HOLA, SENOR FRED UPSCALE MEXICAN FARE COMES TO VENTURA BOULEVARD.

Byline: Larry Lipson Restaurant Critic

IT'S DIM. IT'S DARK. I'm not sure if it's romantic or foreboding.

The new Senor Fred in Sherman Oaks, a somewhat upscale Mexican restaurant, is exactly the opposite in looks from the glitzy, bright Moonlight Tango Cafe, an art deco-ish throwback supper club that inhabited this building for several years.

Just about everything in Moonlight Tango metallic has gone except the shiny tin ceiling, which, because of Senor Fred's subdued lighting, doesn't really shine anymore.

If you're a dining twosome, you might be seated at the center rows of smaller tables in the dining room, separated by a wrought-iron divider. The menu could be extremely difficult to read from these positions.

Luckily, for those seated in the deep, tooled-leather booths, low-hanging, shaded lamps project light directly onto each table, allowing diners easy reading of the menu while not affecting the overall dining room dimness.

Incidentally, the uncovered dark wood tables add to the inky environment.

The brother restaurant of nearby Max, Senor Fred was conceived and is owned by chef Andre Guerrero and his Max partner and maitre d'-manager Michael Lamb.

If you're wondering about the restaurants' names, Guerrero has two sons, Max and Fred.

As for the commercial success of its food, Guerrero and his Senor Fred executive chef Rafael Solorzano will have to fight the perception of Mexican dishes being very inexpensive no matter what they do.

Artistically, the dishes, while certainly more interesting and of higher quality than those of everyday Mexican restaurants, are often presented in the familiar way, especially entrees, on oval plates with the rice on one side, then refried beans and the main ingredient.

There are hardly any black beans or boiled beans (with onion and cilantro) in sight as entree accompaniments.

But there's a pretty good Oaxaqueno mole chicken dish ($16) here with rice and a sort of fresh vegetable succotash accompaniment.

A gratifying version of Yucatan's famous cochinita pibil ($15.50), where the pig is buried and cooked in a fashion similar to the way its done for luaus in Hawaii (different seasoning, of course), brings forth deliciously earthy, smoky chunks of pork wrapped in banana leaves.

Potato enchiladas ($9.95) will probably please vegetarians more than they pleased me, but I like the tamalitos surtidos ($7.50), a starter dish of a chicken tamale with a red chile sauce and a pork tamale with a chile verde sauce.

Chef Solorzano's kitchen makes a good guacamole ($6.50), slightly chunky and relatively mild, and two of the three house soups tried - the chicken tortilla ($5.50) and gazpacho ($4.50) - deserve thumbs-up ratings.

The star starters experienced here are unquestionably the quesadilla with asadero cheese, poblano chiles and earthy huitlacoche (corn fungus) flavoring ($9.50) and the pizzalike huarache con longaniza ($10.50) fashioned with Mexican flat bread topped with Oaxacan and ranchero cheeses, flecked with garlic pork sausage pieces, roasted pepper, onion and tomato.

There's a decent achiote salmon on corn niblets plate ($16.50), and the shrimp tacos ($10.50) are hard to fault.

Steak fanciers will approve of the Angus New York carne asada ($18.50) paired with nopalitos (cactus). It's tender, juicy and flavorful, topped with scallions.

For a meal finale, you won't do better here than the coconut rice pudding ($5) encircled prettily by a strip of banana leaf, torched crispy on top and garnished with caramelized mango.

Definitely a bright ending in a dark room.

SENOR FRED

Food: Three stars. Wine: Two and one half stars. Service: Three stars.

Where: 13730 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks.

Hours: Open for dinner from 5:30 to 11:30 p.m. nightly, to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Lunch service begins soon.

Recommended items: Chicken tortilla and gazpacho soups, guacamole, huitlacoche quesadilla, sausage huarache, tamalitos, chicken mole, cochinita pibil pork, New York steak asada, coconut rice pudding.

How much: Starters from $4.50 to $14.50, entrees from $8.50 to $18.50, desserts $5 and $5.50. Full bar. AE, MC, V, Discover.

Wine list: Some 30 labels on starting list, more than at most Mexican restaurants, priced from $18 to $67 per bottle. By the glass, wines cost $4.25 to $10. But margaritas are the beverages of choice here, priced from $6.50 up, with pitchers from $24. Negra Modelo Mexican dark beer is $4.50 per bottle.

Reservations: Suggested. Call [phone].

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Photo:

(1 -- 2) Above, co-owners Andre Guerrero, left, and Michael Land have created a different kind of Mexican food experience at Senor Fred, where the dishes include ceviche de mariscos, top.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer