La Playa Maya   

The family-owned La Playa Maya Stockyards, the latest of three in a chain with solid links to Fort Worth's dining culture, offers extensive selections of seafood and Mexican entrees, as well as appetizers, soups, salads, meats, drinks, cocktails and desserts. As you enter, the red-brick exterior opens up to a roomy, two-story interior, decorated with a Mayan theme, including a stunning, larger-than-life sculpture of a seahorse, primitive wall hangings, stained glass windows and warm adobe walls. The authentic Mexican dinners are built around tacos, enchiladas, flautas and chimichangas. The highlight of the menu, however, is the "Especialidades de la Casa" section, which offers a variety of shrimp dishes, grilled, sauteed and butterfly-cut and fried. You can choose white fish entrees, fried catfish or a "seafood combo," consisting of fried fish, stuffed crab, shrimp and oysters. In the Botanas (appetizers) section of the menu, patrons rave about the Cebiche Yucateco, white fish marinated in lime juice. The Ensaladas (salads) menu offers chicken, taco and guacamole salads. Caldos (soups) include fish and shrimp soups and a Mexican soup that combines octopus scallops, shrimp and white fish. The Coctel Maya is at the top of a Cocteles menu that features shrimp, oyster and octopus cocktails (one selection combines all three), including the Coctel de Camaron, a Mexican shrimp cocktail. Postres, or desserts, include Kahlua-topped coconut ice cream, Mexican custard, raspberry cheesecake and chocolate cake ala mode. The bar serves margaritas, tequilas, scotch, vodka and domestic and imported beers. -- Gary Taylor