BY ERIC NOLAND >RESTAURANT CRITIC

Nearby, a Mexican restaurant serves the customary favorites - safe and familiar - and the wait for dinner routinely spills out onto the sidewalk.

For Latin fare in Montrose that is a bit less predictable, but still a pleasant surprise, step through the doors of Three Drunken Goats, which unveiled an extensive menu of tapas and other Spanish standards when it opened in early April. The ingredients here are as fresh as can be, and chef Jason Michaud works wonders with them in the big, open kitchen at the rear of the place.

The grilled lamb chops ($15), for example, are superb. Though they're thinner, single-bone chops in the tapas style, they're cooked beautifully - tender and juicy at medium rare, and bursting with flavor. Pick them up with your fingers, though the serving of three ribs can present a couple with a tug-of-war for the last one. The meat is sprinkled with chopped fresh mint and accompanied by chickpea cakes. In France, we were told, these would be poured out thin, in crepe fashion, but the tradition in Spain more closely resembles American silver-dollar pancakes. Whatever, they're a nicely browned, grainy complement to the lamb.

Another winner on the menu: piquillo peppers stuffed with idiazabal cheese ($9). The bright-red pepper is roasted to a smoky taste, while the cheese is mild and retains much of its firmness. After a couple of these divine treats, you may never again be satisfied with a traditional, sauce-drenched relleno, the cheese cooked to goo, at your favorite Mexican house.

The tastes of seaside Spain are deftly executed with a bowl of clams, roasted tomato, saffron and white wine ($12). The clams are succulently fresh, the broth is salty and savory (a couple of crusts of bread are provided for dipping), and the tomato is a wonder - providing a juicy blast of flavor and an acidic accent to the dish.

Other hits were artichoke and goat cheese croquettes ($9); golden beets with hazelnuts, herbed goat cheese and arugula ($9); and charcuterie ($13), which featured some Spanish cured meats that were much easier to eat than pronounce.

Less impressive was braised pork shank ($11), perhaps because the promised onion confit was so sparse; a crostini special ($9) for which the Mulholland cheese, Serrano ham and roasted tomato sauce were overwhelmed by the huge slabs of bread; and a fairly straightforward Drunken Goat chopped salad ($11).

(The restaurant's name, by the way, derives from the Spanish goat's-milk cheese that is soaked in wine for 72 hours as part of the aging process.)

The wine list is exclusively devoted to selections from Spain, and at prices that are astonishingly reasonable - a bottle of red from Jumilla for only $20, for example. All but the reserve wines are offered by the glass - 39 in all - and even those prices are moderate.

For dessert, ask if they're serving a special of almond cookies, homemade vanilla ice cream and sherry ($9). The sherry arrives in a little glass, half of which is poured over the ice cream, the remainder left for you to sip with the treat. A nice flourish.

At its best: An eclectic tapas menu with prime ingredients, attentive service, great wine prices. This place is trying hard to please.

Could be better: It's a cavernous, high-ceilinged room, with wood and tile floors, so the experience isn't exactly intimate.

Eric Noland, (818) 713-3681

eric.noland@dailynews.com