The flavor of NAFTA?ro;”more than just fancy tequila.

Sueños, 311 W. 17th St. (betw. 8th & 9th Aves.), 212-243-1333.

Though more convincingly Chelsean than Mexican, Sueños is a welcome addition to the neighborhood?and to New York's expanding roster of quality south-of-the-border options. The restaurant's name means "dreams." It's owned by its chef, Sue Torres, who got laudatory reviews cooking around the corner on 8th Ave. at Rocking Horse Cafe Mexicano.

Mexican is shaping up to be the new Asian-fusion. You don't even need a hyphen to scale the cuisine up from the status of an ethnic theme-park. What is necessary is designer tequila. The mid-90s rash of nouveau Asian restaurants secured their liquor profits with wine lists to make you feel like an aristocrat in French Indochina (and what could be more romantic?). The next-wave Mexicans do it with a subtle hint of pressure to get with the new New World. If I hadn't eaten at Rocking Horse, Park Ave. South's Chango and West Cobble Hill's Alma, I'd have heard of exactly none of the tequilas on Sueños' list. Remember how cool it was, five minutes ago, to order a margarita made with Patron? That's over, apparently?it didn't make the lineup.

Sueños' comfortable little front bar offers homemade tortilla chips and sweet, fresh salsa with a late-arriving burn. The wine list needs work, as does the bartender's knowledge of it. Yet he gave the best possible answer to a query about one wine, which of course is: "Would you like a taste?" We tried most of the by-the-glass whites and only liked the Moschofilero, from Greece, with rounded grape flavor but a surprisingly dry finish ($4 for half a glass). A Spanish rosé, El Coto ($3.50 per half), was okay.

Serves us right for drinking a beverage from the musty old world. Sueños' house margarita ("Suzy's") is smashing and seriously smashifying. I forgot which fancy tequila it's made with, half on purpose. I'm not convinced they taste different. Note that the bottle designs and labels are histrionically distinct. My theory is, they're all simply filtered over and over, until that smooth agave flavor comes through. Maybe you can make a designer tequila at home with Cuervo and a Brita. Regardless, Suzy's Margarita is worth $9.

A starter of mescal-cured salmon is served on plantain chips, in a terrine with avocado and grapefruit salad ($8.50). The lox was an unmitigated success. It came off excitingly innovative with the creamy avo and crispy plantain. Grapefruit gave the dish a breakfasty spin, though smaller chunks would have ensured that it didn't bully the salmon.

Sueños' gratis table snack is wedges of corn bread with black bean dip. The fresh bread is dense but not heavy in the least?incisors sink in as they do to hot pizza crust. The corn flavor was assertive, as was the garlic seasoning of the pureed beans. I'd entered Sueños with mixed expectations because of a bad experience at Rocking Horse. The bread and dip convinced me that Sue Torres had nothing to do with that.

Huitlacoche is a Mesoamerican fungus that grows on corn; it's been eaten in the region since before the Aztecs. Sueños serves it as an appetizer in delicious, light floutas, sprinkled with cheese and spicy pickled bits of some sort of onion. The menu's somewhat obscurantist description reads: "Huitlacoche Duxelle & Queso Anejo Flutes?$8.50." The fried roll-ups come with perfect spinach leaves and grilled asparagus on the side. It'll be a shame if the wording scares people away, because the dish is an experience. Huitlacoche looks like inky mush, and its flavor is paradoxical: too subtle to categorize with woody forest mushrooms, yet too powerfully earthy to describe as mellow. Our entire party was happily nonplussed.

Lime leaf and coconut poached shrimp tostadas ($9.25) was our bum starter. Fresh cold shrimp and killer guac guaranteed its edibility, but the shrimp count was low (about a shrimp and a half in total) and they didn't taste like lime or coconut. Perhaps the dish's incongruous cooked pineapple overwhelmed some fragile poached flavors. Another mystery was the tostada, which tasted more like Chinese noodle crackers than corn.

From the entrees I was hoping for more sensations of the huitlacoche variety, and some head-spinning uses of corn, mole, peppers, tomatoes and cactus with delicious fishes and meats. I'm still hung up on Brooklyn's amazing Alma. Once you get past the first course, Sueños is less adventurous about representing traditional native cookcraft. The meats and fishes are top-notch, but their preparations are just a sauce and side removed from workaday Eurocentricity.

Coriander-crusted tuna with black beans, avocado and organic greens ($22) was one example. Perfectly rare, deep red and supple, this well-seasoned tuna wouldn't have seemed out of place at Union Square Cafe or Jean-Georges. Which is also the problem.

Tamarind-glazed sirloin was another impressive slab, skillfully cooked. It had a little more character, thanks to the glazing (though grilling with tamarind is arguably more Asian than Mexican) and the sides. A plantain and goat cheese pancake was tasty, if too sweet to complement beef. A pile of steamed nopale cactus?the broccoli rabe of the Americas?is what made this a steak to remember.

Other offered entrees include grilled salmon with poblano sauce and green chile corn bread ($17), roast chicken and squash- blossom enchilada with pumpkin seed sauce ($18.50) and a pan-seared red snapper with guava-costeño puree and green plantains ($19). If I were to go back to Sueños, it'd be to try the smoked duck breast mini-taco appetizer that wasn't available when I visited ($9.50). I'm also curious about a pair of main courses: steamed pork tamale with grilled shrimp ($23) and chile-rubbed goat wrapped in avocado leaves, steamed in Negra Modelo ($22).

For dessert we split pistachio ice cream profiteroles?a great deal at $8.50, because the portion is suitable for three. The blended-in nuts are roasted and preciously candied. Topping everything is a bitter, peppery chocolate sauce. Though the only Mexican thing about the dessert, it's also what made it completely irresistible. How often do you get a chance to taste something like that?