Culinary Crossroads

Camacho’s Cantina is for tourists, that’s obvious even to the most naive passerby. But the food is generous, surprisingly flavorful and, for the most part, reasonably authentic. I take a perverse delight in luring native Pasadena and Valley residents to CityWalk for a meal there, and even more in watching them gradually being won over.

Just coming to Universal City is a daunting proposition, as we all know, what with the overflow crowds, disorienting architecture and $6 parking charge. But when you’re finally seated in Camacho’s outdoor dining plaza, set just below CityWalk’s main thoroughfare, it all begins to seem worth it.

Those seated inside, in the huge dining room, aren’t having as much fun, it seems, unless they’re only here for touristy Mexican atmosphere. The dining room is all mock adobe walls, beamed ceilings, hanging serapes, balloons, subtropical shrubs and even the odd ceramic cockatoo. (The restrooms, designed with carved wooden doors, marble floors and azulejo tiles, could pass for those in a Guadalajara luxury hotel.)

After the obligatory basket of hot tortilla chips and dish of bland, runny salsa, they bring the drinks: aguas frescas poured from huge glass jugs. These heavily iced fruit juice drinks come in flavors like orange, lime, hibiscus flower and melon. They’re real thirst-quenchers--although decidedly tame when compared to the bucket-sized house margarita, which must be at least a full 20 ounces.

At dinner or lunch, you dine simply but well. Tostada de ceviche is a crisp tortilla shell filled with raw marinated shrimp blended with onions, tomatoes, cilantro and green chiles, garnished with diced fresh avocado. Pescado a la Veracruzana is a nice filet of sauteed red snapper blanketed in a thick sauce of tomatoes, red chiles, capers and olives.

However, I regretted ordering cochinita pibil, a Yucatecan specialty of pork rubbed with annatto seeds and then baked in a banana leaf. This pork is salty and dried out, and the annatto is strictly for color; you sure can’t taste this characteristic Yucatecan element.

Without a doubt, the best meal here is the $10.95-a-head Sunday brunch, an enormous spread that includes complimentary champagne and live entertainment by a mariachi band. Virtually the entire menu is rotated in and out of the steam tables during brunch.

At brunch one Sunday, I started by asking the omelet chef to make me one filled with chorizo, jalapen~o chiles, Jack cheese and chopped onions. I practically had to wrestle the pan out of his hands to get him to put it on my plate still runny, but the result was exactly what I wanted.

Then I headed over to the soups, which include menudo, caldo Tlalpen~o and pozole, plus a condiment bar stocked with thyme, chopped onions, chiles, cilantro and Cotija cheese. The caldo Tlalpen~o was especially good, the chicken, vegetables, chickpeas, avocados and smoky chipotle peppers nicely set off by a well-seasoned broth. The pozole, a dark red broth chock full of hominy and sweet spices, was fine but filling.

The entrees on the steam table included chicken in a brown mole sauce, red and green tamales in intense red and green chile sauces, chile rellenos in thick egg batter, and, of course, Mexican rice and refried beans.

The sumptuous dessert bar features creamy rice pudding, moist squares of tres leches cake, the familiar flan custard and bun~uelos, fried flour tortillas drenched with honey, cinnamon and sugar.

BE THERE

Camacho’s Cantina, 1000 Universal Center Drive, Suite 133, Universal City. Open 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.- midnight Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday. Dinner for two, $24-$46.