Mexican cooking is not all shades of brown and beige, the stuff of chains and fast-food drive-throughs. It is among the world's most interesting cuisines, yet one rarely seen in its full glory in Miami.

Rarer still, you would think, to find excellent Mexican food in South Beach, overrun as it is by Italian and Japanese restaurants. But El Rancho Grande, in business eight years just south of Lincoln Road, is the real deal.

Born as a tiny, 15-table hut but expanded now to a bustling, colorful, two-room restaurant with ??????seating spilling out onto the sidewalk, El Rancho Grande is one of the Beach's most popular moderately priced places. Even in summer, there's a wait for a weekend table, with the noisy chaos inside more befitting New Year's Eve than a hot July night.

Chips and salsa hit the table upon your arrival, and the salsa is at once spicy, earthy and fresh, with a good balance of tomato, cilantro and onion. Sip a jumbo margarita on the rocks as you contemplate the large and varied menu.

Flavorful fire

One sure bet, if you can stomach fiery food, is sopa de albondigas ($2.99). It's a bowl of red menace, a chipotle-fired tomato stock seasoned with green pepper and cilantro and stocked with tasty little meatballs. The soup has a pleasurable tang and a deep and satisfying flavor. Similar but milder is the sopa de tortilla ($2.99), also a tomato stock but without the chipotle and with strips of corn tortilla, jack cheese and sour cream dropped in, a hearty and delicious choice.

Nibble on a super quesadilla ($6.49) with ground beef, shredded beef or chicken, a fresh, wonderfully salty and gooey treat with plenty of chicken and melty cheese. A ramekin of refried beans comes with this.

Entrees number about 25, ranging from the basic burritos and enchiladas to creative fish and shrimp dishes and a Mexican parrillada, a mixed grill in the Argentine tradition.

Shrimp dishes cost a bit more than the others here, but you'll be pleasantly surprised at the number of gigantic, meaty shrimp you're served. Camarones empanizado ($16.99) featured 10 massive shrimp, lightly breaded and deep-fried, served with a cool but spicy chipotle dip, a bit of salad and seasoned rice. These shrimp must be cut with fork and knife, they are so large, and they are delicious and sweet. The same shrimp turn up in similar number for camarones enchilados ($15.99), bubbled in a spicy and savory sauce of tomato, onion, green pepper and jalape?o, served with salad and rice.

Every which way but fried

Chicken dishes excel, as well. Chili verde ($11.99), also available with pork, is a bright green sauce of tomatillo and jalape?o, succulent and hot, with large, juicy chunks of wondrously soft chicken breast bathed in all the glory. Or try the chicken with mole verde ($10.99), a sauce made of serrano chilies and ground pumpkin seeds adding a nutty undertone and sesame seeds sprinkled on top. Each comes with rice, refried beans and soft corn tortillas. Less interesting is the bistec de pollo ($11.49), a simple grilled chicken breast with strong garlic flavor, served with salad and rice.

Cochinita pibil ($11.99) is one of those dishes you would rather someone else cook. Chunks of pork are marinated overnight in a sour-orange sauce, flavored with g???arlic, onion and green pepper, then slow-slow-slow-cooked in the oven -- for eight hours, they claim -- to produce ultra-tender meat. And that it is, though for once here, we would have liked to have seen more meat in this dish. The sauce is tart, spicy, bright and imaginative. Served with rice, beans and tortillas.

Even the routine is good here: Taco salad ($9.99) benefits from fragrant guacamole, lots of onion and cilantro, Monterey jack and cheddar, cucumber, lettuce and tomato. Finish with a vanilla, coconut or cheese flan ($2.49), or a good bananas Foster ($6).