Fonda Mayfair Review: I Left Talking About the Sloth, Not the Food
My Fonda Mayfair review: Santiago Lastra's Mexican follow up to KOL has a gorgeous room and a £231 bill, but the food never made me pause.
Verdict: Olga apologised for choosing Fonda before dessert had even arrived, and she did not need to, because nothing was bad. Nothing was memorable either, apart from the margarita, the wine and a rice pudding I nearly refused.
Quick answer: Fonda in Mayfair is Santiago Lastra's follow up to KOL, a contemporary Mexican sharing plates restaurant on Heddon Street where the £65 chef's selection looked beautiful and tasted bland, so go for the room, the spicy margarita and the Rioja rather than the food.
Fonda Mayfair: Need to Know
- Location: 12 Heddon Street, Mayfair, W1B 4BZ. Get off at Piccadilly Circus and walk round the corner.
- Visited: Thursday 10 September 2026, early 6pm slot.
- Price paid: £231.15 for two, including a 15% service charge. Chef's selection is £65 per person, our bottle of Rioja was £54, the margarita was £14 and sparkling water is £1.50 a head.
- Best for: a girls' catch up where nobody wants to spend half an hour choosing.
- Book ahead or walk in: book. It was fully booked by the time we left.
- Hosted or self funded: self funded. I paid, so I get to say what I think.
- Prices correct at time of visit.
Why I booked Fonda Mayfair
Olga has a fantastic track record for picking restaurants, so when she suggested Fonda a couple of weeks ago I said yes before I had looked it up.
It is Mexican, which is not my first choice of cuisine. But it is new, trendy and not cheap, and it runs on sharing plates, which is exactly what you want when the talking matters more than the food.
We were meant to be three. One dropped out, so it was me and Olga, which suits me fine because she is one of the only friends I have who drinks red wine.
For context, Fonda is Santiago Lastra's second restaurant after KOL, and he has cooked at Mugaritz and with Noma in Mexico. So expectations were high.
Arriving at Fonda on Heddon Street
Heddon Street is the little pedestrian pocket off Regent Street, and Fonda has tables outside under a red awning. Staff were out front greeting people, which I always notice, and the front of house was excellent from the first minute.
Inside, the interiors are the best thing about the place. Pink painted brick, a glass roof over the back section, enormous leafy plants, a proper bar, woven chairs, a pink and yellow patchwork textile along the banquettes, and a huge pale pink fluffy sloth hanging upside down from the ceiling. Yes, a sloth. It is in my photos and it is brilliant.
You can tell it is brand new and that real money went into it. Chic Tulum, if you have been. My opening thought was: this is cool. I still think that.
Drinks at Fonda: the spicy margarita and the wine list problem
When in Mexico, or Mayfair, order the margarita. Our waiter Cristian (C R, not C H) asked how spicy I wanted it. Very. It came very spicy, £14, and it was the first thing all night that made me pause. Olga had a Negroni and was equally happy.
The wine list was the first small disappointment. The Chablis was around £95 and on a Thursday I am not spending £100 on a bottle, so we went red, which is Olga's preference anyway: the Izadi Larrosa Negra 2022, a Garnacha from Rioja, at £54.
Cristian poured Olga a taste. She sipped it and said nothing. Complete silence. I assumed the worst. Then she said it was great, I did not believe her, I tasted it, and it was great. She had paused because she was surprised. It went down far too easily.
If you go to Fonda, order that bottle. It was the best thing on the table, and that is a problem for a restaurant.
What to order at Fonda (and what to skip)
We had the chef's selection at £65 per person. When Olga and I get together we want to talk, not deliberate, and I get menu FOMO badly enough to stare at one for half an hour. Taking the choosing away is a gift.
The menu, in the order it arrived:
- Roasted pumpkin seed mole
- Sweetcorn esquites
- Yellowtail crudo
- Baja fish taco
- Beetroot and burrata tostada
- Pork shoulder carnitas with corn tortillas
- Refried beans with fresh cheese
- Pickled carrot and red cabbage
- Strawberry and mezcal rice pudding
There is a truffle quesadilla supplement at £8 per person which we did not take.
Round one: the mole, the esquites and the crudo
The first plates looked lovely. Blue and yellow corn tortilla chips in a little bowl, a big green pumpkin seed mole with a pool of oil in the middle (not guacamole, though it plays the same role), a bowl of sweetcorn esquites with crumbled cheese, and the yellowtail crudo, thin slices of raw fish in a bright red sauce with little green dollops on top.
It also came with three salsas on a tray: one scotch bonnet, one jalapeño and one sweeter chilli. Cristian offered to make them hotter if I wanted. I love that they give you three, and if we had not been so deep in conversation I would have taken him up on it.
And then I ate it and none of it tasted of much.
I usually love raw fish. This one was fine. The mole was fine. The esquites were fine. Not one mouthful made me say "Olga, you have to try this". I put it down to three weeks off alcohol shocking my palate. Turns out it was not me.
Round two: the Baja fish taco and the tostada
The beetroot and burrata tostada was a crisp round of something with the toppings on it, and I could not have told you what the toppings were without the menu. It ate like a large crisp with a bit of sour cream. Very disappointing.
The Baja fish taco looked dry before I touched it. Zoom in on my photo and you will see it, the cabbage on top looks tired. We pulled off the excess batter, which some people love and I do not, and underneath it was a piece of fried fish in a tortilla with some slaw. Fine. The main flavour was oil.
The main: pork shoulder carnitas
The carnitas arrives in a lidded clay pot with a pig's snout as the handle, which is adorable and I want one. Underneath were the corn tortillas, a bowl of refried beans with fresh cheese, and the pickled carrot and red cabbage.
This was the best dish. The pork was soft and properly tasty, and I love pork, so it was always going to win. On top sat two big pieces of crispy pork skin. Charlie would have inhaled those. I kept trying them and kept deciding no, too oily, something about it did not feel authentic to me. The pickles were excellent though, sharp and crunchy and exactly what the taco needed.
By now we were full and we did not finish it. My one regret is not skipping the starters and going straight in on the pork. Cristian asked how the food was and we said "yeah, it's okay", which in girl code means "let's see what dessert is".
Dessert: the rice pudding that won
Cristian put down the strawberry and mezcal rice pudding and my heart sank. I had not read the menu properly, and rice pudding is one of the worst things you could put in front of me. I would not normally even try it.
It was delicious. Really creamy, really vanilla, with little pops of strawberry through it, and a light way to end a heavy meal. The best surprise of the night by a mile.
So, the tally of things that made me pause: the margarita, the wine, the rice pudding. The nine savoury plates in between were fine, and fine is not enough at this price.
Service at Fonda
Spot on. Cristian was thorough, attentive and talked us through every plate in detail, bless him, even when we were clearly more interested in each other's news.
The restaurant went from quiet to fully booked over our sitting and the noise level stayed right. You can hear each other without shouting, which matters more than people admit.
Toilets are downstairs, individual unisex cubicles, spotless because they are new. Cubicles like that never weather well, so check back in a year. And I could not see how a wheelchair user would get down there, so ask when you book.
Is Fonda Mayfair worth the money?
The bill was £231.15 for the two of us, including £30.15 in service. Olga arrived early so her Negroni was settled separately. Call it £116 each. For that, I want to leave talking about at least one dish. I left talking about the sloth.
Nothing was wrong, nothing was sent back. It is that a kitchen with this pedigree, in this room, served nine savoury plates and I could not pick one to send a friend back for. Spending real money and not rating the food has not happened to me in a long time, and I do not enjoy writing this kind of review. But you need to know before you book.
How Fonda compares to Mountain and Ember Yard
Both of those are sharing plate restaurants in Soho, both a ten minute walk from Heddon Street, and both were better meals. Mountain in Soho and Ember Yard in Soho sent me home talking about the food rather than the decor. Fonda wins on interiors and loses on the plate, and the plate is why I go out.
For what it is worth, the best tacos I have ever eaten were in San Diego. I have been to Mexico twice, stayed in enormous hotels both times (my mistake), so I will not lecture anyone on authenticity. This just did not taste like the Mexican food I fell for.
When to go to Fonda and insider tips
- Take the early slot. We ordered at 6pm and the room filled up around us, so you get both the calm and the atmosphere.
- Skip the chef's selection and order the pork shoulder carnitas, the pickles and the pumpkin seed mole from the main menu.
- Order the Izadi Larrosa Negra 2022 Rioja at £54. Do not pay £95 for the Chablis on a school night.
- Tell them how spicy you want the margarita and the salsas. They will go hotter if you ask, and the plates need it.
- Check the hours. Fonda opens Monday evenings only, Tuesday to Saturday for lunch and dinner, and Sunday from midday until 4pm.
Fonda Mayfair: final verdict
Not worth it for the food. Worth a look for the room, the bar and one very good margarita.
If your group cares more about the setting and the catch up than what is on the fork, Fonda will do the job beautifully. If you are going out for a meal you will remember, book Mountain or Ember Yard instead.
I would not go back. If I did, it would be for a margarita at the bar and the pork pot, and I would skip the rest.
Fonda Mayfair FAQ
How much does dinner at Fonda in Mayfair cost?
Fonda's chef's selection tasting menu costs £65 per person, with a truffle quesadilla supplement at £8. Our bill for two came to £231.15 including one bottle of Rioja at £54, a £14 margarita, £1.50 per person for sparkling water and a 15% service charge. Expect around £115 a head with wine.
Do you need to book Fonda on Heddon Street?
Yes, book Fonda ahead. We took a 6pm slot on a Thursday and the restaurant was fully booked by the time we left, only weeks after opening. Earlier slots are quieter and easier to secure, and the outdoor tables on Heddon Street will disappear fast whenever the weather behaves.
What is on the chef's selection at Fonda London?
Fonda's chef's selection runs to nine savoury plates and a dessert: pumpkin seed mole, sweetcorn esquites, yellowtail crudo, Baja fish taco, beetroot and burrata tostada, pork shoulder carnitas with corn tortillas, refried beans, pickled carrot and cabbage, and a strawberry and mezcal rice pudding. The pork and the pudding were the highlights.
Is Fonda Mayfair good for a group?
Fonda works well for groups because everything is designed for sharing and the chef's selection removes the ordering debate entirely. The acoustics are good, so you can hear each other even when the room is full. The toilets are downstairs, so ask about access when booking if anyone struggles with stairs.
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