Dining out: Costa Vida

I wasn't sure The Gateway needed another restaurant.

After all, there are plenty of good-to-wonderful restaurants studded around the place, most of them grouped at the south end, near 200 South.

Costa Vida is in that vicinity, too, next to the movie theaters. But it's a nice addition to The Gateway, cheaper and faster than some of its more upscale neighbors, with good food that's several steps up from the food-court fare down the promenade.

One caveat to that "cheaper" comment: Costa Vida doesn't validate The Gateway's parking (the counter worker told my husband they would "have to raise prices" if they did). So, unless you walk, bike or TRAX your way there, add an extra couple bucks to what you plan to spend.

On the other hand, you can feed your kids more than amply for south of five bucks each. Our kids liked the cheese quesadilla, chicken enchilada and chicken taco, all with rice and beans, trading them back and forth to try each one.

There's a surfing theme at Costa Vida, with an enormous beach-at-sunset mural on one wall, surf videos playing on a big screen and surfboard motifs throughout the vibrantly colored dining room.

Surf lingo pervades the menu, as well, starting with my husband's choice for dinner, the Big Kahuna burrito, filled with fajita-grilled steak in his case. As with other similar places, the finished burrito resembles nothing so much as a loaf of bread and is absolutely stuffed with meat. The steak is lean, savory and simply presented, a big pile of meat wrapped in a tortilla, with a bit of rice and other fixings inside to keep it interesting. It's served with herbed, slightly sour cilantro lime rice and either mellow pinto beans or robust, flavorful black beans.

I had two "shortboard" enchiladas, which, being much smaller, were more my speed. I tried one shredded beef and one "sweet pork," each sprinkled with cheese and ladled with sauce, either mild, medium, hot or tropical. The sauce is green, fragrant and delicious in both its mild and medium incarnations, the kinds I tried. The medium version actually is fairly mild, so I'd like to try the hot sometime.

Though I liked both enchiladas, I fell for the shredded beef in a big way. It's lean, just a tiny bit sweet, and rich and meaty. I had it rolled in a tender little handmade corn tortilla that was a great accent to the flavors of meat, sauce and cheese. The sweet pork was good, too, with fork-tender pork in a sweet red sauce.