BELLINGHAM - El Agave has enlivened a former McDonald's outlet on Samish Way with some creative twists on the familiar Mexican bill of fare.
When I moved to Bellingham in 1980, Mexican restaurants were almost non-existent. In fact, any ethnic food beyond pizza and Cantonese generally meant a trip to Seattle or Vancouver, B.C. in those days.
Now there are more Mexican restaurants around the area than I will bother to count. It seems as though each one of them has a faithful following, but to me it's a challenge to tell them apart in many cases.
El Agave doesn't exactly break the mold, but during our recent visit, we did find some dishes that were a cut above the predictable stuff that prevails around here.
The best part of our meal came at the beginning. We ordered the small-sized camarones a la Diabla appetizer, $14.95, and got an enormous platter of large, perfectly-cooked shrimp swimming in a bright red-orange sweet and fiery chile sauce, tossed with big meaty mushroom chunks and garnished with avocado. According to the menu, the $14.95 portion was supposed to be a half-pound of shrimp, but I'm pretty sure somebody made a mistake and gave us the $22.95 one-pound portion. It was a lot of food.
We also enjoyed enchiladas Suizas and enchiladas rancheras, both $10.25 and both proportioned for big eaters.
The Suizas were floating in a light, lemony green chile and tomatillo sauce, while the rancheras were more lightly sauced with a simple and hot red chile. Both came with a nice dollop of sour cream.
You can get all your familiar favorites on El Agave's menu-the combo plates, the nachos, taco salad, fajitas and so forth. But the menu goes beyond that to provide some less-familiar choices, particularly on the seafood side.
How about Campechana-shrimp and octopus cocktail with onions, tomato, cilantro and avocado, $13.95? Then there's a shrimp-and-crab enchilada, $13.50, and a parillada, or mixed grill of scallops, clams, octopus, shrimp, fish and lobster, $17.50.
Vegetarians can get tamales, enchiladas or burritos stuffed with spinach.
EL AGAVE
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Address: 207 N. Samish Way
Price range: $9-$22
Phone: 360-676-0340
