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Breakfast is my favorite meal in Mexico, especially when I'm sitting on some beach, drinking cinnamon-laced hot chocolate while eating ripe papayas and platters of huevos rancheros - fried eggs with salsa on top of crisp corn tortillas.

Breakfast is also my favorite meal at the new Taqueria El Antojo in University Place – even with the blinking lights under the counter, animated video screen menus on the wall and the courteous staff and shouting orders into a microphone to the three cooks six feet behind the counter.

It's a thing of beauty.

Huevos rancheros are also a thing of beauty at Taqueria El Antojo in University Place: three eggs, Ranchero sauce and fresh homemade tortillas, accompanied by the peerless house refried beans and a pile of Mexican rice ($5.99).

I also fancy its four breakfast burritos ($2.99 each), torpedo-heavy and the perfect size for a large, hungry man. Really, though, these little models of engineering perfection - combining the ideal quantities of green chile, scallions, scrambled eggs, crispy hashbrowns, a mild hot sauce and optional ham, sausage, bacon or chorizo. The bacon burrito is the winner with a remarkable amount of chewy chunks. Yum.

Bonus: Taqueria El Antojo hung giant comic strips telling stories of great Mexican inventions on its walls.

[Taqueria El Antojo, 8-11 a.m. daily, ample seating, 5502 Orchard St. W., University Place, 253.212.0914]