I had lunch at Fuego Mexican Grill in Arlington Heights about a year ago, and I was most impressed by the delicate yet engaging manner in which chef Juan Luis Gonzalez fashions Mexican food. Gonzalez is one of those chefs who flies under the radar. His early food background in Mexico City has no doubt honed his understanding of Mexican food, especially in the deft way he handles the complexity of mole sauces on his menu.

Mole sauces are to Mexican food what masalas (a mixture of spices) are to Indian food. Get them right and a rolling thunder of incredibly satisfying flavors sweeps across the taste buds. Gonzales gets them right. I sampled four different mole sauces -- alone and in conjunction with various foods -- and all were quite good.

But mole sauces are just one aspect of this hot new restaurant on North Milwaukee Avenue. Fuego promotes the idea that the margarita bar part of the restaurant offers more than 100 different tequilas (who knew?). And I will be the first to say that Fuego splashes out one fine margarita, a perfect balance between tart and sweet.

Aside from the mole sauces and the margaritas, the menu at Fuego Mexican Grill is as extensive as you will find. Seafood, steak, burritos, tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, chiles rellenos. If you are a purist, you might think there's too much going on here; but if you like variety, Fuego is ideal.

The tableside-created guacamole was all it should be. "Throw everything in it" was what I decided. The server did a fine job. The guac was creamy, vibrant and flavorful.

Tamalitos surditos. Let me call them tamale rolls. Three were stuffed with mushrooms, three with chicken, and each got draped with a mole sauce (mole poblano, mole amarillo). I thought the chicken worked because it had the right texture to compensate for the softness of the tamale. The mushroom version was more mush than mighty.

There are three parts to the menu at Fuego that had the fire I was looking for: chicken, seafood and beef. I passed on the tacos, enchiladas and burritos. Old hat. The chicken dish to try is pechuga en mole poblano. The marriage of a stacked chicken breast and mole poblano (a flavor-complex black sauce) was a match made in culinary heaven. The mole sauce draped and flowed over the meaty, boneless breast, so that with each cut of the chicken there was something more going on, and all of it very enjoyable. I should point out that most dishes come with rice and black beans that add to the enjoyment.

Seafood. Camarones en mole blanco was a fine dish. Six jumbo tiger shrimp were sauteed in a mole blanco (a touch of sweetness to this sauce from the white chocolate and dried fruit used in its makeup). The shrimp were then stacked against a tower of white rice flecked with cilantro. A garnish of crispy leeks for a little crunch, and it was off to the races.

Two beef dishes were tried. Grilled flat iron steak and charbroiled skirt steak. Look for the latter under the heading "Arrachera," where four choices are given to complement the steak. I went with the least elaborate of the four --"chipotle" -- so the steak, tender, cooked perfectly medium-rare (and indulgently flavorful from the fact that it had been marinated), got covered with a chile chipotle salsa. And then the plate got all dressed up for a fiesta with roasted potatoes, a dab of guacamole, pico de gallo and a fluff of sour cream. A lot of good eating for just $17.95.

I liked the other beef dish -- filete de res (grilled flat-iron steak) but not as much as the skirt steak. No quibble with the quality of the beef; it was just a little too dense and too boring, the slab of meat ("the second most tender cut of beef," the menu boasted). Stick with the skirt steak. The platter got the usual dollop of rice and black beans (the beans are in a small tortilla cup).

Dessert choices were typical of most Mexican restaurants: Mexican rice pudding (tried it, liked it, simply because I love rice pudding every which way). I tried the pastel tres leches (three-milk sponge cake), because I love cake and have always enjoyed the light texture of this cake.

Pat Bruno is a local free-lance critic and author. E-mail brunoeats@aol.com. Listen to Pat Bruno talk about food and wine Tuesdays at 6:23 p.m. and 10:23 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 7:53 p.m. on WBBM News Radio 780-AM.