Let La Fuente’s authentic cuisine and margaritas take you south of the border
Story and photos by STEVE SEAMANDEL
Chi Chi’s is fun and all, but it certainly doesn’t compare to an authentic Mexican restaurant. La Fuente, located just off National on S. 5th Street provides a South-of-the-Border taste and a festive atmosphere for casual dining, along with those signature chips and salsa that you can’t find at the grocery store.
I actually ended up at La Fuente on a fluke; I had planned to eat at another restaurant, but my hungry roommate sent me a lunchtime e-mail declaring the night to be a Mexican fiesta. We dined in the expansive outdoor patio section, which doesn’t even begin to eclipse how large the interior to La Fuente is. With a bar on the inside and another in the back of the outdoor patio, in addition to two stories of indoor seating, there’s plenty of room to enjoy your cervezas and margaritas inside or out. Dining on the outdoor patio, especially during nice weather, is a great way to take in La Fuente. With a huge ceramic fountain in the middle and smaller fountains lining the perimeter of the outdoor courtyard mixed with tons of plants, the restaurant definitely provides a relaxing dinnertime ambience.
Our service wasn’t the best, in all honesty, although I think we just caught a rough draw on this night as the surrounding tables seemed to exhibit nothing but smiles. Our quiet waiter skimped us on the bottomless chips and salsa and also brought out a shrimp chimichanga to my companion instead of the vegetarian chimichanga that she ordered. Close but no dice. All of the food and drinks (minus the chips and salsa refills) came up exceptionally fast though, even if it wasn’t exactly what we’d ordered.
I fared a tad better I think, as I had no qualms with my serving of chicken chimichangas. Each dinner came with the traditional rice and refried beans sides, which, along with my main course, was enough to send me home and not think about eating until tomorrow. My dinner entrée cost $9.50, which I found to be a tad expensive in comparison to other Mexican places I’ve been to, although the beautifully decorated atmosphere made me feel a little better about paying an extra couple of bucks for my food.
Luckily, we were able to make light of my roommate’s ordering woes because of the margaritas we had sipped down during the meal. La Fuente’s flavors include raspberry, peach, melon, orange dream and strawberry. I was feeling a little festive - after all, it was a self-proclaimed fiesta night – so I opted for peach, while my roommate sprung for orange, a move that I was certain she had decided on while at work sometime around 2:30. We were all smiles at drink’s end, so I’ve obviously got nothing negative to say about the authentic margaritas. At $5.50 a pop, I was even considering ordering another, although I knew I had some writing to get done later. Pitchers for the regular margaritas are $20 while a pitcher of the flavored margaritas is an extra $2. It was a smart choice not to split a pitcher between two of us; a pitcher split among three might even halt any serious after-dinner plans.
Minus the dinner mix-up and our bad luck with sub par service, La Fuente was an enjoyable experience. Good drinks, excellent atmosphere, and tons of room with a great outdoor patio and lots of people enjoying the authentic Mexican grub.
