Fonda Mexican Knox — Restaurant in Melbourne

I went to Fonda Knox for dinner on 09.08.2024 with my brother. I am vegan and he is not.

I ordered some chips and a vegan quesadilla which both came out fine, and I ordered the vegan fable burrito for my main. The waitress came to the table with the ‘vegan’ burrito confirming it as such, so I began to eat it. A short time later, another waitress came out presumably with my brothers chicken burrito. She then advised that this was the vegan fable burrito, and that the one I was initially served was actually the chicken burrito.

Having not eaten animal products for over 4 years, this came as a complete shock, as something like this has never happened to me before. I understand the risks of potential cross contamination in a non vegan kitchen. However, being served a physical meat/dairy product is unacceptable. Since this incident, I have been feeling extremely unwell, as I have in the past with food poisoning - as I haven’t consumed these foods in 5 years, my body has not reacted well. Additionally, this was honestly a traumatising experience for me and I quite frankly feel distraught. Had this have been a circumstance of anaphylaxis, it could have been a very different outcome.

After many positive experiences in non vegan establishments over the years, this one awful experience is making me hesitant to ever dine at a venue such as Fonda again. This is not about being an ‘annoying vegan,’ but being wary of sickly experiences. Having never provided a review to any business, this experience has left me feeling obliged to leave a review to warn others of the negligence...

I came here to pick up a bunch of food around 2:15 pm on a Sunday after not visiting for at least 6 months. After reading some of the recent reviews I was concerned that the food was going to be bad but I was pleasantly surprised; it all tasted just as I expected it to taste.

The chicken in the chargrilled chicken quesadillas was cooked correctly and not burnt although maybe chargrilled at some edges (not a bad thing) and the accompanying aioli tasted good, the tortilla chips with guacamole and pico de gallo tasted good, the fish tacos were good and the chargrilled corn was also good. The only very slight negative is there seemed to be slightly less filling in the quesadilla, maybe 90% filled compared to previous times. It was super quiet when I visited too, I'm not sure if that affected the quality of the food.

Really happy to also see that Fonda have finally brought back the Feed Me (for 2) menu which now comes with 1 x nachos, 2 x tacos of your choice, 2 x chargrilled corn cobs and 1 x quesadilla (of your choice), all for $55 which is around the same price as it was back in 2017-2018 I think. Considering how quickly restaurant prices have increased it's actually amazing it's not $60+!!!

The girl who served me on the phone was also super helpful and patient as well as I hadn't decided on my order before calling.

All in all a good visit and better food compared to my last visit at...

Impressed with the fitout - In particular the joinery details. However I wish the food was as flavourful as the space. We had a range of dishes. All were pretty bland and lacked flavour. I asked what hot sauces they had and there was only one option - not even a smokey chipotle style one. I needed something as the sauce that came with the food was so devoid of flavour. The chicken in the taco tasted more like something from a cheap souvlaki, rather than Mexican. Coming from Auckland, where Mexico is a popular restaurant, this is what I was comparing it to. So I wasn’t bothered by the price vs portion size, as it’s the same there - however they offer complex and tasty Mexican food, Mexican tap beers and a large margarita menu. The service was confusing. Why do I have to wait to be seated, then have to go up to order and pay before eating? I’d say they’d make more sales with proper table service and paying post meal (we would probably have gotten more food if we’d enjoyed it more and didn’t have the hassle of ordering at the counter). The service was lacking in any charm. Our waitress didn’t really seemed bothered by us and seemed unfriendly. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend purely on the fact that the food was so beige. No flavour - which is pretty impressive for...