Yucatan Taco Stand turns out remarkable fish tacos and 'ritas

If you’re hungry for a great fish taco and can snag a seat at one of the sidewalk tables overlooking Magnolia, the Yucatan Taco Stand is a pretty nearly perfect place to be.

Fans who’ve followed chef Paul Willis through various local restaurants — including Fuzzy’s and Pedro’s Trailer Park — have eagerly awaited his latest venture on Magnolia Avenue’s restaurant row, in the former B.J. Keefer’s. Billed as a "tequila bar and grill," Yucatan looks slick and hip, with its pillow-stocked black-leather banquettes.

As at Fuzzy’s, there are various options for taco fillings, all of which also go into burritos and bowls, grilled sandwiches and salads. There are plates with chimichangas, fajitas, enchiladas. Come evening, though, there are also some higher-end South American-inspired entrees: whole crispy snapper Veracruz ($18), Brazilian braised short ribs ($16), garlic steak chimichurri ($22).

These and the hip decor and tableware give the impression of a more sophisticated restaurant than Yucatan turns out to be. To order, as you do at Fuzzy’s or Pei Wei, you stand in line at the register (directly in the path of icy blasts from the air conditioner). You dispense your own soft drinks, find a seat and wait for servers to bring your food. Rock music blasting in the hard-surfaced room lends a college-hangout vibe.

So how’s the food? Mostly quite good. The $6 salsa-guac-and-chips starter brings little fried tortilla cups of a deeply flavored roasted-tomato salsa and fresh-tasting guacamole. The fried plantains ($3) are actually plantain chips: wisp-thin vertical slices of the tropical bananas, with a rich mayo-based dipping sauce. The banana-leaf tenderloin tamales ($5) are moist and tender in a spicy green sauce.

The more so-so starters on our visits were bland Yucatan fish cakes ($4) and ahi tuna and sweet shrimp ceviche ($8) that had been marinated to mush. Really wrong during one visit were the papas rellenas, mashed-potato balls enclosing picadillo (spiced ground beef with green olives) and cheese: My companion and I each took a bite and simultaneously shot each other concerned looks. Something in the dish tasted soured.

Entree-wise, the sea bass chimichurri served on a banana leaf was delicious: a nicely seasoned 3-inch square of the silky fish roofed with an appealing mix of julienned veggies and flanked with a cilantro-spiked slaw, a tasty mound of rice and sweet grilled plantain. I couldn’t find any trace of the parsley-based chimichurri sauce, but the dish was so good it didn’t matter. Also satisfying was a rich, rustic Peruvian lamb stew ($16) in an earthenware cazuela garnished with tall puff-pastry triangles.

But Willis’ celebrated fish tacos may be the best thing to eat here — crispy tempura or smoky grilled fish cradled in soft corn tortillas and piled with tomato, red onion, purple cabbage, cilantro, crumbles of Mexican white cheese, garlic sauce and a haystack of minutely shredded iceberg. At $3.50, they’re more expensive than they were at Fuzzy’s, but they’re also more substantial, even if you order them, as I do, without the blizzard of iceberg.

If I could always make sure of a seat outside, where conversation is possible, I would be at Yucatan Taco Stand all the time. It fills a niche in the neighborhood; it’s open late; and it has very good margaritas and plenty of premium tequilas.

There’s the rub, though. I don’t mind ordering a taco at the counter. But if I’m having a $21 sea bass entree, I don’t think I should have to stand in line to ask for it — and, judging from comments I’ve heard from other diners, I’m not alone.

It’s all in the way you look at it: If you approach Yucatan Taco Stand as a bar with good food instead of a good restaurant with a bar, you won’t be disappointed.