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.