Fonda — Restaurant in New York

Good first visit! I wish I was more hungry and could have ordered more food, but I only ordered an appetizer and split some chips & salsa with my friend. What I had, though, was good! And I would come back.

A+ for having a separate vegetarian menu, with many of the items possible to be made vegan (though, there's plenty of chicken, meat, and fish items as well). Lots of things sounded good.

I ended up getting the Huarache con Hongos (kind of like a flatbread made from fried masa, topped with a black bean spread, sautéed mushrooms, salsa verde, and salsa chipotle). It had a nice kick to it, and I LOVE anything with mushrooms. Yum.

The chips and salsa my friend and I split were also better than your average chips and salsa appetizer. The tortilla chips were super nutty and fragrant, and the salsa made with lots of fresh onions, peppers, and less tomato than your typical salsa. Also had a nice kick to it, but not terribly hot at all. This almost made me not mind that it cost extra ($4, I think?) for the chips and salsa.

The entrees, from glancing at the rest of the menu, were $20-30, which I'm sure would be worth it judging from the decent portions I saw.

The only thing lacking from the overall menu is adequate protein for a vegan. If I'd been hungrier and ordered more food or an entree, I'm pretty sure I would have left having had delicious tasting food, but still hungry from lack of protein. There weren't many things with beans or any other plant-based protein. So maybe it is a good thing I wasn't hungry enough to want a larger meal.

Service was good - our server was nice, the food came out in a reasonable amount of time, and our water glasses were frequently refilled. No...

Very tasty - good menu of fancy Mexican food. Date got a very hearty egg based dish that came with a large portion of rice and beans, while I got a pork sandwich that was kind of small with an arugula salad that was pretty spartan. It was all delicious though. When they ask you if you'd like some guac and chips, which they will at the start, please do note that it's $14 as that's not listed on any menu and I was a bit surprised at the end. Boozy brunch option was pretty standard, if not a little bit high in terms of pricing ($37). The drink choices were fantastic though; the bloody mary was easy to drink, the margaritas on the rocks were perf, and they have this frozen hibiscus margarita with a salt rim that's delicious. Regrettably, however, the waiters don't come around very often and were kind of difficult to attract. As Fonda reserves a hard 1.5 hour limit for their boozy brunch option, do prepare to speak up if you really want to make that day drunk goal happen. Speak up, you can do it! The ambiance and atmosphere was pretty good and befitting of the price. I made my reservation for 11, at which time the place was a bit quiet, but it livened up quite a bit by 12 - at which point I really had to raise my voice to be heard. Boozy brunch is a very social experience, so nothing of note or surprise there. On a personal note I waited about an hour for my food to come - I'm pretty sure they forgot to make it. That happens, so I really don't mean to complain, but I'm sure I could've reminded them to make it earlier if they came around to the table more often. Fonda Alphabet City was a bit more attentive by comparison, so perhaps Fonda Chelsea could keep that in mind in...

Went to Fonda in Chelsea for dinner on a Saturday night. We had a reservation on OpenTable but didn't think we would need it; as it turns out, it was pretty crowded and it was good we had it. We arrived 15 minutes before the reservation and they couldn't seat us right away, but they seated us by the actual reservation time.

In the meantime, we went to the bar and ordered drinks. Although it was 7:15 and the Happy Hour is posted as 5-7, the bartender gave us the Happy Hour prices on our drinks unexpectedly, which was really nice of him. My wife's berry sangria was very sweet, almost like juice, but that's how she likes it. Unfortunately it had a lot of ice in there, too, to dilute it.

We sat upstairs. We heard it was quieter up there, but it was still pretty crowded and noisy up there, but not an issue. We got the Tlacoyo Con Hongos to start, which came with three gordita squares with toppings. The mushrooms were delicious, and it was an altogether solid dish.

I got the Enchiladas Suizas (chicken), and my wife got the Camarones Adobados (shrimp). I think the shrimp was the better dish: they were spiced well, full of flavor, and the avocado green rice was creamy and delicious. The chicken enchiladas came with 3 small enchiladas covered in cheese. It was good, but a little one-note with all the cheese as compared to the other dish with more complexity. There was rice and beans on the side: the beans were like refried beans made with black beans. They were good, but I actually would have preferred standard black beans.

Solid dinner at a reasonable price with...