El Dorado Restaurant
138-21 Jamaica Ave., Jamaica, 657-2898

Cuisine: Mexican

Hours: Open seven days, Monday to Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

For those of you who thought that Taco Bell was at the pinnacle of Mexican Cuisine, you obviously have not yet set foot inside "El Dorado."

Located on Jamaica Avenue, two blocks from the Van Wyck Expressway, the restaurant is hard to miss – with its large canopy that triggers one’s imagination (as it did mine) and lures in prospective customers.

The inside is pretty spacious: The front tables accommodate parties of two or four and the back tables accommodate much larger parties, sitting six to eight people comfortably.

Once inside, diners are seated promptly by a waitress and given a bilingual menu.

The meals generally range in price between $4 to $10.

Beginning with "Mexican Munchies," that include three beef tacos for $5, chicken or beef "flautas" for $6 (you can sample a plate of quesadillas served with cheese or chicken for the same price), and an order of chicken enchiladas with red or green sauce for $7.

The menu offers a good selection of meat dinners from pork, beef, chicken, and seafood.

The pork selection includes a choice of breaded pork that will cost $9. For $8, you can order grilled pork chops, or pork ribs in "ted" or green sauce. All Pork dinners are served with rice, beans, and a salad.

The beef dinners range in price from $9 to $10. This selection includes grilled steak, Tampiquena Bistek (served with green sauce), mexican steak (cooked with onions, jalapeno, and tomatoes), and grilled beef fajitas. All the above dishes are served with rice, beans, and a salad.

When it comes to chicken, customers have a choice of a half- chicken for $7 or a whole chicken for $8. "Chicken fajitas" cost approximately $9. Every chicken dinner is served with rice and beans.

The priciest on the menu, each seafood plate costs about $10. Customers can choose from garlic shrimp, breaded shrimp, "veracruzana" shrimps, and grilled fillet. All seafood plates are served with rice and a salad.

After surveying the menu, I finally decided to splurge a little and treat my taste buds to a plate of grilled shrimp dinner and a Coke.

When the plate arrived, there were about 10 grilled shrimps on a bed of white rice with salad on the side and a slice of lime.

In short, the meal was spectacular and for $10, it was a steal.

So, treat yourself to a meal fit for a king at a price fit for your wallet.