The new Cilantro Bar & Grill does some amazing Mexican

Three weeks ago, Cilantro Bar And Grill (7005 Tree Lane, 866-970-0864) opened in the same space where teriyaki-and-tortilla Mexican/rice bowl joint Rice Cafe and the bland, Laredo's-esque Fiesta Grill failed in rapid succession. Could the location's third Mexican-themed restaurant in three years be the charm?

A series of service gaffes—recommending dishes that weren't available, the chef literally having to run out and buy ingredients for another—were compensated for by excellent sauces, inventive alcoholic beverages, and the meticulously constructed menu. The menu's model is common in Mexico City, where classic preparations from all over Mexico are carefully prepared by real chefs working largely from scratch. That means no chips and salsa or burritos.

Cilantro invites appreciation of the finer points of regional Mexican cuisine, with an emphasis on homemade verde and mole sauces. The chicken with mole, punctuated by a blob of dense guacamole on the side, offers an exciting mixture of tastes, and the chicken enchiladas doused in mole and sprinkled with sesame seeds come with a cool-looking pyramid of cilantro rice. Also worth trying is the trio of thick, chewy chalupas topped with wild mushrooms, guajillo sauce, chorizo, and potato. A kind of tamale, the huchepos de elote mashes corn and epazote (a Mexican spice) into a husk that's dabbed with poblano chile sauce and delicately blanketed by salty Chihuahua cheese.

Among the regional specialties are the braised lamb with dark chile pasilla sauce and fish Veracruzana with roasted tomatoes, olives, and capers. If this all sounds too adventurous for Wisco palates, the lunch menu offers more familiar items, such as quesadillas with steak, tacos with achiote-marinated pork. There's also a tantalizing brunch menu with enchiladas, huevos divorciados (with green and red sauces) and oaxaquenos (with more wild mushrooms).

All of this rich food goes well with mango cilantro margaritas, which are made by juicing mangoes, muddling the fruit with 100 percent agave tequila, and adding a small amount of chili pepper. The tastes hit in succession like a jazz triplet.

Things are looking up for Madison residents: The second location for La Mestiza (121 E. Main St., 608-661-2793), the new Las Cazuelas (15 N. Butler St., 608-327-2828), and now Cilantro Bar & Grill form a welcome trend toward higher-priced Mexican with regional fidelity and more attention to cooking details. We'll see if the trend can endure—it's a crowded market out there.