San Lucas

San Lucas
Camden
2600 Federal Street  
856-966-3556

Open: Lunch and dinner daily.

Price: $; Cash only, no alcohol permitted.

Style: Mexican, featuring the cooking of the southern state of Puebla, where indigenous foodways mix with Hispanic, French and even Lebanese influences.

The Scoop: Opened in 2000 by members of the Medina family from Puebla, San Lucas has a female chef and is popular with everyone from cops on the beat to City Hall workers to the local Mexican-American community.

The Menu: Mole poblano, Puebla’s most famous dish, is excellent here, the thick, spicy, chocolate-tinged sauce served over chicken and rice. The menu ranges from tamales, tacos, enchiladas, burritos and nachos (left) to specialties like an audacious  stew of sausage, beef, chicken, cactus leaf, hot dog (!), cheese and green onions in a molcahete, a hot lava-stone bowl. Freshly squeezed tropical fruit juices are as humongous as the cinnamon-spiced Mexican coffee is delicious.

Heads Up: Servers may speak little English, but the menu is bilingual. Consider the telenovelas on TV and the jukebox blaring Mexican beats part of the fun.