At first, El Mezon del Cobre doesn't look like much.
The Tucson restaurant's North First Avenue location isn't the most prestigious, but once you get inside and sample the food, you'll know why it's been around since 1990.
Comfortable gold, green and reddish-orange walls surround tables and chairs in various dining rooms of the restaurant owned by Consuelo Medina and her sons, Manny Medina and OctavĂo Castanos.
Prices are a bit higher than you expect, with many dishes costing in the teens. Dinner entrees range from $7.50 for a bean burro to $20.95 for steak and shrimp. Several items are market price.
But El Mezon del Cobre offers dishes that most places don't. Sure, there are the chimichangas, enchiladas, fajitas and tacos, but seafood is where the restaurant shines. More than 20 fish and shrimp dishes grace the menu.
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One of the nice surprises is an appetizer called El Mezon Chiles Toritos ($12.50). Wow. Five mild yellow peppers were stuffed with chunks of meaty shrimp and wrapped in bacon. Not a combination that we would have dreamed up, but it worked. Interestingly enough, the soy sauce that came with the dish complemented it and didn't make it too salty.
Another "wow" dish is the Pargo Frito ($14.50 a pound), which is brought in from Guaymas, Sonora, three times a week. An entire red snapper comes out lightly fried and garnished with raw white onions and slices of lemon.
Digging around the fins and bones to scoop out the flaky white meat makes for an interesting time, but it's worth it. The fish is simply seasoned with garlic salt and pepper, but it retained enough juice during the cooking and didn't need anything additional except maybe a squeeze from one of the lemon slices.
It seems to be a waste to order something so mundane as tacos, but the Tacos Locos are anything but ordinary. Choose shrimp ($15.50) or fish ($13.50). The fish is sea bass, and the flaky chunks are carefully grilled and placed on a thick layer of melted Monterey jack and salsa with shredded lettuce sprinkled over them.
So many times you have to add salsa or other seasoning to give tacos an extra oomph. Not here. The combination of ingredients added plenty of flavor, and the tacos were wrapped in house-made corn tortillas grilled to the perfect firmness. The tortilla didn't break — rather, it yielded to a diner's bite while embracing the fish and flavors of the cheese and salsa.
On another visit, the guacamole ($11.50) needed a touch of salt and some spice. A generous mound arrived on a yellow plate on top of a bed of shredded iceberg lettuce.
A liberal sprinkling of white Mexican cheese topped this bland guacamole, which contained diced tomatoes and onion, and several tortilla strips stuck out of the mix.
Enchiladas a la Mezon del Cobre ($12.50) is a standby. Three tortillas and two layers of shredded chicken and a mix of cheddar and Monterey jack were drenched in a smoky, spicy red sauce. They were topped with a scoop of sour cream and two avocado slices. The amount of spice was perfect, leaving a lingering feeling of heat throughout the meal.
The Camaron Ranchero ($16.50) arrived in an oval dish with a side of Spanish rice and a tortilla. Nine large sautéed shrimp, with tails on, were nestled in a tangy and slightly spicy red sauce of tomatoes, green chiles and onion. Squeezing the four small lime halves that came on the side added a refreshing tartness.
One diner recommended making shrimp "sandwiches" by tearing off some tortilla and adding rice, shrimp and some of the juices.
If seafood's not your thing, the Tampiqueña ($16.50) will more than satisfy. The menu described the meat as thinly sliced top sirloin. Our meat came out in one large piece, making us create our own thin slices, and was topped with white onions. A red chile cheese enchilada, a scoop of guacamole, four tortillas and refried beans accompanied the dish, but the meat —seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper — is the succulent reason to order this.
Try to save some room for a piece of pastel de tres leches ($5.25), a moist white cake made with a mix of sweet condensed milk, Carnation evaporated milk and media crema, a Mexican milk.
But this gringa couldn't appreciate the fried ice cream ($4.25). The dessert is pre-made — and tasted it — so the outer layer of corn flakes, cinnamon and sugar didn't have the usual warm crunch that contrasts nicely with the cold vanilla ice cream inside.
tucson Restaurant review
Tucson restaurant review: El Mezon del cobre
2960 N. First Ave., 791-0977.
• Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays; 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
• Prices: Dinner entrees cost $7.50-$20.95; lunch specials are $4.95-$7.95.
• Family call: A kids menu offers four items, such as a quesadilla with rice and beans, that each cost $4.95.
• Vegetarian choices: Some, such as a bean chimichanga ($8) and veggie burro ($8).