Senor Bravo is a fine bet for Mexican fare, but it's not perfect

Sal Bravo is the kind of gregarious proprietor who walks around his restaurant as if it were his living room, slapping men with handshakes and making sure that ladies' margaritas are filled. One minute he's got his wait staff crowded around a laptop, laughing. The next he's catching the eye of regulars or manning the front door. If you come to Senor Bravo, his new restaurant, more than once, then chances are that he'll get to know you, too.

For people who have patronized Las Estrellas, Bravo's first restaurant that he opened in 2000 on Silas Creek Parkway, things might feel familiar -- a little too familiar. The choices are similarly numerous: a bounty of enchiladas, fajitas and burritos, and less-familiar chicken, steak and especially seafood dishes.

There is arroz con pollo, pollo en mole and chori pollo, a guilty pleasure of grilled chicken topped with chorizo and cheese. Shrimp shows up in a cocktail, doused in mojo de aijo (garlic sauce) and even in pasta. You can get a whole fried snapper or a whole fried tilapia.

With the restaurants in relatively close proximity -- about 2½ miles apart -- and with such similar menus, why we should choose one over the other?

Maybe one argument for Senor Bravo is the chile relleno with pork, a rich concoction of fruit, fat and cheese if there ever was one. Mild white cheese oozes out of a poblano pepper, a heap of fatty pulled pork on top. A sprinkling of walnuts add sweetness, bitterness and crunch. Pomegranate seeds throw in color and tartness. Somewhere in all of this, there was supposed to be dried fruit, but I couldn't taste it.

No matter. The dish echoed such savory-sweet Mexican classics as chiles stuffed with beef, olives and raisins in walnut sauce. It's the sort of soulful south-of-the-border cooking I want to taste more of, the opposite of flat-footed combination platters at many a Mexican restaurant, weighed down by hard-shelled tacos, crusty refried beans and bland guacamole.

Is Senor Bravo better than that? Yes, but it's not going to be where you consistently find the best Mexican food in Winston-Salem.

Senor Bravo is not a bad bet, though.

Cactus dip is a fun starter. It's so big that "salad" would be a more apt description -- a plate of tender cactus paddles cut with red onion and tomato on shredded iceberg. It would be a delicious foil to something fatty and rich, such as carnitas.

The whole fried tilapia was good, as were a tangle of tender shredded chicken in mild red mole and pollo tequila, grilled chicken breast marinated with liquor and chile-orange sauce, though another cut of meat would have been more flavorful.

One of my favorite dishes at Las Estrellas is the fish tacos, Baja-style tender, fried white fish cooled down with shredded cabbage and creamy, tangy sauce. At Senor Bravo, there's an unfried version, and it's just as good.

Other seafood choices are middling.

The best thing that the Del Mar seafood platter had going for it was that it was abundant. But that's not really a compliment when much of the seafood on it tasted old -- tough crab and fishy grilled shrimp, scallops like erasers and squid, all lapped by a spicy sauce and red slashes of chile.

Senor Bravo is in the building where South by Southwest used to be, and a few touches recall that restaurant. Queso loco -- melty, gooey cheese dip with chorizo, onions and jalapenos -- is served in hot skillets instead of standard-issue Mexican restaurant bowls. The list of shaken margaritas, particularly the blue one laced with curacao, is similar to but not as good as South by Southwest's libations.

For dessert, I love churros, and they're tasty here, thick with cinnamon and served very hot, sliced precisely into small pieces, though I wish they were served with hot chocolate or champurrado, Mexican hot chocolate thickened with hominy flour.

The sopapilla, though, is disappointing: a single, fried tortilla drizzled with watery chocolate syrup.

I wish the fireplace would get used here -- I have never seen it on, either in South By Southwest's days or now -- but Bravo has brightened up the place with boisterous tchotchkes (a pair of large, curly-haired dolls on the mantel; fake flowers).

Bravo has sealed in the once-open kitchen, but the main dining room still has the look of a village square, with warm stucco and rounded walls.

And with Bravo's meets-and-greets going on, and the incongruous mix of dolls, flowers and sizzling fajitas whizzing by, plus the glow of margaritas, that's almost how it feels.