Tortilla Machine, Pinatas Add Pizazz To Mexican Dinner

So entranced were my two young daughters with the decor and the floor show that they wouldn't have cared how the food at Pollito Azteca tasted.

After all, how often do kids get to see an automated tortilla machine turn balls of dough into flat circles and slide them onto a hot griddle? Much to my children's joy, the woman who runs the machinery passes out free samples.

Pollito, located at Southcenter, is the 9-month-old offspring of Jose (Pepe) Ramos, father of the area's 26 Azteca Mexican restaurants. This new baby is sort of like an Azteca in that it offers some of the chain's more popular entrees (like steak fajita) and sort of not. It's the not that's intriguing.

A combination sit-down/fast-food restaurant, Pollito Azteca customers order at the counter, where they can see the restaurant's signature Mexican-style grills cooking chicken and beef, then wait for their food to be brought to their tables in the attractive dining room.

In between customers can serve themselves all-they-can-drink nonalcoholic beverages for $1. Unique are the four Mexican "agua frescas" flavored with tropical juices such as pineapple and tamarind. Sampling those flavors was highly entertaining, too.

As befits its "little chicken" name, Pollito Azteca specializes in grilled bird: chicken fajita salad ($3.99), marinated char-broiled chicken ($2.95 and up) plus chicken tacos and burritos ($4.20 each for full meal) and that beloved Mexican standard:

teriyaki chicken ($3.59). Hey, this is Seattle.

For beef lovers, there are beef tips ($4.20 to $6.20), carne asada ($7.95 for a meal) and lengua (beef tongue) in tacos or burritos ($3.95-$5.20).

On the side dishes, Pollito deviates from the Mexican to offer potato salad, cole slaw and corn on the cob - items designed to appeal to the takeout trade and much loved by my children, who've never really smiled upon rice and beans.

So daughter No. 1 ordered the corn (40 cents) to go with her grilled chicken club sandwich and slaw ($3.79). Daughter No. 2 opted for corn, potato salad, fresh tortillas (she's carbo loading) and as much of her father's beef tacos as she could steal. His $4 dinner came with rice and slaw. I had the $3.95 quarter chicken dinner.

I wouldn't say Pollito Azteca has outstanding food, but it's certainly a cut above most fast-food fare, healthy, good value and the kids loved it.

But what they really liked were the pinatas, a colorful menagerie of animal shapes, hanging from the ceiling and all for sale.

So added to our inexpensive dinner was a $10 pink unicorn. Did I say our girls like this place? Yes!

Restaurant: Pollito Azteca, 17790 Southcenter Parkway (Parkway Plaza), Tukwila; 575-2474.

Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily.

High chairs: yes.

Kids' menu: no.

Beverages: beer, wine, mixed drinks.

Taking the Kids appears the first Saturday of each month. Seattle Times reviewers visit restaurants anonymously and unannounced. They pay for all food, beverages and service.