Choosing a restaurant to review can sometimes present difficulties quite apart from “where should we eat tonight?” Sometimes the question is “is this a restaurant?” For some, a restaurant is a place where people enter, sit down, get service of one kind or another, eat, pay, and leave. But as someone who loves to eat, and to try adventurous food around town, around the country, and around the world, this is a pretty easy question for me. If it serves food, go. Whether this is boiled meat from a cart in some suburbs (cheese steaks in Philadelphia, for example) or fried meat from somewhere else (brats in Germany, as another example), there is interesting food all over the world.

Locally Mercadito Hispano probably falls into a gray area. It serves food – good food – and has tables, so it likely qualifies as a restaurant. But it is attached to a small market, so it might appear like one of those rural gas station-markets that serve breakfast to locals. That is, people know about it, they like it, but it doesn’t get much recognition beyond a narrow band of regulars.

That’s too bad. Like Taquieria Azteca, the Mercadito serves very good food from south of the border at reasonable prices. While it caters predominantly to the poorly named “Little Mexico” area of Bowling Green, the quality of the food ought to bring it much greater recognition.

The Mercadito serves a standard array of market food – tacos, burritos, gorditas, quesadillas, pupusas and combo plates. Most dishes come with a choice of mixed meats, including chicken, beef, carne asada and pork. The menu also includes a breakfast plate of scrambled eggs with fried plantains, rice and beans. I love this kind of breakfast and will definitely return to try this dish.

The pupusa is a hand-sized treat that features a masa corn tortilla filled with a choice of fillings. The revuelta mixed shredded meat and a touch of beans tasted great. Although they are slightly greasy on the outside from the griddle-frying, don’t let the oil distract you. At $1 each, it only takes a few of these to make a tasty, inexpensive lunch. This is one of my favorite “real” dishes that diners will not find at a typical Tex-Mex restaurant, and they’re excellent at Mercadito.

Likewise, the tacos were wonderful. Americanized tacos usually have a hard-shell exterior made from a deep-fried corn tortilla; it’s like a folded tostada. Many restaurants also make so-called “soft tacos” from flour tortillas. At the Mercadito, and in Central America and Mexico in general, the taco comes on two stacked, palm-sized corns tortillas. Just the taste of freshly made corn tortillas, with a bit of fresh cilantro, make this dish worth trying.

Throw in a touch of lime juice, some avocado, a bit of onion and shredded chicken, and this is worth coming back for. The brushing of green chili sauce gives the taco some bite without being too spicy. It’s a wonderful combination of flavors. As with the pupusas, they’re low in cost, but big on flavor.

While I liked everything else, the chicken burrito disappointed me. A freshly made flour tortilla enveloped a healthy portion of rice, shredded chicken, sour cream, white cheese and a bit of lettuce. But it was largely flavorless. The bland rice and large dose of sour cream mostly smothered the shredded chicken. This was the one item that tasted like the Tex-Mex food I could get at any of a half dozen restaurants in town.

On the other hand, the gordita was a real treat. Two very crisp, deep-fried tortillas sandwich a handful of lettuce, tomato, sour cream and carne asada. The dish is a bit messy, but worth it. The crunchy flavor of the tortillas, the chewiness of the meat, and the sour cream produce a m/lange of taste and texture. The gordita came apart on the first bite, but was fun to eat.

Mercadito’s carne asada plate is simple: meat, fillings and tortillas. But everything comes down to the meat. Carne asada, which means “grilled meat,” is a style of cooking in which the cook marinates a flank or skirt steak in some sort of citrus-based marinade. I’ve seen cooks in Mexico alternate thin layers of skirt steak with oranges and onions, and then cover it all in light beer. Alternately, I’ve seen the meat marinated in a simple concoction of lime juice and salt. The citric acid helps break down the tough cut of meat, and the grilling helps develop the flavor.

The platter at Mercadito is a simple affair, centered around the taste of the carne asada. It works well. The meat, the cilantro, the flavors of the fillings, all combine to produce a tasty meal. Mercadito serves each part separately, allowing the diner to build a unique meal.

The Mercadito Hispano is not a typical Tex-Mex restaurant. It’s not a dining alternative to, say, the sit-down experience of Peppers. It’s a place to catch a great meal. The food is excellent, the flavors are big and full, and the meals are priced right. Enjoy it as take-away food, or sit down at one of the few tables. Along with Taqueria Azteca, the Mercadito Hispano is one of the few places in town to get really good, authentic Latin American food.

— Our anonymous food reviewer gives new restaurants a six-week grace period before reviewing. To comment, contact Managing Editor Andy Dennis at 783-3262 or at adennis@bgdailynews.com.