PHOTO: B.A. Nilsson

Still Crazy . . .

El Loco Mexican Café

465 Madison Ave., Albany, 436-1855. Serving Tue 4-10, Wed-Thu 11:30-10, Fri 1:30-11, Sat noon-11, Sun 4:30-10. AE, MC. V.

Cuisine: Tex-Mex

Entrée price range: $8 (veggie tostada) to $14 (high-end Loco Combo)

Ambiance: venerably funky

By B.A. Nilsson

The competition has soared since El Loco opened its doors more than 20 years ago, with Mexican chains, Mexican fast food, and even serious stabs at Mexican fare coming and going. It’s been easy to lose sight of El Loco, but this crazy restaurant perseveres in its charming home between the park and Lark, dishing out exactly what you expect in an atmosphere that’s fun and relaxing.

It’s a tribute to the vision of owner Marcia Tolive, who has guided the place through a succession of internal and external changes, and who lately has retrenched and reestablished the restaurant as one of the more reliable locations for this type of fare.

Since last reviewing El Loco in 1997, I’ve had a few disappointing visits. Even the addition of outdoor dining, a boon in downtown Albany, didn’t make up for them.

But my recent visit did. And I kick myself for not having retried El Loco even sooner. Everything from the service to the food to those intangibles of comfort and sociability were working, and continued to work even as the place filled almost to capacity while I made my way through dinner.

The menu seems to have changed little, and even the prices seem more reasonable than what I last remember. One thing that grabbed my eye was the evening’s special: Oaxacan chicken mole tamales ($12.50), in which the sautéed meat is finished in a mole (bitter chocolate) sauce with some help from Dos Equis Amber. “I’ll have that,” my daughter said.

Not surprising. Our tastes are beginning to coincide. As we awaited my wife, I decided upon the ancho chicken and spinach chimichanga ($10.25), which Susan immediately claimed once she was seated. I talked her into a spinach burrito ($9.25) with sharing privileges.

Which makes ordering here sound easy! It isn’t. Start yourself with some chips and salsa ($2.75) and, as good as you’ll find the salsa roja, with fresh tomatoes and cilantro livening the flavor, be sure to enhance your options with the hotter stuff that awaits at the salsa bar in back.

Then consider the menu. Burritos, quesadillas, tostadas—you know what the parameters are. The challenge is to satisfy your hunger requirements even as you explore the permutations.

I find that guacamole ($4.50) is a good test of south-of-the-border cooking, reflecting much about a restaurant’s approach. A mixture that’s too uniform, blended in a machine, heralds a kitchen happy to cut corners. If there’s not enough avocado, you’re talking cheap. Good guacamole is hand-mashed and -blended, as it’s done here. I wouldn’t mind it more piquant and spicy, but I have to note that El Loco’s version is so avocado-centric that it’s full of flavor even as it contrasts with the spicier dips.

The Loco Chili Carne ($3.25) advertises itself as something special, and, while it may not suit the purists in Terlingua, its heart (and seasonings) are in the right place, in a brew that’s also slightly sweet.

Combo platters are a good way to sample a variety of items and range from $8.50 to $14, the latter a burrito-chimichanga-enchilada monster. And you get a side dish, which can range from rice and beans to a soup, guacamole, or blue corn bread.

But that Oaxacan mole was also an outstanding way to go. Enchiladas are filled pastries steamed in a cornhusk. For this dish, it’s a scallion-cornmeal concoction that’s then drizzled with a cilantro-scallion cream. Inside, those chocolate-enhanced chicken chunks, a big flavor that’s especially good on a chilly night.

Setting off the quesadilla I chose is chipotle, or roasted jalapenos. This contrasts well with the sweeter flavor of the ancho chili, and the tartness of spinach is a natural addition. It’s also easy to get lost in all the cheese that accompanies this dish, with jack and cheddar flowing over and into the whole-wheat flour tortilla in which the meat is wrapped.

Mexican rice is a side, along with a small helping of salad that offers a welcome contrast of temperature and texture to the rest of the dish.

The burrito espinaca comes with rice and beans and the option of another side; Susan chose a cup of the sopa del dia (soup of the day), which was chicken Florentine (lots of spinach this night). It was a good, if somewhat unremarkable blend, but at least distinguished by virtue of being homemade.

The burrito itself also contains mushrooms and artichoke hearts, which are nice flavors to combine, and plenty of cheese surrounds it. Although it looks comparatively petite, it’s a filling meal.

Don’t forget that this is a very vegetarian-friendly place, where items that don’t explicitly claim meat content are cooked completely without it; where you can assemble an a la carte sampling for few dollars (tacos are $2.65 apiece, rice and beans $2, burritos $4.20 and there’s much more).

Service was swift and efficient, and we saw several servers during the course of our meal, all working together with impressive ease. So don’t let the competition daunt you: El Loco was the original, remains original, and is worth another visit.

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