08/28/09

yummy queso

by haiku8

I love the queso dip here. Also the grilled chicken salad is amazing- so fresh!

the only down side is i always eat the entire bowl!

also- the restaurant can get noisy

• Pros: queso!
• Cons: queso...

06/15/09

Extremely unhappy with service

by CSMobileUser

Good evening,

I frequent your restaurant regularly when I am in town. I am usually happy with the service as well as the food work with CBS television out of New York and was excited to take my sister to your establishment for a relaxing Friday afternoon. We ordered drinks as well as a pitcher of margarita and guacamole .

We then asked the server which chicken dish was better and which one came with the rice and beans. We decided to get the dish with the rice and black beans .

The dish came in a timely fashion, we fixed our respective plates and started to eat. I went up to the waiter to ask where our black beans were.

He stated I ordered the wrong meal and came over to take our plates. Well I do realize mistakes happen since it was his and not ours you do not remove the plate from in front of us. You remove the serving dish , which still had a large remainder of food since we split the thigh.

Then a man comes up and says that is not right to eat the food if it is a mistake it goes to the waiters to eat. The proper thing would have been for him to introduce himself as the manager and what seemed to be the problem , I proceed to inform him of the mistake the server made .He informed me it was my word (and sister) against his server?!!

I ask him for the manager and he says yes he is the manger, no name , nothing.

I am surprised at the level of service because for the last couple of years when I was in town I was happy with the food.

I asked another server for the manger again who now has brought us the correct dish we ordered and proceed to berate me that this was not right to have eaten the food, well this was not our mistake and on an already 40 dollar tab including the tip it would have behoved the manager to have had better etiquette.

After requesting that this "manager" Alonzo give me the corporate phone number I explained the incident to Gerry. He as courteous, listened and emphasized. I give you kudos for having him on your management team.

What a lot of people do not realize that one and now two people tell a friend about the bad service that friend tells a friend,etc. By that time 20 people are now expressing their negative opinions to possible customers or future customers of yours. I say this to perhaps keep your "manager" Alonzo from being rude and abrasive to someone else. Things may be lost in translation , but is up to the individual whose native language is not english to be more sensitive in how they word things.

Thank you for allowing me the platform to express myself since I do Public Relations in television I am very patient in how I express myself to people.

07/07/08

great paella

by PrinceDiana

great paella at a reasonable price. outdoor patio is perfect for summer days and nights, great social place.

• Pros: great food, great ambience

05/26/08

the best

by fancyxamy

i go to la fonda at least 2 times a week. yes, youre going to get minimal smiling or conversation from the staff, but you will be hard pressed to find faster service anywhere else. due to the presence of a bunch of food runners, your chips and salsa will never run out, a definite plus if you show up starving or have to wait for a bit. the drinks are ridiculously cheap and the food is outstanding. the veggie tacos are my favorite meal, hands down, but i have never had anything there that i didnt like. their take out is also a great value, because along with your meal you get a very generous serving of chips along with a large container of their salsa which, by the way, is far superior to salsa at many other similar (and often more expensive) places like sala, across the street, or la casita. if youre coming at dinner time, be prepared for a wait, but with such an efficient staff, it doesnt take that long. very highly recommended!

• Pros: food, price, staff
• Cons: dinner time waits

11/19/07

veggie friendly

by meriamss

We ordered the vegetable skewers and veggie burrito. Both excellent, very well seasoned and cooked crispy. We got a mojito pitcher, which was very sweet but savory, especially for the price. The service was decent, but it seemed as though the server absolutely hated his life. The rooftop patio was very cool, and the prices were very cheap!

I would definitely go back. Although the service wasn't exactly good, I've had much worse service. The food and atmosphere is worth it for me.

• Pros: great quality at a good price
• Cons: grumpy servers

09/11/07

!!!The best steak quesadillas this side of the border!!!

by fardoo

I eat there at least 6 times a week... The greasy steak quesadilla is to die for... Chips are okay, salsa is good.

05/23/07

good food - but not worth the rude staff and terrible service

by foodcriticdtown

The food here is good - no denial there. HOWEVER I have never been as infuriated when leaving a restaurant as I was after my experience at LaFonda. My friends and I went to LaFonda for dinner and drinks. Once we finally found a table - it's seat yourself without a waiting list - we sat for 30 minutes before a waiter came to take our DRINK order. I don't know why we didn't leave then. It was another 10-15 minutes before our food order was taken. The food was very good, yet when we went to the register to pay the, the staff rudely stated they don't split checks. Being a group of 5, several of us didn't have cash, so needed to put a portion of the bill on a credit card. They pushed a sign in our faces saying they didn't split checks - and that we should know their policy. We told them we were very sorry but some of us couldn't pay without splitting checks and we were unaware of their policy until now. The woman at the register frowned, put her hands on her hips, and said "I don't believe that you have never been here before, that is a lie". She then cursed about us in Spanish to her fellow staff member thinking that none of us could understand spanish. Never in my LIFE have I ever been so rudely treated as a customer. Please consider yourself warned!

• Pros: good food
• Cons: rude staff, painfully slow service

12/20/06

Look for low-stakes, low-priced Latin-American fare at this colorful neighborhood cantina.

by Contributor

The Scene
La Fonda's five intown restaurants evoke a carnival mood with brightly painted furniture and walls. Spanish tunes are suitably bouncy and loud, but you needn't shout to be heard. At the Ponce location, industrial chic meets tilt-a-whirl: Brushed aluminum tables dot the patio, while inside the staff bustles around a room the color of circus peanuts, decorated with turquoise shutters and framed Diego Rivera posters.

The Food
Toned-down American takes on popular Mexican, Latin American and Caribbean dishes are what's on the table at these reliable intown cantinas. Don't miss the sopa de pollo, a bracing soup loaded with white-meat chicken, yellow rice and a dice of green onions, jalapenos and tomatoes. Use that lime wedge to add some tang. The arroz con pollo, a moist half-chicken spiked with paprika, comes nestled in yellow rice with onions and peppers. It pairs nicely with a side of smoky black beans. Fresh cilantro gives the fire-engine red salsa a nice kick, but the chunky guacamole is under spiced.

12/27/05

Great Paella! (But Not Much Else)

by dseijuro

I would not order anything but their seafood paella, which is superlative especially consider how cheap it is. The salsa is also way above average, but everything else is mediocre at best--I was served stale iced tea the first time I ate there, and never ventured to order it again. The deck on second floor is a good spot on a cool sunny day to relax.

Bottom line: the seafood paella by itself is worth making a trip for.

06/03/05

Oddly disappointing

by chickybird

My husband and I went for dinner last night because he had been there for lunch and liked it. We both ordered chicken tacos, which is what he had ordered before. When they arrived they were not at all what we were expecting. They contained a few pieces of charred meat, browning lettuce, and what I assume was chipotle sauce. We asked the waiter why they contained no cheese as described on the menu. He took them back and had the cook add cheese. I then tried to eat mine, but the meat was so charred I couldn't even bite into it. My black beans were cold. So we just paid and left. Maybe this was a fluke. I might try again with a regular customer who could tell me exactly what to order, because I can't believe the food is usually that bad. The salsa was good, at least.