La Fonda Alamo Heights — Restaurant in San Antonio

Horrible Restaurant LA FONDA ALAMO HEIGHTS location. Today I walked in for lunch and it took 3 minutes for someone to greet me at the front counter. She was your typical generation Z totally distracted enept young person. I looked around and saw a total of 5 people in the restaurant at lunch time and asked her if they were getting ready to close after lunch thinking that maybe they closed for a few hours before the dinner service began. She said no we don't close until 8 or 9 or 10:00 at night and I said which time is it and she replied if we're slow we close early and I said how do people know if you don't keep regular hours? Her unintelligent answer was.... we just change times when we close if we're not busy. She indecisively didn't know where to seat me so I said how about this table. I sat down and realized I was right by a blaring speaker with some funky music that was being played and I didn't want to have to listen to that so I moved over a few feet to another table further from the speaker, still in plain sight and next to the other 5 people in the restaurant. I sat at that table for 11 minutes and was never brought silverware, a napkin, water or chips in salsa, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING was brought to me and I wasn't acknowledged at all. I saw at least 4 waitstaff and none of them asked if I had been helped or made any effort to acknowledge me. One woman had this horrible painted mask on. The mask covered 2/3's of her face and then had a scarf that hung from it with with a skeleton face painted on it. I finally stood up and said "I'm leaving because nobody has even acknowledged me in 15 minutes!" What an unprofessional and discourteous bunch of idiots. I called the La Fonda on main to talk to an owner or manager and they informed me they have nothing to do with the Alamo Heights location and that they're owned by someone else in Alamo Heights. This kind of treatment towards customers or lack thereof, explains why there's no people in the restaurant on a Friday at lunchtime. GET IT TOGETHER ALAMO HEIGHTS LA FONDA. FIRE THOSE RUDE, EMPLOYEES U HAVE ON...

Service 4.5/5: Great service. Only docked a half a point because it took a few mins for my drink order to be taken, but after that stellar service coupled with great recommendations for the food.

Food 5/5: Great food.

Price 5/5: I can't find better food for the price in my opinion. Extremely reasonable for the quality.

Chips and Salsa 3/5: This was the only weak spit spot for me. The chips were average. Not great, but not bad. Salsa was more watery and more like pico de gallo than what I would consider salsa. I tend to prefer more spice and thicker salsa to coat the chips.

Roasted Salsa 5/5: I think you have to ask for it, but deep flavor and it hardly gets better imo. Could be a little spicier, but that's just me.

Queso 5/5: this queso is extremely good. I would put this on almost anything. Great consistency and flavor.

Chili Con Carne: 3.5/5: Pretty good, but I'm not the biggest fan or gravy/chili con carne so I might be a little harsh on ratings here. Mixed with the queso it was better.

Burrito 4.5/5: Quality ingredients, I got the chili con carne and queso on the side to see which was better. I ended up putting half on one side and half on the other. Quite tasty and glad they put the lettuce on the side. I prefer not to have lettuce in the burrito. The only thing that kept me from a 5 was that it wasn't the best burrito I've had, but def top 10.

Ground Beef 4/5: Flavorful and seasoned, but not over-seasoned. Appreciated that is wasn't watery or greasy either. Properly cooked and drained so it didn't make the burrito soggy.

Shredded Chicken 4/5: Flavorful and definitely could tell it was slow cooked.

Cilantro-Lime Rice 3.5/5: Rice was missing that zing of lime that would take it to the next level. Decent texture, not mushy but a little harder than I prefer

Beans 3.5/5: No flaws but also no wow factor. Slightly better than average.

Mirasol Especial (Grilled chicken with queso on top) 5/5: Grilled chicken is tender and juicy and the queso is fantastic. Great...

I haven't been to La Fonda since the 1990s when it was located on Broadway years ago. I used to love it but tonight was a big miss. We came in around 730 on a Wednesday night, and it was very slow. We were greeted and seated quickly and politely, and the server came a bit late but in a reasonable amount of time. Taking the order was a little off, though. Nothing was written down, and the food didn't come out correctly. I ordered cheese enchiladas, chile con carne with rice and beans, but ended up with cheese enchiladas with no chile con carne but with carne guisada and rice. I ordered my son two crispy tacos with rice and beans, and he was brought two crispy beef tacos, no rice and beans, but a large side of ranchero sauce. Someone in my party dropped their fork, so I flagged down an employee who promptly brought us a dirty fork! The food was bland, to say the least, and I was so disappointed. The restaurant was really lit up, and it brought out some wear and tear that wouldn't be noticed if the lighting were a little more ambient. The restroom smelled like dinosaurs had been urinating in it since the beginning of time, and no one had ever cleaned it, but at least there was soap and hand towels. After I'd paid the check, we were enjoying each other's company only to be interrupted by the server who wanted the signed credit card copy so they could leave. The server mentioned they'd been there since 10 am and wanted to leave. I still tipped well because that's what I do as a matter of respect, but I assure you that the server did not deserve it. I don't think that the next time I get back home that I'll be visiting La Fonda anymore. The experience was just too poor to make...