Los Nopales Mexican Restaurant   

In Spanish, ''los nopales'' means ''cactus,'' and owner Mireloa Moreno incorporates the prickly veggie into many dishes at her tiny North Side taqueria that resembles a cozy eatery in her Mexican hometown. In fact, diners will find cacti from many parts of Mexico in Los Nopales' dishes, varying from grilled skirt steak to a simmering vegetarian plate. Moreno's home style recipes, which are punched up with exotic spices, originated from her mother as well as her husband's mother. At the high end, this moderately priced menu features the $16.95 caldo de maricos, or seafood soup, a spicy concoction oozing with fresh calamari, shrimp, catfish, Green Leaf mussels, clams and scallops. There's also caldo de pollo, or chicken soup, that's served with fresh vegetables; Moreno's mom's recipe for grilled skirt steak over charros (whole beans cooked with Spanish beer and chorizo) and a grilled tilapia filet that's cooked in cilantro and chipotle. The piping-hot tilapia tacos and traditional Mexican breakfast also get plenty of play. BYOB; Mexican sodas in mandarin, grapefruit, apple or lime.