Omnivore - Tres de Mayo at La Parilla

• Cliff Bostock's iPhone
• Tres de Mayo at La Parilla

• Cliff Bostock's iPhone
• Carnitas buenas

It's always nice to go to a restaurant you dread and find something you actually like. That was my experience at the Westside's La Parilla Friday night. My usual dinner pals have been lobbying for a visit for a long time, since a friend manages one of the chain restaurants in the Athens area. They've visited and liked it a lot.

Since it was Tres de Mayo,a few days before Cinco de Mayo, I agreed to the choice. (And Tres de Mayo is famous for its own reasons, anyway.) In a shopping center swarming with Walmart shoppers and a view of Lane Bryant, La Parilla was packed with margarita-swilling diners, all raucous and rosy-faced, thanks to red neon signs that say things like "Cocina" and "Baños." Que auténtico! Not really.

Like the average chain restaurant, La Parilla serves mostly tame Tex-Mex (think fajitas) that won't sting the cowardly palates of most Americans. I don't mean that Tex-Mex isn't an authentic, regional cuisine, but it shouldn't be called Mexican. (The best Tex-Mex in town, incidentally, is down the road from La Parilla at Nuevo Laredo.)

So, why did the meal turn out better than I expected?

The carnitas. I was ambivalent about ordering them, a favorite dish, because the vast majority of Atlanta restaurants don't cook them correctly. They typically just serve hunks of roasted pork. Then I heard our Friday ringleader Bobby order them and tell the server he wanted them crispy. That's exactly what they are not in most restaurants here, so I decided to give them a try.

No kidding, they were delicious - certainly among the best I've had in Atlanta. They were crispy, fork- tender and sat atop a totally mild green sauce intense with the slightly sour taste of tomatillos. (I asked for extra.) Corn tortillas for making tacos were hot off the grill.

The bad news: The frijoles charros was way watery and that inevitable plate filler, "Mexican rice," was completely unappetizing. Hey, Paula Deen likes the stuff, so I'm probably in a minority.

I didn't sample anything that my friends ordered, except for a hunk of grilled steak - carne asada - served fajita-style on a sizzling iron dish of grilled onions and peppers. Good enough.

So, if you go, order the carnitas but be sure to specify that you want them extra-crispy. Or you can order a giant margarita and anything you order will taste fantastico.