Dining -- Mary Furr

Home style Mexican food like Don Ramon’s is especially appealing when

the California winter nips at your bones.

It warms you from the inside out.

There’s no better beginning than a big platter of nacho estilo, $6.35.

The mound of crisp thin chips is generously layered with beans, cheddar

and mozzarella cheese, topped with a scoop of guacamole and sour cream --

with jalapenos on request if you really want to feel a little heat.

The quesadilla supreme, $7.95, offered as a specialty, is not the

usual cheese and meat filled tortilla you’d expect. The Don Ramon

burrito-like version is really big and fat with tender pork pieces, green

chile and cheese neatly packaged in a delicious flaky crust. Scoops of

sour cream and guacamole top this quesadilla.

Rice, which comes with most dishes, is small-grained and flavorful

rather like risotto. There is a home-style taste to the food at Don

Ramon’s like you’d get if you were eating in a Mexican home.

The tamale and beef taco, $8.25, are probably the most popular choices

of Mexican food in America. The masa, Spanish for dough, and shredded

beef here are tasty with less masa and more meat and sauce while the

traditional folded hard taco shell has very little beef but loads of

shredded lettuce and cheese.

Al mojo de ajo, dinner $12.75, features five big shrimp with crusty

edges sauteed in a mix of herbs in a delicious garlic butter sauce with a

blending of tastes -- a Mexican-style shrimp scampi.

Every Mexican restaurant seems to have its version of deep-fried ice

cream, $3.25.

Don Ramon’s has a light, flaky tortilla, forming a saucer for a big

scoop of vanilla ice cream doused with chocolate syrup and plenty of

whipped cream. Don Ramon’s serves one of the best flans, $3.25 -- a

Mexican custard that is very creamy, floating in a thin caramel syrup.

Don Ramon’s, the second restaurant owned by Sally and Ray Gutierrez,

is a free-standing Spanish-style building with a charming interior

decorated by artist Clayton Parker with expansive murals, trailing vines

and flowers.

It has a catacomb of separate dining areas, a charming cantina with

huge TV screens and patio -- a warm friendly place for lunch or dinner.

FYI

WHAT: Don Ramon’s Mexican Restaurant

WHERE 16951 Goldenwest St. Huntington Beach

PHONE: 847-4767

HOURS: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. Sunday for

breakfast.

MISCELLANEOUS: Credit cards accepted.