Fonda Fina — Restaurant in Mexico City

I’ve never written a restaurant review before but felt I had to for this one. The food was good for the most part — eg the meat was excellent; the guacamole was just ok — but the service was terrible! Granted part of it was likely the language barrier (although my wife does speak decent Spanish if they had made any effort to talk with her), but there still was no effort to explain the menu or make any recommendations (and we had an early seating — so it’s not because they were too busy.) We were never asked how we wanted the meat prepared and if we hadn’t noticed on the menu that the entrees came with a choice of sauce, I’m not sure they would have told us or even brought any sauce at all. We also asked about filtered water and our waiter told us only bottles — so we paid for bottled water and then later that same waiter brought around a carafe of filtered water to refill our glasses (I had to laugh at that one!) They also inexplicably brought out my 12 year old’s entrée about 15 minutes before the rest of ours (and I had to remind them about the sauce that we had selected to go with it), so he finished his meal long before his two brothers and my wife and I did. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I found the decor to be uninteresting (certainly when compared to other similarly priced restaurants in Roma) and the music basically sounded like a random soft rock radio station — eg The Doors at a nice Mexican restaurant? At the end of the meal, they started to hand out dessert menus, even though we had clearly told them we only wanted the check and they seemed annoyed that we didn’t want dessert. We asked for the check a few more times and it finally arrived after about 10 more minutes. When I told the waiter (a different one than the guy who originally took our order — they strangely changed waiters about three times during the dinner) that we were giving a 10% tip, they again seemed annoyed. Seriously? Other than the tasty meat (which really is tasty), what could they possibly have thought went well?? One final point — I don’t recommend eating at a table out front. The waiters and kitchen staff take their break out there and so you can expect to be surrounded by guys on phones and smoking cigarettes. If this restaurant had been half the price, I might have given it another star or two just for the food, but as it is, we likely would have had a better...

This was hands down one of the best meals I've ever had. I'm not exaggerating. I think this might even be #1 but I might be suffering from recency bias. But I doubt this will ever leave my list of top meals I've had in my life.

The first thing we had was the beef tacos - just exquisite. It was a such a careful and smart balance of flavors. Although it had a rustic feel, it was clearly something that had been carefully put together with meticulous attention to detail and texture. When we had the first bite, I literally turned to my fiancée and said "How are they going to top this?"

But they did. We got the octopus and the pork shank. Both were just unreal. They were pieces of art - literally - with the most unique and creative ways to bring out the flavors. I was especially wowed by the octopus. We had tried from many different other places during our visit and enjoyed consistently, but this one really stood out because they had balanced the lime and salt masterfully with a sweet potato puree and quinoa.

If you're looking for some Mexican food that isn't just authentic, but elevated and proud. This is a MUST GO. Looking at the awards and lists that this place has been on, it seems that it might be past its heyday (2019-2021) but I can't subscribe to that in the slightest. My theory is it fell out of trendiness for some reason or didn't capitalize on the press. The staff, the food, the atmosphere - it was just incredible.

I can't recommend this...

WOW. We had NO idea this place was going to be this good. We just happened to stay nearby and were looking for a solid dinner spot with no wait time on a Friday night and just had by far the best meal we’ve had in the 10 days we’ve been in Mexico (across Oaxaca and CDMX).

We had the quesadilla as an appetizer, which at first order felt basic but upon receiving it we were surprised by how hearty it was, filled with a gracious amount of cheese that was perfectly chewy and salty almost halloumi-like (as opposed to melted cheddar cheese). The mushrooms filled it out and the tortilla was perfectly oven baked as if cooked in a pizza oven with just the slightest dusting of ash.

Then for the main course we had the rib eye, which blew us away. Perfectly tender and juicy with just the right amount of fat to even it out, we would have died happy if that was all the dish contained. But NO! For whatever reason they said eff it let’s take it to 11 baby and in addition to the rib eye they give you a side of roasted Brussels sprouts and fingerling potatoes tossed in a layer of melted cheese on top of a bed of fried bits of chorizo and garlic crisps then sprinkled with feta cheese and garnished with parsley.

🤯🤯🤯

We’re now waiting for dessert so will report back on how it goes but loved dinner so much we felt compelled to pull out our phones and write a review while the memory’s...