Tuesdays with TT: La Fonda Del Sol

CT’s Dad has been traveling all over the world the past couple months for work.  On a recent Thursday night, CT & I were invited to dinner in order to catch up since we hadn’t seen him in a long time.  We decided on La Fonda Del Sol in the Met Life Building next to Grand Central Station.  My Dad was here for lunch a couple months back and raved about it.   I recently read the book, Appetite City by William Grimes, about the culinary history of New York.  It was very interesting and it turns out La Fonda Del Sol was a pretty famous restaurant in the 1960s.  The current restaurant is a revival/inspiration of the long closed restaurant.  Since we weren’t meeting CT’s Dad until later on in the evening, we decided to sit in the lounge and get tapas instead of a full-on dinner in the dining room.  CT and I love our tapas so we were really looking forward to this.

In no particular order, here are the dishes we shared.

Grilled Calamari with Peppers.  I love my calamari, so this didn’t disappoint, but also didn’t wow me.

CT says:  This was a nice, light, start to the meal and a nice change from the usual fried calamari.  However, nothing very notable.

Salt Cod Croquetas with Romesco Sauce.  A standard tapa.  Nicely fried and the sauce gave the dish a good zip.

CT says:  These were good, but not very memorable either.  I agree that sauce was nice, but I’m not sure I would order them again.

Empanadas with chicken and chorizo.   I believe it was an olive tapanade on the spoon.  These were good, not greasy at all.

Check out the innards.  MMM!

CT says:  Sometime with empandas (or any stuffed-dish), I find myself wanting more filling.  However, these were stuffed with goodness!

A selection of cheeses. Idiazabal, Valdeon Blue, Caña de Cabra, Manchego.  I can only tell you that the Valdeon was the one on the center.  They were all nice, although the one on the top right was a little too soft for my palette.  There was also some honey and marmalade on the plate to spread on the cheese.

CT says:  Yummm cheese!  What’s not to like?!

Marinated Watermelon & Avocado Salad.  This was a great salad.   Super fresh with red and yellow watermelon.  A great summer dish!

CT says: This was one of my favorites – very well-balanced and refreshing!  I could have had this as a dessert-tapa.

Potted Duckling and Pork in olorose sherry wine.  This was quite tasty. I don’t really like pates too much especially the chopped chicken liver we got here, but this was quite nice.  Although it was a small jar, we couldn’t finish since it was super rich.

CT says: This was my favorite! Maybe TT couldn’t have finished it, but I certainly could have… only the strange looks and concern for my health stopped me.  It was light and creamy and delicious!

Check out that fatty, gelatinous, goodness!

We order the “Albondiguillas” Meat Ball Skewers on the 2nd round since CT forgot that her Dad wasn’t a fan of the Potted Duckling and Pork, or any pate. I am glad we got these.  They were really good.  I ended up sopping up the sauce on some of the bread we had, it was that good.

CT says:  These were some of the better meatballs I’ve had.  Super juicy!

CT’s Dad insisted on us ordering dessert.  He really had to twist our arms, but we finally relented.

He loves flan, so one of the dishes we got was Flan Tradicional de Chocolate with Kumquat Confitado, Saffron, Marcona Almonds.  This ended up being more of a chocolate panna cotta than a flan.  Since he expected flan, he was a little disappointed.

CT says: Definitely not a flan, but it was a nice, light, chocolate dessert.

We also got the Bunyols/Cinnamon Fritters with Salty Caramel, Maracuya, Peppercorn Rose, Orange Chocolate.  Yup, that does say Salty Caramel!  These little donuts were nice and made even better by the dipping sauces.  The caramel was had a good amount of salt in it so it was one of the better preparations I had.  It worked really well against the sugar and cinnamon from the donut.  The Maracuya aka passion fruit sauce was also very good.  It had a good sour/sweet balance.  I think we barely touched the chocolate sauce since the other two sauces were so good.  A must have dessert!

CT says: I would go back just for this! The fritters were really tasty on their own – crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside.  And I’m a big fan a maracuya – I’ve rarely seen on menus in the city, if ever, so I was very excited to have this and it lived up to all my expectations! So good!

All in all, it was a great meal that gave us a good time to catch up with CT’s Dad.  Prices were reasonable, which was unexpected for that part of town.   We were there later on in the evening, so it wasn’t too crowded, but I am sure it was pretty busy after work.  Thanks again to CT’s Dad for a delicious treat.