Fonda Lola Mexican Bistro — Restaurant in Toronto

This is going to be a bit long, but honest. This was my first and last time going to Fonda Lola, as from beginning to end, the experience was insanely disappointing. My partner and I had a reservation for 4:30pm on a Saturday afternoon out in the back patio. We ended up arriving about 10 minutes early and decided to go in. Inside was completely empty apart from the staff and the hostess. She told us to check in using the QR code on the wall and to follow her to the back. She was pretty unwelcoming and set the tone for the rest of the evening. A couple left as we were coming through the restaurant and only one other couple was seated out back. After sitting at our wobbly table, which looked like it was crafted by a toddler, we sat unattended until around 4:45pm. The other empty tables at the back were left dirty, with dishes and napkins for about 30 minutes. No server came to give us any water or a menu. Eventually, the server came to ask us if we wanted drinks and we requested to see a menu. She told us the menu was online, meanwhile the other couple, as well as two other empty tables, had menus on them. The other couple kindly gave us their menu and we chose our drinks. We didn’t see our drinks or the server for another 15 minutes. So now it’s 5pm and we finally received our drinks and a different server comes out at this point and finally gives us some glasses and water. Unfortunately, the glasses were dirty and the water came in a dingy looking tequila bottle. Our original server returned shortly after and asked if we were ready to order. We placed our order for appetizers and our meals all at once, not wanting to risk the wait. We ordered nachos and queso fundido for apps, and enchiladas verdes and chicken tinga tacos for our meals. About 10-15 minutes later the apps arrived and they looked delicious. Sadly, the cheese felt like they had left the food on the counter and it began to harden. The nachos were plain and bland and the queso fundido was nothing exciting. Just a lump of cheese in a cast iron skillet served with flour tortillas. 5-10 minutes later we received our meals. The table was so small, there was no space for anything so we were placing food on empty chairs and the bench beside us. Presentation wise, everything looked really good, from the margarita I ordered to the food. As stated by many other reviews, the food was extremely bland and underwhelming. I also received fish tacos rather than the chicken tinga I ordered. I opted not to ask for it to be replaced as at this point I didn’t know how long it would take to get the new plate and I wanted to leave. I ate one and a half tacos and there wasn’t an ounce of flavour and they were soggy. My partner’s enchiladas came with literally a table spoon of rice and beans. The rice was over cooked and tasted like it came from the bottom of a burnt pot. The chicken inside the enchiladas was also a bit cold. Neither of us finished our meals and simply asked for the bill so we could leaved. Not a single aspect of this restaurant should be described as Mexican. I should also mention, our second server ended up taking over for the rest of the evening and she was far more attentive and friendly than the first, however I didn’t get her name. This was a birthday meal and my partner felt so bad for bringing me here. Moral of the story, if you enjoy bland food, grungy “decor”, bad service, then knock yourself out. Otherwise, don’t...

Let me tell you a story of how I ended up at Fonda Lola.

It's snowing. It's quite early for snow. Glistening black wet streaks on top of asphalt give false sense of comfort. Shrieks of tires spinning in the distance and the smell of exhaust lingers in the cool air.

A faint "ding" is heard as a cyclist brusquely brushes past pedestrians. One person displays discontent and waves a particular digit.

Is this cyclist a brave soul and champion of green power? Or merely an unstable sot who feels indestructible on his two wheeled machine? The cyclists jumps off and locks his bike outside a bistro and runs across the road. One wonders why he wouldn't just have locked it across the street with him. Perhaps his cranium has frozen. And, by the way, the digit waver was me!

As I approach the chained demon machine, a bright halo appears on the ground. The light was rotating and it was trying to tell me something. It was bright. Colourful. Welcoming. It strongly suggest to come in out of the cold. Like a moth to the flame, I am drawn in. I obey the beckoning. I step inside and it will be a great night!!!

Welcome to Fonda Lola! As the punsters would say, I am FONDA this place. Take pause here for all the groaning on that one liner.

Inside this small and comfortable bistro, I had the pleasure to meet owner, Ernesto Rodriguez. He was nice enough to gave us a quick history and meaning of the bistro.

Lola was the name of their Matriarch, their Abuela, their grandmother. The food is to bring back how grandma made it. Fonda means cafe or bistro.

So what to have at Fonda Lola? Ceviche, Tacos, Churros and Margaritas! What else!?!? Have a gander at my photos...it's quite the spread.

The three kinds of taco that I had was the Shrimp, Smoked Chicken, and Baja Fish. The churro was the heavy, and crispy kind, not the imitators that are a modified donut.

Big stand out for me on the food was their Baja Fish Taco - Corn battered basa fish and oh so delish. Drink of choice was La Rosa with Chambord and Hibiscus - I can sip that all day!

Please remember that Fonda Lola is an authentic experience. There is no Chilli Con Carne, no Nachos Supreme, no chihuahua asking you if you want to run to the border. The food is real, right down to the their corn tortillas. If you want Tex-Mex, look for a purple sign with a bell on it, next to some old guy that calls himself the Colonel.

If you happen to be running around Queen West or you're just one of those psycholing (hmmm...I meant cycling) enthusiast that likes to ride in snow and ice, drop by. I'm so happy that Fonda Lola had a projector spinning their logo on the...

To preface, we were so excited to try this restaurant after watching Instagram posts so we actually travelled all the way from Hamilton to eat here.

We would never come back and are very disappointed with our experience.

After receiving our table via reservation verification, we browsed the menu over complimentary tap water. We ordered 2 cocktails and 1 appetizer taco, before we chose & ordered our main entree tacos.

We received our cocktails which were delicious and then after 15 minutes we received the dehydrated watermelon taco. The tacos were fine, nothing to write home about or recommend.

The staff came and took away our drinks and asked if we wanted another, we declined. They then came and took our appetizer plate away. We thought the food would be coming moments after but unfortunately, after waiting 40 minutes, we heard the wait staff tell another walk in customer that their kitchen is closed and they are no longer serving food. We panicked and call our server over to ENSURE that our food was still coming. Unfortunately, they had FORGOT about our main entree order

Here’s a timeline to better illustrate our experience.

-We arrived at 9:46pm for our 9:45pm reservation -We ordered our first taco and cocktails by 9:52pm we got the cocktails 10:02pm -we ordered our main tacos at 10:05pm. -we got the first app tacos at 10:17pm -we heard them say they weren’t serving food at 10:50pm to another walk in customer -we asked our server about our entree taco order which is when she fully admitted that it was her fault.

Being so close to 11pm and still starving, we were very concerned that we were not going to get a meal that night. After the server acknowledging the forgotten taco, she said she would take it off the bill. We told her that you are absolutely removing the tacos that we DID NOT eat was the bare minimum she would do. We emphasized the long wait just to be disappointed and the fact that we are probably not able to get dinner at any restaurant anymore. She asked what we would like to pay for, and we said nothing. She then proceeded to guilt us that she would have to personally cover our bill. I told her she needs to talk to her manager.

She went to her manager and explained the situation. He came to our table super happy with a massive smile and just said “your bill is taken care of, have a good night.”

It would also be bare minimum for him to at least apologize for ruining our Toronto visit and leaving us option-less for dinner. Not only did we spend almost 2 hours to just get 1 appetizer taco and 2 drinks, but we didn’t...