La Fonda Del Sol, NYC

A wintry, drizzly day in NY led me to seek quick shelter for lunch. Walking rapidly and trying to peer below the rim of my umbrella through the drizzle, I spotted a trendy looking sit-down restaurant. No time to be picky, I ducked inside and asked for a table. I was at La Fonda Del Sol in Midtown Manhattan. Pure chance had led me to this cool Spanish tapas restaurant on the ground floor of the MetLife Building at 44th and Vanderbilt. The menu looked interesting. It was divided into seafood, meats, cheese, and vegetable. The average price ranged from $9-$15 per serving. So I decided to order the tuna belly with Navy beans, herbs, and jalapeno tossed in an oil and vinegar, the short rib with pomegranate seeds and sweet pickled cipollini onions, and the Tuna tacos with avocado, jalapeno pickled onions.

As I waited for the food, I read some yelp reviews on my iphone. The overall rating was 3 1/2 stars. Most of the complaints were about the octopus dish being rubbery and bland, poor service with lots of orders being mixed up, and steep prices for the small serving size.

Tuna Belly, Navy beans, jalapeno oil & vinegar

Short Rib, pomegranate, sweet cipollini onions

Tuna Tacos, avocados, jalapeno, lemon/lime juice

All in all, it was a great meal. The tuna belly dish was a little too oily and the tuna could have been canned white tuna, but the overall flavor was decent. The short rib was excellent. It was tender and juicy. The tuna taco was also delicious. The tuna was sushi grade and went well with the jalapeno, onions and the lemon/lime juice that was drizzled on it. My service was excellent. Grant it, it was a very quiet lunch so I had the server all to myself. I do think that the prices are fairly steep, but it's NYC! Everything is expensive. I left feeling satisfied. I would come back again.