Chicago (Mexican) - Fonda del Mar

Fonda del Mar
3749 W. Fullerton Avenue, Chicago, Illinois; Phone 773-868-1857
Date of Review: May, 2008

This quaint Mexican fish house restaurant offers excellent Mexican seafood dishes in a colorful atmosphere. Nestled on Fullerton Ave. past Central Park deep in the heart of Logan Square, many people would never venture into this particular area of Chicago if it weren’t for this restaurant. This unassuming restaurant would be easy to pass by.

The restaurant has great pictures of Puerto Escondido, a Mexican surfing town, and has colorful paintings and décor that make you feel like you are eating at a restaurant on the coast in Mexico. The use of brick and bright colors throughout the restaurant and the exquisite attention to detail make dining in this small (15-20 tables) restaurant an intimate and invigorating experience.

Fonda del Mar’s menu is just large enough to provide enough options but not too large to overwhelm. While they offer roasted chicken and lamb chops with authentic mole in addition to pork and steak dishes, fish and shellfish dominate the menu.

For appetizers, we tried the chips and salsa (not complimentary – 2$ per order), mango salad and fresh masa sweet corn tamales. The chips were firm, crispy and had a rich corn flavor. They were served with a mild green tomatillo salsa and a red salsa that had a kick to it. The salad was unimpressive as this bare bones mixture had only some mango with lettuce and a bit of cheese. The guava dressing did not have a lot of flavor. The sweet corn tamales were an order of 2 good size tamales drizzled with a poblano cream sauce and chihuahua cheese. The sweet corn was music to my taste buds and the sauce gave a nice contrast to the flavor of the sweet corn.

For entrees, three of us went for fish dishes and my father opted for the pork. The whole tilapia I ordered was mind bogglingly large and full of garlic flavor. It must have been a 1.5 to 2 lb fish and it was marinated in garlic and roasted with garlic, avocado, black beans, tomato, green onion and cilantro. I usually don’t have a tough time finishing a fish entrée but this fish was so large that I didn’t even look at the side of rice it was served with and found myself forcing my dining guests to help me try and finish this wonderfully flavored fish. The flavorful and filling arroz a la tumbada had an assortment of shellfish and white rice served in a casserole dish in a tomato sauce prepared using a traditional molcajete (mortar and pestle). The cochinita pibil is braised pork in achiote, sour orange and assorted spices. This dish had a unique flavor and was served with black beans and a very spicy habanero sauce that I would advise one to be careful with. The salmon en chileatole was the last dish we had and it was outstanding like all the others. This complex dish featured marinated roasted salmon filet served in a tomatillo-serrano infused broth with sweet corn, sliced poblanos and epazote (a herb native to Central America, South American and Southern Mexico that has a distinct flavor and is even used for medicinal purposes).

We had 2 bottles of Portuguese Vinho Verde wine (young white wine with a bit of fizz to it) that I was pleasantly surprised to find on the small, but diverse wine menu that features wines from 10 different countries which span 4 continents.

Fonda del Mar is a good value for the quality of the food and the portion. All entrees (except 1) are in the $15-20 range. My tilapia was $15 and the portion was really almost enough for 2 people. The other portion sizes weren’t as large but were still good size. Our total bill with tax and tip was $158 for 2 baskets of chips, a salad, 1 appetizer, 4 entrees and 2 bottles of wine. That is pretty good value when you are dining in a gourmet restaurant.