Fonda

Great food, excellent service (except that guy who took my phone reservation), cozy atmosphere.
This place is genuine, their ingredients are fresh and make virtually everything from scratch.
We ordered:
Fish taco
Duck taco
Fried plantains
Lamp chop
All were phenomenal ，with the exception of plantains (too hard).
On top of fresh ingredients, the chefs are easy with salt and sugar! Which is plus plus for senior or anyone who is watching their intake.
The service here is outstanding. I had a great night dinning here with my love one.

We showed up at 6 on a Friday. Within a minute, the waitress asked for us to order drinks. I wasn’t ready. Little did I know that I wouldn’t see my drink until halfway through the meal. Tapas arrive fast but shouldn’t I have my drink before the food? I ordered a la Barra cocktail. When I ordered a second one, it came in a much larger glass and tasted completely different… so spicy I couldn’t finish it. Also, no one told us it was happy hour until 630 so I guess we missed out on that.
The food was very good. The service was slow and disconnected and the pace of service between the bar and kitchen was way off. I was thirsty the whole meal. It was a $ 100 dinner for two and we were in and out in about 30 minutes. Not my idea of value. During my whole waiting for drinks episode, the owner kept visiting the table next to us to see if they were enjoying everything. We were never asked.
4 stars for food. Two stars for service.

my boyfriend and I love coming here. The food, drinks and the atmosphere are great! It is not the cheapest place but we have never been disappointed by them :)

Again we dined at Fonda’s, this time with meat eaters. We got there during Happy Hour and started with their signature margarita, the Fonda. We had many delicious tapas including the mushroom tacos and ceviche. Servers were excellent as well. We love this restaurant!

Fonda is a Spanish tapas restaurant with an extensive bar.
Food:
Duck tacos — generous helping of duck topped with guacamole and pomegranate seeds. It was quite the interesting combination but it was delicious! Probably the best dish at this place.
Beef/​pork tacos — these were decent and prepared traditionally. Good, but there are better options on the street that are cheaper.
Flautas — these were surprisingly on the sweeter side than I expected. Don’t get me wrong, they were suppose to savory chicken flautas, but the sauce made it sweet?
Service:
The service was good. They always seemed rushed, but it was the holiday season so I totally understand. The drinks however took FOREVER! We were finished with our entrees when they drinks came.
Overall:
I would recommend this place with some reservations.

I must say, this place… the oysters were great, the ceviche was amazing, even the chips they serve with guac was delish! They have second-​level dining or first and it has an industrial décor to it. The ambiance is pretty relaxing and charming. They play sports on the TVs in the bar. The place has huge open windows. They even have tables with plump cozy chairs.
They serve great food, portions are a good amount, the pricing is fair, and it’s mostly Mexican/​Spanish style food. The portions are also tapas style, but they still give a great amount. OH! I can’t forget the $ 1 oyster happy hour they offer! The time is very limited for that, but $ 1 oysters is awesome!

Ugh. I really, really want to like this place. Fonda is like that boyfriend that seems so fantastic at first — good looking and fun, knows what you want to hear, until you realize how much he lies to you — but even then you still really want it to work. Have tried this place so many times now, and every time it’s been disappointing. Staff are very nice, but they’re always a bit more preoccupied with their own conversations, and every time we’ve been there, we’re left with empty drinks for a long time before it was noticed. Have had the happy hour food, that was good, but when service is a bit off the mark every time, we don’t go back anymore. Sorry we’re breaking up Fonda — I gave you so many chances, but I gotta move on with my life now.

Simply amazing, food A+, Drinks A+, Atmosphere A+, Guacamole and black bean dip A+++, Cant wait to return!

Fonda has an eclectic menu of Mexican and Spanish tapas. The best thing to note is that they have a daily happy hour until 6:30 where a limited number of appetizers are $ 5. I’ve had a bunch of different menu items and while nothing in particular stood out, everything is solid. From the kale salad to the mushroom quesadillas to the tacos, everything is tasty.
There’s quite a bit of competition for good for on Solano, but Fonda has a better atmosphere than most. It’s generally pretty easy to get a table, but the place is always lively.

Almost like everything here!
Ambience is relaxing and nice for friends to catch up.
They serve Mexican/​Spanish type of small dishes (aka tapas). The portion is about the right amount, and the flavor is great! Really like their duck taco, which is not very common in other Mexican restaurants. And we also tried two vegan dishes, Squash enchiladas and Patatas Bravas. They are so new to me, but I enjoyed the flavor immediately. Both are vegetables with rich gravy, but not too much:)
They have a full bar, and are known for Margarita. Although I’m not a huge fan of their version…
Last but not least, their key lime pie is so soft and at the right balance of sweet and sour! Like it so much that I would prefer this to their chocolate cake.
Will definitely visit again!

Place is somewhat hard to find, they should have a bigger or darker sign. And clean.
Nice ambiance and very nice server. A little on slow side but very helpful.
The food are flavorful, tapas, and nice bar!!!
Must try the duck tacos.

bad place. Too expensive. Food not good. Bad seating upstairs. Too close downstairs. Charge too much for the food
Avoid at all costs

Nice Solano Ave in Albany location. Liked the casual vibe and interior look. Parking was a little bit difficult. We went on a Sunday with a group of 8 and sat upstairs. The larger group was good because we got to try more things to share.
We loved their take on gourmet Mexican food, and the menu had a lot of good choices. We had the beet salad with orange segments and goat cheese (good); guacamole chips and salsa (okay); fish and duck tacos (very good); taco platter with carne asada and el pastor (good); grilled calamari (good); seared scallops (very good); grilled steak with manchego rings and mojo Colorado (very good); and warm chocolate cake dessert (good).
Everything was well-​prepared and ingredients seemed fresh. Fairly gluten-​free friendly. There’s a happy hour until 630PM and after 9PM with some bargain items. They have a solid wine, beer and cocktail menu. Service was friendly and helpful. Will come back one day to try more menu items.

My gal pals and I wanted to be fond’a this place, but it just wasn’t working for us — mainly due to the service. I made a reservation two days in advance so we had no problem being seated. From the get go however, it felt like we were being brushed off by the wait staff. One in particular seemed to have only an eye roll and a half’s worth of patience for us.
We started with drinks — two Fondas (margarita w/​hibiscus and no salt) and a Little Gypsy (rum, grapefruit, plus some other indeterminable things). We were instead brought three Fondas — an easy mistake to make, but even after my Fonda was taken away and replaced, we were charged for the untouched one. Alright, fine, it’s busy. Turns out I would’ve liked the Fonda better, even though it was a little too sweet, and tasted more like grapefruit than the Gypsy. I’m not too picky though, especially in an environment as snazzy as Fonda, where I can people watch fedora-​wearing professors.
We ordered several happy hour plates and entrees. Our waitress began snatching away our menus and I had to scramble to save one before she took them, because this was a long talk session that called for phases of food! In the first phase, we ordered Chicken Wings along with some other orders. Yet it was only after the waitress came over to ask if we wanted anything else (after finishing the first round) and I asked about said wings that she told me they had run out. Isn’t that something you should tell the customer when she’s ordering before holding them in tortuous suspense for nonexistent chicken wings? Another in my group asked for Tamales, but alas they ran out of those too. What kind of Spanish cocina runs out of tamales?
Of the dishes we did get, none were particularly spectacular. The tortilla chips were thick and crispy with a good, toasty crunch, but the mahimahi in the fish tacos were breaded and cooked beyond any seafood sensation and the taquitos were bland. Even dessert, which could have salvaged the meal, seemed neglected as we were. The two Warm Chocolate Cakes were overdone, so while the flavor was great, the dryness caused us to finish the cream before the cake.
It seemed like our waitress switched tactics in the middle and went from trying to shoo us out as fast as possible to taking her sweet, sweeeeet time to venture near our table. It took 10 minutes to get our check, another 10 to correct for the drink mistake, and 5 to return the card. Her saving grace was taking a picture for our group at the end, and the good manners of the other waiters who tended to us.

Fonda, ohhh Fonda. this place makes me a happy gal. tons of seductive, Spanish tapas style plates, delicious cocktails and fun atmosphere.
I managed a reservation on V-​Day for my honey and I and since he is a Valentine’s Day baby, born on ²⁄₁₄ this was an extra special night. We got there a little late but were shortly escorted to a table up top, allll the way in the corner. which was nice n cozy but kind of easy to forget. The waitress did attempt to keep up as best she could.
Overall, the food was wonderful! Tons of flavor put into every dish we had. They did not miss a beat even though it was V-​Day they were on top of their game in the kitchen!
I did not have a bad bite all night… to top it off, I found my new fave cocktail, La Pasion (leaving the burning mandarin from Uncle Chung’s Szechwan at a close number 2). in any case, my new fave has spice, tartness and passion fruit kick to get the senses going.
We went in deep.4 oysters, with mignonette. grilled squid with unidentifiable grain «sikil pak» but delicious nonetheless, Rock Cod ceviche buttery, coconutty and limey, grilled skirt steak with amazing red sauce, and for the finale… drumroll… the warm choco cake… sinful, warm, oozy dark choco deliciousness. need I say more?

I haven’t been here in maybe 7 – 8 years, until last Saturday.
Thank goodness for reservations. They gave us a very small table for 4 people & it was a little wobbly. We coukdn’t move, because it was packed. I really wanted to sit upstairs, but was told a party was reserved up there.
At least, my waitress was really, really nice. She made sure to remind us that it was Happy Hour & to order before it closed. Also, she helped with recommending what food & drinks were good on the menu.
Despite the small table and space, me, my friends & boyfriend had a good time. Good food. The guacamole & chips with salsa was good. Also, my 3 cute little tostadas.
This place can be romantic too. Well, if you’re sitting upstairs, because it’s a little more dimmed lighting up there.
I believe they have a full bar, at least it looked like that. Drinks on the happy hour menu were good. $ 2 – 4 off.
I would come back again in the future.

So this was a GREAT find, had a great time, dinner, drinks, tapas with friends.
They have a great drink variety, and great drink prices (happy hour 5 – 6 and again 9-​close (drinks and great food specials).
The oysters were $ 1 each, great, delicous duck tacos (fresh and meaty), fish tacos good, dessert very tasty, sliders were to die for!
And so close to home

I should have known I was in for trouble when my dining companion quite seriously said to our lovely waitress that he wanted one of everything in the seafood section, and the lamb… and she looked slightly taken aback.
The cucumber & jicama salad was wonderful, and did a lovely job of freshening my mouth between sampling everything else. First out were the shrimp, which were tasty and followed by tuna tartare (I abstained, ’cause cilantro). Then, we enjoyed a pair of crab «beignets» (which are not at all beignet-​like, and instead more like a soft and juicy and delicious hushpuppy), and then the halibut, which was also quite good, if a little bit dry. The lamb was next but again, cilantro, and finally, the amazing scallops and the calamari, which was INCREDIBLE.
Everything was great, the service was excellent, the restaurant was lively without being deafening and I will absolutely be back here again. I think I am still stuffed from my late dinner here last night.

Still a nice little spot. The lovely Sequoia makes it a pleasant evening at the bar.

I was so excited to come here after seeing four stars on Unilocal!I don’t know if this restaurant is either overated or inconsistent at what they are doing. My first experience here was unfortunately unplesant.
LOCATION ⁵⁄₅: The restaurant locates on the strip of Solano Ave, which has so many types of restaurants. If you change your minds, there are plenty options nearby for you to choose.
SERVICE ²⁄₅: We did not have to wait to be seated. The front lady was so quick, friendly and full with energy. Their menu is tight, so we immediately knew what we wanted. Fifteen minutes later, there were many waitors walking by, but none of them stopped by at our table. My boyfriend reached out to many waitors, but they responded, «I don’t know how to order, I will find your waitor for you.» Ten minutes later, the «actual» waitor came with our water. He later never asked if we wanted desserts, and gave us the bill right after we finished our main courses. He was even quicker to get our cards… Overall, the food took awhile, which was not much a problem.
FOOD ³⁄₅: We ordered an appetizer (guacamole, salsas and chips). I had three tacos (duck, beef and pork). My boyfriend ordered lamb racks. The tacos were okay, but not outstanding. The lamb racks were much better. The flavors were interesting, so I highly recommended to try out the lamb. In general, the price is relatively high for what you get.
In sum, my first experience was not great sinc the service was so poor. I will definitely come back for more interesting Mexican flavors!