First, we found Platos Chicos, salads and soup a straight-forward list. When we missed the usual chips and salsa that arrive preorder in Mexican restaurants, we found them instead on the menu, Warm Chips with three salsas for $3.95. On to Al Lado, a list of sides to enhance your meal. Customers can choose rice, corn, beans, mango-flavored slaw, four different salsas or guacamole, depending on what else comes on your plate with your entrée.

Here’s the confusing part. There are seven taco choices, each a riff on ground cow, pork or chicken and each with a different set of accompaniments. For example, Braised Short Ribs come with avocado, chipotle salsa and crema, and the highly unusual Slow Cooked Duck comes with corn salsa, queso fresco and crema. Then Burritos with the same seven filling choices are also stuffed with rice and beans. You pick from the taco accompaniments for your burrito. It’s the same with the Tortas, except they come with fries and slaw on the side. For another option, if you have enough energy for one more decision, there’s the Mexican Rice Bowl, rice and beans topped with, you guessed it, one of the seven taco/burrito/torta fillings.

We liked the crisp daily special, a chimichanga filled with a generous heap of pulled chicken, and the Slow-Cooked Carnitas Burrito that came with tomatillo salsa, cilantro and bits of pineapple tucked in the rice.

The owners, Jake and Karen Replogle of Jake’s Steakhouse, created an aesthetically pleasing space with recycled wood, swirling burnt orange and turquoise floral designs on the wall and a stunning bar to show off their impressive tequila collection. Aficionados won’t want to miss the Don Julio flight: three grades back to back, straight up, unadorned and delicious tequila shots.

»Haute Taco
Sendik’s Towne Center
18905 W. Capitol Drive, Brookfield 
(262) 781-1110.