). That’s it. If you’re not into seafood this isn’t the place for you.

The shrimp speaks for itself, and the fish they use is bass. The cooking process is simply deep frying them in a large vat of oil to a lightly crisp consistency without using any exterior coating. Both the shrimp and bass were cooked for the right amount of time and had a firm consistency. They are served in a plain cardboard dish on a freshly grilled flour tortilla.

The big task comes when faced with choices at the salsa bar. First stop is the shredded cabbage, followed by six salsa choices.

For my fish taco, I added cabbage and mad mango salsa with a dash of crema majica, better known as sour cream.

The salsa also had tomato, onion and green chili peppers. Because mango is a tropical fruit, I thought it would be something sweet — and the fault is mine because I didn’t read the description and take full responsibility for my error. This salsa is hot! It wasn’t what I expected but it sure lit up my mouth in a wonderfully tantalizing way. The cool sour cream is nice but doesn’t counteract the intensity.

I was more prepared when I tried the salsa without mango on my shrimp taco because it was advertised as hot — and it was. I’d say these two are fraternal twins on the scale of spiciness with the only difference being the presence or absence of mango. I’m not exaggerating when I say it took several minutes for my mouth to cool down.

For my third taco I went back to the fish and chose the mild salsa — aptly named for its basic and easily palatable taste — with tomato, onion and less chili. This is the correct choice for those who don’t want to partake in anything overly hot.

Other salsa selections include a spicy pineapple (which I didn’t get a chance to try), one made with radish that’s also venturing into the spicy side, and an even more potent one called hot guacamole. The radish one has a good balance of retaining the deep red color and classic taste of a radish blended nicely with chili flavoring.

The hot guacamole salsa is definitely the most intense one they carry. One bite set my mouth on fire, my eyes began watering and for several minutes I had the clearest sinuses I can remember.

All drink selections cost $1 and you can choose from two regional specialties, typical American soft drinks or bottled water. I decided to be adventurous and try the tamarindo, a popular Mexican drink made from the tamarind plant.

If you didn’t know the difference you’d think you were drinking sweetened ice tea.

Because I don’t claim to be an expert in fish tacos, I can’t say if these are truly the best.

But you can’t go wrong at a dive where dinner for two is very satisfying and less than the price of one movie ticket.

Get in touch PHILLIP HAIN is a Glendale resident who has been reviewer for this newspaper for more than five years.