Amaranta Cocina Mexicana

Amaranta is on the ground floor of a mall but it manages to distract you from that fact with its comfortable, candle-lit environment, giant blond-wood bar and rows of cheerful, cloth pink booths. The restaurant is owned by a couple who spends most of the year in the charming Mexican city of Cuernavaca and the food is prepared to their exacting standards. You won't find Americanized versions of Mexican cuisine at Amaranta; instead you'll find a variety of regional specialties, including ceviche de pescado, cochinita pibil and just-sweet-enough mole. The restaurant's manager boasts that Amaranta carries the most extensive list of tequilas in the L.A. area (they have more than 400 varieties) and a glance at the dozens of colorful boutique bottles displayed on the bar's well-lit back-wall shelves is enough to make you believe that he just might be right.