La Fonda de San Mateo — Restaurant in San Mateo

I have some friends who are very loyal fans of this restaurant. Me personally, after trying the first time I was not impressed. I want to say that the staff were fantastic, the servers were super attentive and friendly, honestly superb service! And the atmosphere is excellent as well, both inside and out it is a beautiful restaurant. But after my friends hyped up the restaurant, I felt a bit let down with the food. Everything was fine, but I just felt for the price point I expected to be wowed. I wanted a cheaper option, but there really is no value option here. They charge an additional $6 for an appetizer if you order it as an entreé, so basically everything is in the $18-30 range. Most entreés around $24 I think. The portion sizes were good, but that being said I am still used to much lower prices for Mexican food. If you want to go to a Mexican restaurant that is a nicer sit down experience with good atmosphere and service for a special occasion this spot does make sense. In this economy in such an expensive area to live I suppose the prices are fair. But me personally, I really care more about the value so I would stick to...

I was a bit afraid of visiting this place because of an unusual combination of reviews saying "the best food ever" and "very bad". The reality appeared to be just in the middle of these polarized opinions. I ordered some basic quesadilla, 9oz of beer and some guacamole, and my friends ordered a prawn quesadilla (or something like that).

The food was hot enough and good enough. I definitely did not notice anything really bad such as frozen meal or rude waiters. The waiters were kind, everything met my expectations.

The restaurant was almost full just 30 minutes after they were opened at 5pm on Sunday, thus it's popular, and I think it wasn't if the food was too bad.

Please notice that the parking lot is behind the restaurant, it is not obvious, and there is a little space to park in front of the restaurant or on the streets around it.

Overall impression is "OK". It is definitely not very exciting place, and the food is very simple, but it is suitable for an informal lunch or dinner...

We have been there 3 times. The first time we changed our mind and decided we did not want to sit outdoors. We were told by the owner too bad, now you have to wait, and we waited about 30 minutes to get waited on. There were 3 other customers only. When he came to the table and we asked questions about the menu, he said, "Do you want to eat here or not?" The 3rd time we went in, we ordered and was surprised that there was only 4 small pieces of beef in the fajita burrito and teaspoon of chicken and shredded beef on the toastada and taco. When my husband asked, when they asked us how the meal was, the comment was meat was expensive and we could go across the street if we wanted more beef. We would have paid for extra meat had we known. The Fajita Combo was good, which is what we had the first two times we were there. Those kind of comments to customers are unacceptable, and this is the first time I have written a negative review. We...