We decided to stop by Fonda Isabel restaurant in Lombard, IL to try the Mexican food there. My husband and I are a bit fussy about our Mexican food, so we are always happy when we find a Mexican restaurant we enjoy. In fact, we both loved this restaurant and will happily go again in the future.

At first glance, the restaurant looked a bit too fancy for dining with children (our kids are 5.5 years old and 16 months old); there were white linens on the tables, white paper cloths on top of that, nice water glasses and white cloth napkins. However, the host gave both of our kids crayons and a work sheet to color on and connect the dots. We ordered our children’s meals first while we were perusing the menu, and the food came promptly.

(The quesadilla kids’ meal)

The kids’ menu only contained two items—cheese quesadilla (you could also request chicken on it) with potatoes and a soft drink or chicken nuggets with potatoes and a soft drink. We almost never order kids meals as we find it more economical to just share our order with the kids. However, we were using a $25 certificate from restaurant.com, and the requirement was that we spend $40. To get to that amount, we ordered a cheese quesadilla meal for each of our kids with cranberry juice. These quesadillas were not skimpy on the cheese; my son thoroughly enjoyed them, and my daughter really liked the potatoes.

They served nacho chips with four different types of salsa; we all enjoyed trying those. In addition, my husband and I each had a bowl of corn soup with chipotle peppers. This soup was delicious, but it did have a spicy kick.

My husband ordered Carne a la Tampiquena–grilled skirt steak served with refried beans, side de guacamole, one cheese enchilada and rajas con crema for $16.95. My husband has a large appetite, but there was so much food, even he couldn’t finish this. He enjoyed the guacamole, which seemed to be homemade and the steak was tender.


(Carne a la Tampiquena)

I ordered Enchiladas Suiza and got three chicken enchiladas topped with green tomatillo sauce and cheese in addition to refried beans and rice for $12.95. My chicken was wonderfully tender; I would order this meal again, but I would probably ask for the sauce on the side or half the amount because there was a bit too much for me.


(Enchiladas Suiza)

We left the restaurant with three take home boxes, enough for all of us to eat another meal from this restaurant at home. I highly recommend this restaurant, and we will definitely go again.

Our food total came to $40.15, plus 2.81 for tax, plus 7.75 automatic gratuity added for a total of $50.71.

After the discount of our restaurant.com certificate, our total was $25.71. In addition, we paid $3 for our restaurant.com certificate (I had a code for 70% off the normal $10 it would have cost), so our total out of pocket expense was $28.71.

Melissa Batai

Melissa Batai

Melissa, a mom to three little ones (ages 7, 3 and 1), blogs at both Mom’s Plans where she writes about living a fulfilling life on less and paying down debt, and Fiscal Phoenix where she writes about rising from the ashes of your financial mistakes.