Fonda Chelsea

Discovered Fonda for Sunday brunch when another place was over booked and I must say I’m glad we did! The host was nice and told us we could sit at bar and wait for table if we wanted, which in nyc you usually get a look «oh you didn’t call for a reservation» We sat at bar (which I always think is best for unlimited brunch boozing) and the bartender was great — drinks where so much better the the traditional unlimited cheap champagne — and the food was amazing as well! Def would go again

A little over sub par for this joint. Only item worth returning for is the guacamole. Food was good, could’ve been better. Service wasn’t the best, however, I have to give them kudos for accommodating my very fastidious friend who accompanied me to this place. She was much more critical than I am.

Pricey but you’re getting what you’re paying for. All around excellent food, excellent cocktails and excellent service. Nice décor too. Entrees are in the 20 – 30 range and appetizers in the 10 – 15 range.

Delicious carne tacos, reasonably priced, drinks are good too. Guac was a tad salty but, after mixing it up a little it became eatable. Oh! And tortillas are on point.

3.5 stars, rounding up because we had their food delivered. I’m assuming the dining experience would be better in the actual restaurant. But in in any case, I can only speak to our experience with the food itself. So, I’d say our main objections with the food here was 1) it’s freakin’ pricey (dude, $ 13 for that appetizer– come on!), and 2) it’s not so authentic (remember we’re from Cali where the average food truck beats what we get over here). But besides that, I have to say the food was actually very tasty.
The star were the taquitos– excellent, just really good… followed by the sopa de tortilla which was an interesting take and quite decent… and then the queso fundido de chorizo, carnitas, and crema de elote which were OK.
Not perfection, but I could see where the chef was coming from and I liked the ideas. Stay tuned for an update on this review after we’ve actually eaten in the restaurant.

Very good service and the food is delicious. I had tortilla soup and for entrée carnitas a la fonda. My husband had the carne asada. Super tasty and fresh. For dessert we had tres leches and chocolate tres leches. Mmm so good!

It’s always a treat when you can do a bottomless brunch option at a decent spot. The atmosphere was small and cute and the house hibiscus margarita was a little sweet but pretty tasty. The guac was on point but I thought my carne asada tacos were kinda bland and tough.

Amazing for happy hour at the bar! 8 $ apps n 6 $ wines! Can’t go wrong. Upstairs dining is pretty dull in ambiance so I would suggest sitting at the bar. Great margaritas but the sangria is why too sweet!

I’ve eaten at Fonda in East Village before and had an excellent experience, so we thought we’d give Fonda Chelsea a try. It did not live up to our expectations.
A group of us was here for the boozy brunch. First, let me say this: Fonda Chelsea and Fonda EV have basically the exact same boozy brunch menu, but the Chelsea brunch is $ 6 more expensive. What’s up with that? Not pleased with the blatant Chelsea mark-​up.
The running joke of our meal was that they make the drinks really strong so you wouldn’t notice how bad the food is. The drinks were pretty good and flowing freely during the 1.5 hours, and they were really really strong. The food leaves much to be desired. No creativity (unlike the dinner menu), and the food just wasn’t good. No flavor, no heat. I’m a big chilaquiles fan and these were a soggy tortilla chip mess. Our table tried at least half the things on the menu and no one was too impressed. Combine the strong drinks with us not devouring our food — you have a tipsy table.
Come for the drinks, do not stay for the food.

Came here for lunch and let me tell you my taste buds were not awake enough for Fonda’s spicy brunch entrées. My friend and I did the 1.5 hours bottomless brunch and an entrée for $ 34.50. I ordered the scrambled eggs dish. The eggs came in a small giddle topped with a spicy sauce. It came with small tortillas and rice.
Staff was so friendly. Fonda is a great place to bring out of town friends who want to do bottomless brunch.

Its usually hard for me to give a place 5 stars but I’ve been to this place now 3 times and they never disappoint usually go for brunch and its gets full and lively every time and in no time not to mention I down their frozen rosalita margaritas and get me happy in no time. My favorite dish is Huevos Divorciados (divorced eggs) and they are amazing. its basically salsa roja on half the plate and salsa verde on the other — get it? that’s why they are divorced. I also get their signature guacamole that’s not fully mashed, it still has chunks of avocado which I do not like but me and my girl usually just smash a bit more and boom it’s just like how I love them, even though their guac comes in chunks, it’s still good. I’ve been to this location twice for brunch and once for dinner at their L.E.S. location during restaurant week.
Next stop is Fonda Brooklyn!

Went for dinner on a Friday night and luckily had looked up the place previously so I knew the drink specials only applied to the bar (which is lame). Was told I’d be able to get a table without a reservation but would have to be out by 7:40 for a reservation — not a problem, it was 6:15 and the restaurant did a great job of not making us feel rushed.
While the food and drinks were really good, I do think the place is a ripoff considering portion size for the price. I paid over $ 26 for a shrimp and scallop dish and while the plate was huge I was given like 3 pieces of shrimp and 2 scallops. The plate was mostly sauce, no sides. They also get you by asking if you want guacamole for the table, but like a restaurant asking if you want bread, it’s not free. You pay $ 12 for really good guac but again, small portion.

I really want to give Fonda a better rating, but overall the experience was subpar.
Before getting a reservation at this Fonda location, the East Village Fonda lost my reservation. I made the reservation over a week before the brunch, returned their call when they called asking for a confirmation, and called the night to confirm on my own.
When I called the night before, they told me there was no reservation under my name. I was very thankful I thought to call because I had 8 people down for a reservation. They claimed I never called them back and that my reservation wasn’t secure.
After freaking out for a bit, I went online and called the Chelsea location. *Suggestion: go online to look for a reservation because Open Table isn’t always truthful. The Chelsea location took us right away for the exact time that I wanted. I was so happy and ready to eat the food I had heard so much about.
Food was definitely 4 stars, but the service was 2. The waitress (who knew it was my birthday) was incredibly rude and basically ignored us. We ordered bottomless brunch but she only came over once to refill our drinks. We had to ask another staff member to refill our drinks. They are also very strict on the 1.5 hour timing, so the fact that we only got 2 or 3 (depending on the person) drinks was annoying.
I would go back, but with a smaller group and definitely be sure to follow up with everything after this experience.

We loved this place.
The service was efficient and friendly. The margarita options were plentiful. The food was delicious and high quality. My only issue was that the happy hour deals are only applied if you sit AT THE BAR, not at a dining table. This is dumb.
I ordered the salad with grilled chicken and it was HUGE! Also had the fresh guacamole. You could tell it hadn’t been sitting around for days in the fridge… It was clearly made to order. The fish tacos were large and tasty as well.
Definitely recommend this place!

I dropped by with a few friends for the happy hour special on Friday. Unfortunately I didn’t realize it was only available at the bar. Luckily we got there pretty early and managed to score some seats shortly after arriving.
Since the mango margarita was only on the rocks, I decided to try the Rosalita, which is a frozen hibiscus margarita. Honestly I was disappointed with it. Dare I say It was lightly flavored slush. My friend’s white Sangria tasted a lot better, so I went with that for my second round.
All of the food options on the happy hour menu were $ 8. The portion sizes were pretty good, certainly enough to balance out the drinks.
One thing I really appreciated was that it wasn’t too loud or crowded during our stay. Despite the fact that it was a Friday night. There wasn’t loud music our rowdy 20 something’s yapping over each other. I’ll add this to the list of cool happy hour spots.

I quite enjoyed the atmosphere of this place. It was dark but not too dark, and despite the plethora of skull things and what I can only assume is dia de los muertos stuff, I like everything that was going on. The happy hour menu is solid, but it being only at the bar was a bit annoying. I enjoyed the tostadas I ordered and the white sangria was delightfully sweet!

I had a pleasant dining experience at Fonda. The restaurant is adorable and clean. The service is really good. The food is tasty.
We had:
Mango Margarita — good but they put hot pepper (or something like it) around the rim with the salt and sugar. An unexpected (unenjoyable) kick.
Guacamole — very good and with chunks of avocado
Shrimp Dish — very tasty
Sea Bass — nice flavor
Some of the food was a little too spicy for my taste but I think that had more to do with how I ordered versus how the food was prepared.

It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve been here and I still crave and think about how amazing everything was…
Fonda has 3 locations; Chelsea, East Village, and Avenue B in Brooklyn.
I went in for my dinner reservation on a Tuesday evening around 6PM and it was pretty full, which to me is a good thing because it shows that people like to eat here.
Anyway.
Appetizer: My friend and I started with their guacamole with chips, tortilla, and pasilla de Oaxaca salsa recommended by our waitress. You get to choose how spicy you want it so we got it mild. I’m not a huge avocado or guac fan, but oh my goodness this was amazing! It was pretty chunky because the avocado wasn’t all smushed, but I think they purposely do that and I was okay with it. Even though it’s just guac and chips, this was my favorite from my night!
Drinks: we got the spicy pineapple margarita. On the menu, it sounded interesting, but spicy and pineapple definitely do not go well together. A table near me ordered this slushie watermelon margarita and it looked pretty and refreshing, so I wish I had ordered that instead.
Entrée: their dishes made my stomach very full and very happy! I got Callos y Camarones which is seared scallop and jumbo shrimp with creamy roasted tomato sauce topped with other delicious stuff. My friend got Carne Asada con Hongos which is grilled skirted steak with a sweet corn mushroom sauce and all that other good stuff. Both were incredible and I would definitely recommend!
Dessert: Morenitas– a chocolate brownie with cajeta sauce and ice cream and whipped cream. So soft and chocolate and warm omg. Tres Leches– citrus three milk soaked sponge cake with chantilly cream and berries. Very interesting flavor with amazing sponge cake. Budin de Banana– warm brioche and banana bread pudding with guava and cajeta sauce. I was too full to really enjoy this, but the banana bread pudding was pretty on point. My favorite was the Tres Leches, but my friend’s was Morenitas.
Service– our waitress was nice and welcoming and had great recommendations on what we can order and the manager was definitely friendly with positive energy.

I’ve been wanting to try this restaurant for like FOREVER. It was my friend’s birthday and being the selfish, horrible person that I am I used this as an excuse. I called like a couple days before and the woman working the phone was super sweet and nice. Her mother had my last name… twinsies!
It was 90 degrees outside and I had just walked about 13 blocks before getting there. The place was a sauna! Not to mention super packed… I think we got the last table, all the way in the back of the 2^nd floor. It was cute and cramped. But would it kill them to just turn on the air conditioning? Anyways…
We had the guacamole which was OK. I’ve had better at other sub par mexican restaurants in the city. It was just a bit too chunky and a bit bland. I did like the little tortillas that came with it though.
For my appetizer I had the black bean thing with shrimps. Everyone else had fish and beef tacos. People were just complaining about the super hot orange sauce that was on everything. One of my friends was also upset her fish appetizer only came with one taco. One taco… really? Again it was all OK. Nothing really wowing me. What really disappointed me was my shrimp with green rice entrée. Bland and lackluster. Will say that the wait staff was pretty attentive… water was being refilled promptly. Maybe because we all looked sweaty? Who knows.

I love Fonda, but this location doesn’t compare to the East Village location. The East Village location has a cooler, clubbier vibe. The first floor of the Chelsea Fonda is kind of cramped. We were seated on the second floor next to the window. We were the only party on the second floor, so the dining experience became awkward at times.
Now onto the good stuff…
I called to make a reservation, and the man who took my reservation was so friendly and courteous over the phone — 5 stars for him! Our waiter was awesome, attentive but not overbearing. I ordered their guacamole, spicy. Their guac is still my favorite guac, but I think I’ll stick to the mild next time. The chicken tacos and the chicken enchiladas were delicious. The tacos were so flavorful and filling, and the sauce for the enchiladas was super unique and creamy.
Make sure to check out their frozen margaritas — definitely strong and yummy!
Still a big fan of Fonda… but I think I’ll stick to their East Village location.