La Fondita II

Service is atrocious. There’s a woman that works there that is beyond rude and throws dirty dishes in the wash bucket. Do yourself a favor and don’t bother with the drama.

I consistently enjoy this place. It’s family-​owned too, which is nice. Warm chips and fresh salsa arrive quickly at the table. Taco salad is yummy and enormous, enchiladas are solid (although I agree with another reviewer that the shredded beef is overly salty — especially as compared to the shredded chicken), mole is the real deal. Service is very friendly and kitchen waits are hit or miss depending on how busy the restaurant is.
All in all, a clean, enjoyable atmosphere, chips and salsa on the house, and really good food.

The place wasn’t bad, the food is decent but it wasn’t anything to be excited about. The place is nice and small, can get a bit crowded on the weekends. The only problem I have is the pricing, it’s pretty pricey for and okay meal, they also raised the priced so I just stop going because it was too costly to go there.

I’m writing this review in hopes that mgt makes some positive changes in staffing & customer service. My first visit I received horrible service. I gave it a 2^nd chance months later & the experience was worse than the first. We had a table of 4. 2 adults & 2 kids. We waited an hour and a half for our food, meanwhile tables that came in after us got their food, ate & paid before our food arrived. We’d order a drink and it would take 45 minutes to get to the table. Then when the food did arrive, one of orders was wrong. We asked for a manager & she later on comped our meal, which we appreciated. We then waited another 30 min for them to correct the food order & then when it arrived it was incorrect again. The server seemed confused & not very knowledgable of the menu. It’s a shame because this place could have so much potential with its great location & cute atmosphere but I will never go there again.

What a cute little restaurant! I could smell the food from the road! For such an adorable good smelling place, I was disappointed when we waited and waited for our order to be took. It wasn’t busy, so what is going on? It is a very small place with two waitresses working. Once the order was taken, I gained some hope. But then we waited, and waited, and waited some more for our food. Why am I waiting on them? They are the waitresses. Even our appetizer didn’t make it out before the entrées. Here comes our food. Well, some of our food. I understand kitchen problems can’t be blamed on waitstaff, but what happened was the waitresses fault. My food had the wrong sauce, instead of asking if I wanted to change it, she sent it back and I watched my family eat as they prepared my food again. My family is done eating, my food still isn’t here. I asked them to please box it. Even when it came to picking up the check, instead of taking it while she walked to the back, she disappeared, came back and started taking someone else’s order as we waited for her to take our check. While the waitresses were polite, their service sucks. Maybe multi tasking and checking off tasks based on importance are not their forté, but when a hungry customer comes in, that’s what you are being paid for.

I used to love this place! It had the best Mexican food in Tacoma!
After the past 4 visits the portion size has become very minimal and
The prices has sky rocketed!
My biggest complaint is the slow service. After going there for lunch with a friend, there were only 3 others tables. We waited an hour and a half to get our lunch. Are you kidding me? Thank God we both had the day off from work! Not a lunch time place to go if you only have an hour!
My husband and I decided to sit in the bar hoping for faster service, one hour later and 2 margaritas each we still didn’t get our food!
I miss the good old days of La Fondita! I hope they can make some improvements to the service and the portion sizes and prices!

My family of 4 ate at La Fondita last night. We had not eaten there in a couple of years, and I sadly must say that both the food quality and service have substantially declined. We made reservations and were seated promptly. However, once we ordered it took more than 45 minutes for our food to come out. We also had to ask 3 times for silverware. I had ordered a chimichanga with shredded beef. However, they made it with ground beef. I complained, and they offered to make another one, which I allowed, and it came out in 5 minutes. (I don’t understand why our orders took so long to come out if they could make this item in 5 minutes). The chimichanga was very small. And the shredded beef was so extremely salty that it was inedible. Additionally, my daughter said that the cerdo carnitas were very bland and had no flavor. There was very little meat in her dish. To try and be somewhat positive, I thought the rice and black beans were fine once I added the small amount of sour cream and guacamole that was on the chimichanga to them. I will not be going back anytime soon.

Food mediocre! Restaurant was empty and service was horrible! The restaurant was so cold! Outside 33 degrees inside 61 degrees! Would not recommend

Wow what a fancy place, come eat frozen food dishes and go home still hungry thanks for nothing.

First of all I am not a big fan of Mexican food, I think it all tastes the same. But here I have been very happy with the quality and flavor of the food. Also, I have been in here a few times and never had any complaints.
Today we stopped in for lunch and again was met by a very nice waitress and immediately seated and served. Drinks came out very quick, I had to work so just had water, but the wife was off and had wine. Food took a little longer than thought, but everything is made in house, so enjoy the chips and salsa because they are both incredible.
Once lunch arrived it was very good. I had the pork burrito which I thought had a lot of taste, but we did add some hot sauce.
Overall a great place. I see a few reviews complain about this place being quiet, but I actually enjoy being able to carry a conversation and not have to worry about music or noise. Besides this place is located in Proctor and the Proctor just seems to have a nice relaxed vibe.
Anyhow stop on in and enjoy!!!

I had high hopes for this place but I was pretty disappointed. The food is overpriced and while it’s not terrible, it definitely didn’t impress. The salsa may have been the biggest disappointment.

My husband and I tried this place for the first time and were disappointed by our experience.
First of all, we tried to arrive at 5:00 so we could catch some happy hour food and drinks, however, with a baby we could sit in the bar and the happy hour prices and specials were only served in the bar. The regular menu is very pricey, expect to pay $ 15 per entrée. The atmosphere felt a little strange. There was only one other party of two while we were there and without any music or anything it was really quiet and felt weird. The service wasn’t bad and the waiter was sweet, but the waiter took a while to refill drinks and get our check.
We don’t plan on returning but it was nice to try and see what the hype was about.

We have been faithful patrons of La Fondita since it opened in Tacoma’s Proctor District a few years ago. The food was reasonably priced, and the quality was one cut above the Tex-​Mex chains in the area. A business associate and I have been meeting in the bar for the past three years for debriefing sessions, our clarity achieved through consumption of La Fondita margaritas.
Our most recent visit brought a number of disappointments. Scanning the menu was an exercise in sticker shock. Main entrees now run around 15 dollars, and the quality of the food has declined. The Happy Hour menu ($ 5.00 an entrée) includes no healthful options, and the sauces taste more generic.
We hate to do it, but we’ll be looking for a new place.

La Fondita might catch some flack for the food coming out slow, but it’s worth the wait. People should chill out and have a drink! We had the mole and chile relleno special — if I was alone at home I would have licked the plate.
When I told the bartender how good our food was she said everything was made in house from the chips to the mole sauce which takes 8 hours to make. Very friendly and accommodating service even though the place was packed.
We will definitely be back!

Most Mexican restaurants suffer from a case of «Too Much». Too much stuff on the menu. Too much cheese. Too much sauce. But not here. The menu (at least for lunch) is very small. A few combinatons, a couple of salads, a couple of specialties and a small choice of Enchiladas.
The Enchilada Ranchera is not a cheese booger, sauce soaked thingy. It’s a nice dusting of cheese and just enough sauce to give it some flavor.
It’s also a cheerful, upbeat looking place. Perfect for lunch and a margarita on a gloomy Tacoma afternoon.

OK, I have to admit I am a little bit of a Mexican/​Tex-​Mex snob. Living In New Mexico and Denver for many years I like to think I may have a true review of this «Mexican» place. I grew up on homemade pork green chile, barbacoa and chicharrones. In fact, living in Tacoma has put me in such a serious withdrawal from edible Mexican food I pretty much make all of my own Mexican food now days.
Back to the restaurant, the standard for determining the quality of a Mexican place is to order some enchiladas and of course get some green chile on your dish. This place disappointed on both fronts. First, when I ask for green chile, I don’t mean «green salsa» I almost fell over laughing-​hahahaha. Unfortunately this is the second time this has happened to me in different «Mexican» restaurants in Tacoma! So I order what should be the safest thing on the menu, some beef enchiladas. They then proceeded to cover it in canned el dorado (or some other shitty canned sauce) green enchilada sauce. It was limey, acidic and way over powering of the rest of the meal. I scraped it off and wanted to return it, but I had no time to order another meal. No self respecting Mexican cook would EVER put that crap on any dish.
CONS:
1. Food is not Mexican, it is average ingredients poorly prepared, covered in pre-​processed shit.
2. Little on the salty side (sign of immature cooking)
3. No idea what green or red chile was (WTF this is a Mexican place)
4. Cold canned sauce– that only someone with no tastebuds could slop down their throat without vomiting.
5. Shredded beef was over cooked and dry, but at least I could eat it…
Pro:
Black beans were OK, no flavor, but at least they were cooked correctly.
Conclusion:
Stay away from La Fondita, or any place that claims to be a «Mexican» restaurant in Tacoma or the surrounding areas. In fact from my experiences the Tacoma should just stop opening all Mexican places because they are so far all horrendous! It is a total waste of my money. I have not had a decent Mexican meal at a restaurant in this state in 2 years, I will never recommend this place or ever eat here again.
And don’t be confused by the other reviewers that actually rate this place as decent, either the place has changed immensely in the last 12 months, or more likely, those people are typical PNW casual diners that have never eaten traditional, homemade hispanic food.
GROSS!

This place sucks! After being almost pushed into the bar for Happy Hour, along with my 11 year old son, we were forced into ordering off the dinner menu, after having been offered Happy Hour food. The host (ess) was WAY too flamboyant; the bartender was the slowest on the planet; the salsa was WAAAYYYY too spicy; the atmosphere was too dark, chips were stale. Need I say more? Of course… Took approximately 35 minutes to get nachos and tacos. Food sucked. The manager didn’t care. She tried to give me a bill after this HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE!!!
This place should not be open for business, especially when there’s only 6 customers in the whole restaurant!!! 0 Stars for this dump!!!

I’m sorry but I have to award this restaurant with a two star review.
First, the food here is very good. This is one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in all Tacoma.
The reason I have to give it two stars is because of the inconsistent hours. On three different occasions my wife and I went here and the doors were locked up despite the sign with the hours listed saying they should be open.
I’m not talking about they close at 10pm and we showed up at 9:55 and it was closed. Two of the times was after noon and we went for lunch. The other was around 6pm on a week night. I get that sometimes you run short staffed or have an emergency but at least put a note on the door.
I recommend them if you want some good food, hopefully they will be open when you get here.

The service was good. The food… Not so much. I ordered chili relleno and it was seriously a pepper wrapped with a tortilla with cheese on top. No stuffed anything. Nothing like a chili relleno at all. It was the saddest Mexican meal I have ever had.
My fiancé ordered the pork carnitas, which was a bit more flavorful but for almost $ 17… Not enough pork or flavor or anything to justify the cost.
It’s really too bad since this place used to be great but I won’t ever eat here again. The price is not worth what we were served.
The star was for the waitress. No star for the food.

I have been to La Fondita many a time and keep coming back for more! It’s difficult to find close to authentic Mexican food in Tacoma, but this restaurant takes it to another level.
I have success coming here on weekdays between 430−5pm and on weekends. The service is always great and the bartenders are awesome.
I love the salsa they make for the usual «Chips & Salsa» you get at a Mexican restaurant. I normally order the Enchiladas Verdes… so yummy and great portions.
They make great margaritas as well.
An awesome bonus is they have a points program where you can reap the benefits of free dips for chips, appetizers, or sometimes a free entrée.