Ranchero King Buffet — North Freeway

FOOD

Pozole, menudo and caldos of beef or shrimp give the North Freeway buffet a generous soup selection. Pozole can be the reason for lunch in the first place, with the hot dishes following at a more leisurely pace. Menudo belongs to that same soup-centered meal, while the caldos keep beef and seafood in the conversation. The spread rotates, so the day’s selection determines which of these dishes is available.

Carnitas, barbacoa, pastor and carne asada give you enough taco choices to make a second trip worthwhile. Handmade tortillas and house-made salsas accompany the meats, so you can start with a favorite and try another without ordering an entire plate. Carnitas and salsa in a tortilla can be lunch enough. Here, it can also be a beginning.

Chicken enchiladas offer a ready-made alternative to assembling tacos, with chicharrón en salsa verde for anyone who loves pork in green sauce. Tamales and cheese pupusas add their own filled-masa appeal. With so many meats to consider, it is easy to overlook a cheese pupusa. Sometimes, though, cheese and masa are exactly what you want alongside a bowl of soup.

Weekends bring barbacoa, menudo, birria de chivo and cochinita pibil into focus. Goat birria and cochinita pibil give the weekend spread two specific dishes to look forward to, alongside the familiar appeal of barbacoa and a bowl of menudo. This is the homestyle side of a Mexican weekend meal: soup and cooked meats with enough substance to make lunch an occasion in itself.

For seafood, look for ceviche and aguachile, with their bright citrus flavors, or grilled or fried mojarra if you prefer a cooked-fish meal. Shrimp caldo adds another soup option. You can make lunch mostly about seafood here without losing the Mexican character of the buffet, and a serving of fish can be a welcome addition after the tacos and stews.

Fried chicken or fish, mashed potatoes, corn and macaroni and cheese supply the Texas home-cooking overlap. They make sense beside the Mexican mains, especially when a sauced dish calls for a familiar accompaniment. Macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes also give this part of the counter an unmistakable comfort-food character.

The sweet finish includes pan dulce, sprinkle cookies, gelatina, fruit and ice cream. Colorful mosaic gelatin is among the sweets, and fruit may be enough after soup and the hot dishes. Pan dulce also makes sense when the meal has stayed firmly with the Mexican cooking. There is a modest pleasure in finishing a buffet lunch with a cookie: small, familiar and quite capable of being the thing someone mentions on the drive home.