MikeG,

Killer pix, and I'm glad to hear FdM is hitting its stride.

As I recall (and memory does fade), what I liked most about the TdP fish tacos was that they were dropped entire into the fryer, so that you had a golden combo of fish/tortilla, emerging as one from a hasty marriage in hot grease. I will grant, too, that spending less than two bucks for one of those exceptional little prize packages made it tastier.

Very clever, that rice pyramid (which I assume was served with the correct astrological orientation -- though why a pointed Egyptian and not a flat-top Mayan?). I love it when chefs use humor like that (would a little catsup at the apex be over the top, as it were?).

You know, your pix (like many others on the site) are so good, I'd bet some restaurants would love to have copies...just a thought (not like you don't have enough demands on your time).

Hammond

Hey, it's like I said to my friends today, the secrets of good food photography (at least the casual snapshot kind) are 1) go eat lunch and 2) sit near a window.

Tacos del Pacifico did make those wonderful whole-thing-deep-fried ones but they also had the deep-fried fillet in a tortilla kind, shown best in this photo by SteveZ:



I think the fish tacos at FdM are only two for $5 or something, incidentally, not that much more than Tacos del Pacifico. The prices remain very reasonable for what you get.

Has anyone been recently? Will be there tonight and couldn't get them to answer their phone last night. Do they have their liquor license yet? Thanks/

My husband and I were there about 2 weeks ago. Still no license so we were directed to a nearby liquor store. They are great about providing ice buckets for beer and white wine as well as glassware. We enjoyed the trio of ceviches although both of us thought the crab and fish that night were better than the shrimp - shrimp were a bit tough. I had the fish tacos which I enjoyed very much. Great service - friendly and knowlegable about the food, but not intrusive. Enjoy!

We were last there about 4 weeks ago. We like this place for lunch--fish tacos are delish! The seafood soups are spicy and wonderful. Their back patio is really pleasant--I love the boat!

I like this restaurant better than Sol de Mexico, but that's another topic. (Long story short--good, not great dinner there--they can do better, but we'll definitely will go back and try other dishes.)

In my continuing effort to visit every GNR restaurant , which at the present rate I expect to be completed in 2099 so long as the program is suspended immediately, I took the Bride and Daughter to FdM for a little celebration on Labor Day Friday.

At 7pm, the dining room was virtually empty, though it appeared the patio was pretty busy, and the dining room did get about half full by the end of our dinner. Still, hardly the crazy, busy place reported above. I had made a reservation, too, based on those reports and my brief peek at the book seemed to indicate we were one of maybe 3 resos that evening.

So no probs with seating or service. Maybe just a holiday Friday - regulars out of town, and FdM is hardly a tourist destination?

The food was pretty good, beginning to end. Tamales in mole - mmmm. Empanadas de Jaiba, good but a tad undersauced and underseasoned - which was the beginning of a trend. Daughter ordered the carne asada (skirt steak in this rendition) with a chile pasilla sauce. I had the perch in crema de poblano, and the Bride had the salmon.

All prepared quite nicely, pretty presentation, good ingredients. But starting with the salsas on the table, every darned dish was dramatically underseasoned. The only one with the least hint of heat was the pasilla. Now they had bottles of decent hot sauce on the tables to spice things up, and I played with them, but I really think that when dealing with a chile sauce, there should be some heat in the sauce. It made me wonder where they got these denatured chiles from.

Very good nut cake and decent flan for dessert.

This is not a slam. I would surely go back - good food, good price, good preparation. And I am sure that with proper instruction I will get food with some heat from the kitchen.

Still BYO, BTW.

finally made it over to fonda del mar last saturday for a light, early dinner before a wedding "after party" -- weren't sure about food at the party, so we headed west from logan square to have a little bite.

my friend & i split a few apps: Empanadas De Jaiba, Tacos Ensenada, Ensalada Mixta; we loved the tacos & empanadas, and the salad was interesting...we tried the salad with fresh fruit (not sure if i have the correct name, menupages doesn't have any descriptions). it was simple but light & went along with our other items.

then we decided we had to try dessert since we were being good only splitting a few small items (debated trying a ceviche & we could've probably squeezed it in).....debated a few things, then on almost 2nd thought, went with the chocolate pecan pie.

WOW! it was outstanding. a small personal pie that we split, very nice bittersweet chocolate with lots of pecan chunks. right out of the oven with a homemade whipped cream on top with powdered chocolate sprinkled on top. then chocolate sauce & fresh fruit around the plate. other people around us had to ask as we were having such an experience eating it.

certainly up there in my famous dessert specialties! can't wait to go back & have more of a dinner, but overall, cute place & great back patio. nice servers & good food.

miss ellen

Aside from the good food, I find Fonda del Mar's service to be excellent. The first time I was there, I forgot my reading glasses. With the subdued lighting and the blocky "artistic" font used on the menus, I found it impossible to read the listing of appetizers (which were in a reduced point size). Our server picked up on my difficulty right away. Despite the fact that it was a very busy saturday night, he took the time to hold up the menu and point to every single item and describe it in detail. He did it as if it were part of his normal routine, and saved me the embarrassment of admitting I couldn't read a darn thing. I know that is a relatively minor thing, but I appreciated it and tipped accordingly.

d4v3 wrote:Aside from the good food, I find Fonda del Mar's service to be excellent. The first time I was there, I forgot my reading glasses. With the subdued lighting and the blocky "artistic" font used on the menus, I found it impossible to read the listing of appetizers (which were in a reduced point size).

Under four bucks on eBay.

David Hammond wrote:Under four bucks on eBay.

Thanks. I guess I'll break down and buy one (or several). However, it is hard enough to admit that I even need reading glasses (or that I can no longer close Smart Bar and still make it to work the next day).

I wasn't sure whether to post this here or to Events, but figured it might be better to add to an existing thread.

I had an exquisite dinner at Fonda del Mar the other night. It's been hills and valleys for me there, but I always want to give a new neighborhood spot a grace period, and Fonda has earned it. My mother and I ordered one of the $35 prix fixe menus (which was spot on: a choice between two items at every course, perfect balance of spice and ingredient, and lovely food temperature, which has been a problem in the past), plus one fish entree. We shared everything and had enough for lunch the next day. The cochinita pibil and coconut flan were particular highlights, though the former was more like a Cuban lechon than the photos I've seen from, say, Sol de Mexico. The service, as usual, was friendly and impeccable. Grand total for the two of us--stuffed and happy--was $55 before tip.

Anyway, to the event portion of the program: FdM is having a Day of the Dead celebration from October 13 through November 8. It looks like an ofrenda, live traditional music, and a special menu will all be part of the mix. I don't know more details than that, but our waiter handed us a lovely, full-color flier describing the celebration, and I can see they're very excited about promoting it. Thought others on this list might want to know . . .

d4v3 wrote:

David Hammond wrote:Under four bucks on eBay.

Thanks. I guess I'll break down and buy one (or several). However, it is hard enough to admit that I even need reading glasses (or that I can no longer close Smart Bar and still make it to work the next day).

My wife used to use her water glass placed at a strategic angle until she broke down and actually started wearing her glasses.

Hi,

Walking in to Fonda del Mar to meet Mr. and Mrs. JiminLoganSquare for a GNR presentation, there was an altar to Freida Kahlo. A seasonal reminder Dia de Muertos or Day of the Dead is fast approaching:



Sat down to find a special menu to commemorate Dia de Muertos which made ordering a trivial exercise and well priced at $35 per person.



First course was Crepas de Huitlacoche described as "Cilantro-Serrano crepes filled with corn mushroom (huitlacoche) drizzled with crema and poblano sauce and Chihuahua cheese." This was one of the best huitlacoche preparations I have had to date. It got me thinking about the 2 pounds of frozen huitlacoche in my freezer and a worthy dish to attempt to duplicate.



Second course was Sopa de Hongos y Nopales, a "Tomatillo and serrano broth soup with roasted cactus paddles and sauteed mushrooms garnished with pasilla chile." These were ordinary button mushrooms in a stock which JiminLoganSquare felt was improved with a shot of hot sauce.



Third course was Camarones en Pipian Verde, "Sauteed shrimp in pipian verde (pumpkin seed, tomatillo, Serrano, epazote) served with white rice and grilled yellow squash." The yellow squash was missing in action, which nobody really missed. The pyrimidal form for presenting the rice was cute. The sauce with the ground pumpkin seeds was the star of the plate, which married all the elements together.



Fourth course was Pollo en Mole de Calabaza, "Roasted chicken breast in a pumpkin mole (pumpkin, ancho chile, spices) served with mashed potatoes." Another dish where the sauce was very deservedly King.



While coffee was offered, there was also the opportunity to have Mexican hot chocolate. A sumptuous drink made with whole milk and perhaps amped with some cream. It makes my home brew of Abuelita with 2% milk a bit of a taste light weight:



Dessert was Pan de Muerto, "Sweetbread made with anise and yeast, adorned with orange peel and strips of dough simulating bones served with vanilla ice cream and piloncillo sauce. Piloncillo is Mexican unrefined sugar. The pan de Muerto was fresh tasting and soft, notable because I usually associate Mexican bakery goods as dry and hard. The piloncillo sauce seemed to have an orange essence in it or the orange peel was cooked in it. I took home the top for my family to enjoy examening and eating:



When we presented the owners the GNR certificate, we talked to them about the Dia de Muertos menu. He ticked through the ingredients available at harvest time as classic ingredients for this dinner. This helped explain the dominance of pumpkin, mushrooms and seeds.

Fonda del Mar
3749 W Fullerton Ave
Chicago
(773) 489-3748

Incidentally, remember that the Mexican Fine Arts Museum has its annual Day of the Dead exhibit up; we visited it a few weekends ago. It's free, and throw in lunch somewhere in that area (where GNR winners are becoming more and more common) and it's a nice way to spend a couple of hours.

Cathy2 wrote:First course was Crepas de Huitlacoche described as "Cilantro-Serrano crepes filled with corn mushroom (huitlacoche) drizzled with crema and poblano sauce and Chihuahua cheese." This was one of the best huitlacoche preparations I have had to date. It got me thinking about the 2 pounds of frozen huitlacoche in my freezer and a worthy dish to attempt to duplicate.

C2, great pix! Those crepas look particularly good. I usually eat the corn smut on a tortilla, so different preparations appeal. This looks just great.

Also nice that the chicken was set into the mole rather than drenched in it.

Hammond

Were all those pictures servings for 1 person?! That looks like 2-3 dinners worth of food. Good food.

HI,

Those were my dinner servings.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Those were my dinner servings.

C2,

And it all looked well prepared and delicious. It's been a while since I was at FdM, your Dia de Muertos meal is quite motivating.

Enjoy,
Gary

David Hammond wrote:
Very clever, that rice pyramid (which I assume was served with the correct astrological orientation -- though why a pointed Egyptian and not a flat-top Mayan?). I love it when chefs use humor like that (would a little catsup at the apex be over the top, as it were?).

Hammond

Rick Bayless has been serving that clever rice pyramid since Frontera Grill opened. Not that there's anything wrong with a little imitation, as it is the sincerest form of flattery.

Said before many times, but I gotta reiterate the greatness of Fonda Del Mar. In particular, as one with a serious allergy to shellfish, it was a delight to be able to eat ceviche, as these good people prepare a delightful version with marlin. I do loathe the day when "Check Please" will make the crowds unbearable...but, who knows, maybe the LTH posse can sabotage that show once and for all...

About a month ago, I dined at FdM for the first time and I really enjoyed it. It was a perfect night and we (and everyone else) sat on the patio and passed the hours eating and drinking. It was a Monday and that meant half-price Margaritas Fondas ($3) . . .


Margarita Fonda
One of the stars of the evening.



Trio de Ceviches
I really enjoyed the flavors and freshness of the 3 ceviches. My favorite was probably the crab (rear) but what I liked about all 3 was how obviously fresh they were. The texture of the fish/seafood in each rendition was immaculate.



Sopes Combinados
An enjoyable appetizer. I was glad to try out the mole here as opposed to with an entree because sometimes that much mole is just too much mole for me. My favorite of the three was probably the mushrooms in pasilla sauce (rear, left).



Calamar al Ajillo
I really loved this salad but the folks I was with, who are regulars at FdM, thought it was possibly a bit overdressed. To me, the combination of individual flavors and textures went very well and I didn't find the dressing overbearing at all. In fact, I thought it was just about perfect.



Uchepos Gratinados
I loved this dish mainly because of the salsa but the tamales were tender and sweet and the overall combination satisfied.



Tamal de Chile Relleno
A bit too much going on here for my taste. I appreciated the 'over the top' nature of the dish but I'm not sure it succeeded. It was filled with a bounty of nicely-prepared vegetables that were just fine but overall, it paled in comparison to some of the other dishes on the table.



Mariscos and Arroz (special)
As good as it looked . . . wonderfully fresh seafood, atop tender, aromatic rice with a piquant and tangy sauce.



Mole Manchamanteles with Pork
My mole quote filled, I still enjoyed my taste of this entree, which was devoured by everyone else at the table.



Cochinita Pibil
Best thing I ate on this night. Ironic that a pork dish was my favorite at a restaurant with 'mar' in its name but trust me, that says more about me than about the seafood offerings at FdM, which were great. I loved the rich and flavorful sauce and the strips of pork were nicely cooked; juicy and addictive.

Overall, it was a delicious meal and an excellent time at Fonda del Mar. Service was attentive and friendly and prices were reasonable. My Logan Square friends love the place and it's easy to see why. But not only is this a great spot for the neighborhood but it's distinctive enough that it transcends that niche. I consider FdM to be a destination restaurant and even though its focus is fairly specific, there's enough on the menu to satisfy a wide variety of tastes and preferences.

=R=

Fonda del Mar
3749 W Fullerton Ave
Chicago, IL 60647
773 489-3748

Hi

I know that they are no longer BYO, but do they allow corkage? If not, how is their wine list?

thx,

I was at Fonda twice last week and yes, they do indeed have a wine list about as geographically diverse as can be. You'll have to call on corkage.

I noticed several afore-unmentioned dishes that I have found noteworthy. I find the intense flavor of the mushroom sopes to be spectacular. The trio of ceviche is so fresh and a remarkable value-using marlin is unique and brilliant. The siete mares may be my flavorite (I inadvertandly made that spelling mistake) soup in all of Chicago, and possibly the best value too. That said, I think the prices at Fonda seem to be starting to creep up-for some reason $4 for bottled beer and $8 for margaritas seemed a tad high to me-certainly a mild quibble.

www.fondaonfullerton.com

Went to Sunday Brunch on 10/7/07 as my first time at FDM, because they were mentioned for having wonderful fish tacos (Tacos Ensenata) and I had just finished re-reading Calvin Trillin. The fish tacos were terrific, as was the dipping sauce, which contained bits of seafood and onions. Also outstanding were the Camarones Boracho, which had an intriguing salsa verde that seemd to have a taste of chopped nuts or seeds. Definitely will return.

Just waking up this thread to speak of the wonderful Cochinita Pibil I enjoyed last night at Fonda del Mar. This is the second time I've had it at FdM (I've also had it elsewhere) and it is probably my favorite dish on the menu, and the best version of this dish I have had anywhere. Luckily, both Ronnie's and Mike G's pictures of this dish do it the justice it deserves. And if you want to start a fire, just indulge in some of the incredibly spicy yet delicious habanero sauce that accompanies the dish.

Went there last night with my GF. No pics, but mine wouldn't hold a candle to Ronnie's anyway. We started with Margarita Rustica (w/mescal) and the Paloma (tequila and grapefruit soda - Squirt actually). Both very good, but I much preferred my margarita. We did the coctel con camaron y pulpo to start, and then Cochinita Pibil and Camerones a la Diabla for entrees. Everything was delicious, and I'm still recovering from the habanero sauce that comes with the cochinita...it's hotter than Xni Pec's version, but not as fruity-sweet. Due to time limitation, we didn't stay for dessert, but will definitely be back for that as well as the lamb chops that supposedly are a don't-miss.

Finally got to Fonda del Mar, and it was simply amazing. My friend and I split appetizers and at least tasted whatever the other ordered. Margarita and Mojito both among the best we've had. Ceviche de camaron was bright, fresh, limey, and delish. Uchepos Gratinados (the masa sweet corn tamales shown in a post above) were amazing -- sweet, rich, cheesy, flavorful.

For my main, I had the camarones al mojo de ajo. This was absolutely stunning. It combined large, marinated, grilled shrimp with chunky garlic sauce (emphasis on chunky), avocado, black beans, tomato, green onion, and cilantro, surrounding a pyramid of flavorful white rice. Also great was my friends pescado tikin xic -- achiote marinated mahi mahi cooked in a banana leaf with chunky roasted tomato-jumiles sauce, pickled onion, and garlic mashed potatoes. We asked about the jumiles (my friend speaks Spanish, so it made it easier to convince our waiter to actually bring us one -- we'd determined it was an insect, we just didn't know which one) and we got sown a funny little bug that my friend said looks like a pumpkin bug. We chatted about jumiles and chapulines, and learned that they may soon be offering chapulines, and may even be serving ant eggs before long. So stay tuned.

This was an unbelievable meal. I could go back tomorrow for the camarones al mojo de ajo. Thanks for the recommendations, one and all.

We ate at Fonda del Mar on Saturday night. Actually, we were worried when we were the only people there at 6:30 on a Saturday night, but people started arriving shortly thereafter.

We had two appetizers - the CALAMAR CON ESQUITES and the SOPES DE HUITLACOCHE. We thought both were okay, although not great.

The mains we got were all wonderful, though. The MOJARRA AL MOJO DE AJO was great, worth all the work to pick through the whole fish for all the tasty morsels. The SALMON EN CHILEATOLE was very nice; I love when they can cook fish so there is a thin crisp to the outer crust while maintaining the insides moist and tender. The COCHINITA PIBIL was excellent too.

The desserts were also outstanding, perhaps the best we have had at a Mexican restaurant in recent years. The flan del dia was coconut, a subtle coconut flavoring to a very nice flan. The natillas was excellent, using sliced berries as the fruit. And the pastel tres leches was a very nice example.

This was also one of those places where making selections from the menu was very difficult, because there are so very many dishes that sound great, and you can only order a few. We would like to go back again soon to try some of the other dishes that we didn't get a chance to have on this visit.

Highly recommended.

nsxtasy wrote:We ate at Fonda del Mar on Saturday night. Actually, we were worried when we were the only people there at 6:30 on a Saturday night, but people started arriving shortly thereafter.

Worried? This would be a PERFECT time for me to chat up the staff at a restaurant to get opinions on what is the best of the best.

I'll bet the Mcdonalds down the street was crowded at 6:30.

I do know what you're saying though, but Fonda is a joint I would be HAPPY to visit when it's empty - so many good options, opinions from the staff when they are not busy would be welcome.

By "worried", I didn't mean that the lack of crowds might indicate any sort of problem. Rather, I meant that I was concerned for the restaurant's financial viability, under the assumption (proven out by our experience eating there) that they are an excellent restaurant and it would be a shame if they didn't have enough business to survive.