La Nopalera replaced the Subway on Schroeder Road. Despite the big space, it’s got a small, mom-and-pop feel, with a concise menu and a grocery section limited to a few perishables and non-perishables.

An item you typically don’t see on menus is the sincronizada ($5.95), which is a mouthful to say and a mouthful to eat. Ham, cheese, tomatoes, avocados and jalapenos or chipotle sauce are pressed between two flour tortillas. It’s tasty, but I would have preferred the contents to be a bit warmer.

Street corn seems to be growing in popularity in Madison, and this version ($2.95) is fresh and delightful. The corn is mixed with a huge dollop of mayo, crumbles of cheese, lime juice and tajin seasoning.

The Mexican BLTA ($5.95) adds avocado and jalapenos to the classic. The ingredients were very fresh (e.g. the avocado is sliced just for this sandwich), and torta was used instead of toast, a nice touch.

Other items include salads ($5.95) and hot dogs ($2.95).

Come for breakfast sometime. The yogurt ($5.95 for 16 oz., $6.35 for 20 oz, $6.95 for 24 oz) is blended with your choice of fresh mango, peach or strawberry, then topped with banana, apple, strawberry, mango and granola. The mango version I had was full of flavor and contrasting textures, but the yogurt melted quickly and was basically soup after five min.

La Nopalera is open every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

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See more photos in our La Nopalera Flickr album.

Finally, another area of town besides Middleton got a new Mexican restaurant, and that happens to be Los Atlantes, which opened January in a strip mall on the corner of Whitney Way and Raymond Road. It’s got a small menu with the expected fare plus a few unique items.

Let’s look at the former first. Tacos are $2 each, are served on two sturdy corn tortillas and come with your choice of meat. I liked that there’s a heaping portion of meat that is served with tacos; in fact, I had spillover from my three tacos to create a fourth.

Reviewing the meat choices, I was disappointed with the steak because it was actually dry ground beef, and the marinated pork was surprisingly bland. The lamb, however, was perfect: tender and flavorful (even though it tasted more like goat than lamb). This is what I’ll order next time, too. Your other choices are chicken and chorizo, by the way.

The pork tamale ($1.50; chicken or cheese are the other fillings) grows on you. The exterior is a bit dry, but it’s aided by the red salsa inside. At this point I want to mention that both the homemade red and green salsas are “creamy” and contain so much flavor that I ended up using them with other entrees not from the restaurant–that’s how much I enjoyed them.

Now for the unique items. You’ll get tons of that aforementioned lamb in the consome ($8.99), which aside from the not-too-soft chickpeas that clashed with the rice, carrots, potatoes and onion, made for a satisfying dish. Menudo (soup, $9.99) and a lamb plate ($10.99), plus a fish fry, are some of the other items from this section of the menu.

If you have a sweet tooth, note that Los Atlantes also doubles as a small bakery, with a display case of freshly made treats such as conchas available.

Los Atlantes is open every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Lalo’s Mexican Restaurant, near the Original Pancake House on University Avenue, is more similar in concept to a Laredo’s than a Taqueria Guadalajara, where the owner used to work. There’s a bar at the entryway–though I can’t imagine many people coming here to drink–a lunch menu catered to the in-and-out business crowd and free chips and salsa as you are seated.

Let’s start with that lunch menu. Prices range from $6.99-$8.50, and half of the menu consists of heuvos dishes, while the other half consists of combination platters.  I ordered the Heuvos Lalo’s ($8.50).  The steak was slightly chewy, but that was the only downside of a well-crafted dish. It included a good amount of fresh, homemade sauce, two eggs sunny side up (mine were over-cooked as over-hard) and a grilled tortilla to hold everything together.

Burritos, fajitas, “sides” (e.g. quesadillas) and dinner entrees comprised the rest of the menu. Tacos ($2.25 each) are one of those sides and come with your choice of meat such as pork and chicken. I appreciated that the taco was generous in its serving of meat–in my case, beef tongue, which was quite tender–and that overall it had enough flavor that no sauce was necessary.

Lalo’s Special ($12.99) packs a lot on a plate. I wish it came with more than just one piece of the highly flavorful chorizo. The steak had good flavor, too, but it was a bit tough. The thinly sliced potatoes didn’t add anything to the dish.

Tamales are available as a dish ($7.50) or side ($1.75), with chicken or cheese. I have to warn you, the tamale is not pretty to look at, appearing under-cooked. The corn tasted a bit off, and the limited chicken didn’t help. I had to douse it with salsa to get through it.

I really wanted to try the soups (menudo or pozole for $8.99), but unfortunately they’re only served on the weekends. Surprisingly, there’s a kids menu, too.

Lalo’s is open Monday-Saturday for lunch and dinner. The parking lot is tiny, but in the evening, you may park next door at the Original Pancake House.