Lauriol Plaza is one of those rare restaurants where the entrees tend to be better than the appetizers. Tamales moist and one-dimensional, tasting of little but corn. Seviche is big and refreshing, though barely spiced with anything but lemon. Shrimp are smothered in garlic, which masks their dullness, and mussels are plump in their sherry and ginger sauce, but fade in all this Tex-Mex company. Nachos are nachos.
Soups are slapdash.
Those free chips and salsa remain the best appetizer. Then you can go straight to the entrees. But the Spanish and Latin American dishes have more character than the Tex-Mex. Masitas de puerco is mild, comforting chunks of pork with an undertone of orange. Pollo asado, even better, is a half-chicken well browned and buried in dark fragrant onions.