Barrio - St. Paul

Rating:

Same great tacos -- and same huge tequila list -- as its older Minneapolis counterpart, but this time there's breathing room, plus great views of pretty Mears Park. Headliners of the Mexican chain-restaurant stable — tacos, enchiladas, tostadas — have been given an invigorating new life through a potent blend of ingenuity, enthusiasm, cooking prowess and impeccable ingredients. The menu isn’t large, but it’s remarkably coherent. There’s not a misstep in the bunch. It’s funny saying this about a taco, but the mahi-mahi version here is rapturously good, the succulent fish enrobed in a gossamer beer-batter tempura and paired with a cool cucumber pico de gallo. There's a robust red chile enchilada, flecked with a peppy chorizo and topped with a gently fried egg. Cinnamon-kissed carnitas is served two ways, either as a taco or crowning a pair of sopas and finished in a rich ancho-tamarind sauce. Both are heavenly.The chicken enchilada pretty much shows how the genre is done. Other don’t-miss dishes? The grilled shrimp, skewered on sugar cane. The tequila-cured gravlax. The lovely jicama-citrus-pepita salad. The brightly flavored scallop-grapefruit ceviche. The golden empanadas, liberally stuffed with crab. The complex soups (although the one major glitch I encountered was an alarmingly past-its-prime crab soup). After all those glorious small plates, the menu’s half-dozen entrees seem a bit superfluous. They’re fine — more than fine, actually.