La Fonda--A very nice platter

Stopped by the above where the CPE effect seems to have pretty much dissipated, since I was outnumbered by the staff (ok, it was a Wednesday night, at 8:45 on a lonely stretch of Broadway, but that's a prime dining time/area for me, anyway) where I had the Plato Montenero, a concoction of red beans/rice/plaintains/avocado/pork rinds/flank steak/all covered by an over-easy egg, at $14.95. Not the most memorable/elegant/mind-blowing meal I've had this year, but as my father would say (or would've said if he had been brought up on the mean streets of Colon rather than those of West Philly), "a very nice platter."

La Fonda Latino Grille
5350 N. Broadway
773-271-3935

A friend/neighbor of mine invited me to have dinner with her tonight at Sun Wah Bar-B-Q Restaurant on Argyle St. We didn't know, until after we drove there and parked the car, that the restaurant is closed on Thursday. On the way to the restaurant we passed La Fonda Latino Grill on Broadway and the neighbor asked me if I'd eaten there yet, which I hadn't. Faced with a closed Sun Wah, we decided to eat at La Fonda.



The restaurant is comfortable - warmly decorated with a lot of wood furniture, a large fireplace (for the Winter months), a small full-service bar (with a bartender) with 5/6 stools and three areas you can dine in: outdoors in front of the restaurant (a bit too cool tonight and it wasn't set-up for dining), the room you enter when walking through the door to the restaurant, and a rear mezzanine area. I'll guess that there's comfortable seating indoors for 75-80 people. The mezzanine area would be a good spot for a small party because the two or three steps up and the deep space sets it apart from the main room of the restaurant.

Though this seems to be most often referred to as a "Colombian" restaurant I sensed some confusion - or a desire to stress "Latino" more than "Colombian." Maybe the market for Colombian food is not large enough to support the restaurant, and the marketing as a "Latino" restaurant has and will be more appealing to the wider dining audience in that neighborhood.

As is typical in a such a restaurant, totopos and salsa were complimentary. I wasn’t impressed by the tortilla chips and sensed that they were out of a bag; store-bought. The salsas were weak in taste and watery, but maybe that’s typical of Colombian salsas (I don’t have much experience with Colombian food - other than some dinners at El Llano when the N. Clark St. location was open).

Totopos and Salsas



As a starter I selected an order of empanadas (2 small ones); one of spinach/mushrooms and the other of finely ground/minced beef. I thought the empanadas deep-fried for too long, to the point I needed a knife to break the shell-like exterior. The lighting was not good in the restaurant and it wasn’t possible for me to look too closely at the fillings. Of the two, I liked the spinach/mushroom best. Accompanying the empanadas was a avocado-base dipping sauce and a couple of spoonful’s of a green salad: it made for a nice presentation. My friend was enjoying the totopos/salsa and ordered another bowl as a (complimentary) starter.

Empanadas



For her entrée my friend ordered the Carne Asada platter which she’d tried several other times during prior visits. I tasted a slice of the meat and it was well-seasoned, flavorful. The carne asada was accompanied by a generous portion of white rice topped with plantains, and with sides of a corn salsa and beans.

Carne Asada



My choice of entrée was the Plato Mixto, consisting of half portions of grilled chicken breast, churrasco and five garlic shrimp. Sides were the beans, a large helping of white rice and a small salad. A couple of different salsas were spread about the meat/shrimp. I enjoyed the platter because of the variety and the portions were more than sufficient. I couldn’t see what was mixed-in with the beans (because of the low light level in the restaurant) but they tasted good. Our waitress suggested I mix some of the Colombian Aji salsa in with the beans, so maybe that’s the distinctive flavor I tasted. The plain white rice was a bit boring, though.

Plato Mixto



To quench my thirst I ordered a couple of bottles of Colombia’s Cerveza Aguila beer. This is a Pilsner-style beer the flavor of which didn’t interfere with the meal.

Cerveza Aguila



Both my friend and I love flan, so that’s what we ordered for dessert. It was very fresh; rich and custardy - with a layer of caramel sauce on top and on some drizzled the wafer which accompanied it, and a pleasant addition of blackberry sauce drizzled on the plate. It was an excellent flan.

Flan, with blackberry sauce, and caramel sauce on the wafer



La Fonda Menu







We arrived at the restaurant at about 6:45 p.m. and there were only three other tables occupied. When we left an hour later the restaurant was almost ½ full (both rooms). We didn’t see what appeared to be Latin’s amongst the customers - it looked like an Andersonville-residents type of group.

The service tonight was excellent - attentive enough without being intrusive. The waitstaff, including a manager-type, stopped at the table a couple of times after the several courses were served checking to see if we were enjoying everything. The busboy(s) quickly removed emptied plates and refilled water glasses. I felt very welcome and well-cared for.

My friend told me the restaurant has a good buffet weekdays, for a price of $8.95 plus tax/tip (and there's a sign in the front window advertising the lunch buffet). I work downtown during the week so I won't be trying the lunches here any time soon.

For all we had to eat/drink I thought the price of dinner reasonable: about $70 for the two of us, before adding the tip.

I've been a big fan of Rique's at Sheridan/Argyle since he opened his Mexican restaurant 5 or so years ago. Tonight, I liked La Fonda more than Rique's.

We'll have dinner at Sun Wah another day.

Let me add Cazuela de mariscos to your must-try-some-day list. An exceptionally flavorful fish stew.

Free chips n' salsa, the Mexican-American insipid/inalienable right of every diner, is a very good sign that La Fonda sees a need to keep los gringos felices. But bad chips n' salsa might be a counterproductive move.

See also: fortune cookies.

Last night my wife "discovered" this place right in our neighborhood. We loved it. We joked that although we never heard of it, Mike G probably posted about it in 2006. So we got the OP wrong, but we were correct about the first post being in 2006.

We started with Argentinian empanadas (from the chef's special menu) and an arepa (sweet corn cake) topped with bacon wrapped shrimp. Then we had the Plato Montañero (steak, fried pork rind, red beans, white rice topped w/ fried egg, sweet plantains and avocado) and grilled lamb chops with a mofongo (from the specials menu). All of the meats were perfectly cooked. The plato montanero was a hearty plate that I would definitely order again. The mofongo was very good (I had never had it before), but I'd probably stick to the more traditional dishes next time.

Margaritas were excellent.

Overall it was a wonderful meal and I'm very happy that we found this place.

My wife and I along with a friend of ours had our first dinner here last night. We had a hankering for meat and it's close to Raven Theater where we were heading to after dinner.

I chose the Picada - an nice assortment beef, pork and chicken cuts. My wife had the Pechuga De Pollo. Since she decided not to share any with me, I assume it was good. Our friend had the Tostada.

Our friend and I enjoyed the salsas. Attentive and friendly service. Only two table occupied during our early evening visit.

A good inaugural visit. We'll definitely include it in our pre-theater rotation.

I haven't been there often since we left the neighborhood, but we found it a perfect neighborhood place to have around. Spacious, comfortable, very kid-friendly but with grown-up food. Prices low enough to drop in at will, but a menu full of things you can't just whip up yourself at home.
I've enjoyed the salsas in the past, which I'd agree are thin texturally, but I found them still flavorful. I've always liked the various steaks---on the chewy side, but flavorful, which is how I like it, vs. butter-soft high-end filets. Have had some very nice seafood preparations as well, though it's been too long for me to be specific.
I also agree about the delicious flan.

Has anyone had the lunch buffet?

I'm going Wednesday and am curious about what they offer.

TIA!

Closing after 35 years