Carlsbad Restaurant Serves Hearty Mexican Fare : Prices, Portions Right at Popular Fidel’s Norte

Twenty years ago, it was possible to stroll into Fidel Montanez’s barber shop in Solana Beach and get a shave, a beer and a taco.

Fidel wielded the razor while his wife, Martha, dished up simple Mexican fare from a kitchen tacked onto the shop. Over time, and in the way that such things seem to happen in this country, Fidel locked away the implements of one trade and picked up those of another, closing the barber shop and turning Fidel’s into a full-fledged restaurant.

The rest, as they say, is history. Fidel’s quickly became the centerpiece of a Mexican village in the Eden Gardens district of Solana Beach, its success inviting other restaurateurs to open large, ambitious eateries nearby.

Then Fidel looked north to his Carlsbad birthplace and opened Fidel’s Norte, thus becoming, even if on a modest scale, the operator of a restaurant chain. Fidel’s Norte did nicely--well enough to justify a major expansion and renovation that was completed in December to complement other new developments in this seaside stretch of Carlsbad.

The new restaurant surely ranks as one of the most attractive Mexican eateries in the county, its walls laden with discreet artworks, its color scheme quiet and restful, its ceilings raked up to a stories-high skylight. Such allures have not been lost on the local populace; the place was jammed on two recent visits.

The price structure has much to do with the draw. From the look of the plates, the cooks must use two hands when dishing up the food, and it is possible to feed to satiation for less than $5. Nothing costs more than $8.95. This combination of prices and generosity, along with the casual atmosphere, explains why the crowds include so many young families, often with babes in arms.

The majority of Fidel’s guests presumably like the food as well. And it is easy to see why anyone raised on Southern California-style Mexican food would like Fidel’s cooking, since all the icons of this localized cuisine are present and accounted for. Most plates come laden with rice and beans, and many are garnished with the mountains of chopped lettuce and tomato, and scoops of guacamole, that seem so popular in these parts. Burritos abound, as do tacos, tostadas and enchiladas, all stuffed with an interchangeable array of fillings that make this menu into something of a moveable feast.

Fidel’s menu is more interesting for its house specialties than its tacos, however, as the list includes such less-common dishes as casseroles of pork cooked with the guest’s choice of zucchini or nopales (cactus); a vegetarian casserole of potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower and marinated onions, baked under a coverlet of cheese; tortas, or crisp rolls stuffed with a choice of fillings, including eggs scrambled with chorizo sausage, and carnitas, the popular chunks of lean pork cooked to a melting tenderness.

This restaurant would not be true to its genre if it failed to serve chips and salsa the moment guests sit down, and the chips are crisp and hot, the tomato sauce-based salsa acceptable if milder and less complex in flavor than the red salsas served in Mexico. Fidel’s also would be untrue to its genre if it had too elegant a style, but one wishes at times that it provided at least a few amenities, such as plates with the queso fundido appetizer. It is very difficult for plate-less guests to share a serving of this dish of melted cheese spread with crumbled chorizo.

The kitchen usually turns in a good performance with the basic dishes; for example, the beans are smooth and flavorful, the rice dry and fluffy (nothing is worse than the mushy rice so many restaurants serve), the tostadas crisp and generously layered with toppings. Fidel’s carnitas are especially good, the deep-fried chunks of pork cooked until they take on golden, slightly crisp exteriors, while the meat inside retains its moisture and shreds at the touch of a fork. Rolled inside a tortilla with a touch of salsa and a sprig of cilantro, the carnitas make an excellent dish, and Fidel’s serves so large a portion that there probably will be some left over to take home for lunch the next day.

It seems odd, though, that a restaurant that prepares such classy carnitas should turn out such indifferent carne asada. As the most expensive item on the menu, it should be given extra-careful treatment, and one would expect Fidel’s to send out thin, carefully broiled steaks that have been steeped in a subtle marinade. Instead, small squares of tough, flavorless meat arrived, topped with a messy melange of sauteed peppers and onions.

The carne asada unexpectedly turned up on a second visit as the basis for the chile verde, a dish with which Fidel’s took so many shortcuts that it was unrecognizable. Chile verde consists of chunks of beef or pork, stewed slowly in a savory, spicy sauce that gains its characteristic color from tomatillos. At Fidel’s, the kitchen simply topped squares of carne asada with a mixed saute that included tomato and peppers, and it was not good. According to a waiter, if one orders pork-based chile verde, one receives carnitas topped with mixed sauteed vegetables; this similarly is unauthentic.

These caveats aside, Fidel’s can be an enjoyable place for an inexpensive, family-style meal that may be most successful when the guests take a cautious approach and stick to the simpler menu items.

FIDEL’S NORTE

3003 Carlsbad Blvd., Carlsbad

729-0903

Lunch and dinner served daily.

Credit cards accepted.

A meal for two, including one Mexican beer each, tax and tip, $15 to $30.