Formerly: Plates of food, like baseball teams, are often more than the sum of their parts, and no meal proves this point quite like the El Tipico's Combinacion Tipico. Offering half a portion of carne asada, a chicken flauta and a cheese enchilada, the meal can make your weekend for a mere $10.25. If that combination doesn't pique your interest, an additional fifteen or so other combinations constitute a major part of the 60-item menu.

Most meals, which ordinarily come flanked by rice and beans, are similar in price. Among the other delicious options are the pork tamales in ranchero sauce and, available only on the weekend, the steak tenderloin and the surf and turf. Among the postres, the Mexican cheesecake is the best way to finish off a plateful of enchiladas (or burritos, or fajitas, or anything else you could think to order).

The atmosphere is typical of Mexican restaurants, only larger and brighter than the average taqueria. Diners sit around bright red tables in comfortable wooden seats that nearly envelop the entire body. The walls alternate with painted sections of bright blue, yellow and red, with rows of similarly colored streamers hanging from the ceiling. While the decorative patterns persist throughout the Ravenswood eatery, patrons can choose to sit in the dining room off to the left, a beer garden to the right or, straight ahead of the front door, a bar room with a few tables, row upon row of wine and liquor and a television tuned to the most important soccer game of the moment. As El Tipico demonstrates, there's no combination quite like a Mexican beer, a South American soccer game and a plateful of tamales.

Centerstage Reviewer: Patrick Corcoran