Firstly the atmosphere is just short of spectacular inside and out.  Bigger than life sculpted steel hombres and Roosters outside. Inside nice wall facades and a wall fountain inside. It doesn’t take much to imagine yourself in Guadalajara, Mexico which is the template for the decor.  Roger “on the Lamb” C. and wife Ana L. Hernandez, who is from Guadalajara started working on the 1st restaurant in September 1999 and this stay at home mom and fultime engineer dad with 2 kids under 5 years old opened the doors of their first restaurant in 4 months and never looked back.    All the hosts and servers I engaged at the Meridianville store are native spanish speakers. Initially, the music was mexican music. My server was so accommodating with my broken spanish. She was delightful and efficient. Her section was pretty busy when I arrived but she was timely and engaging.The plating and presentation ranges from ok to “what the hell?”.I ordered a fish taco, rice and beans, chicken fajitas, burrito de carne and a flan.Meals come with complimentary salsa and chips.  It was some of the best salsa I’ve ever tasted. Light consistency and oh so fresh and flavorful. I mean you can skip the chips and chug the sauce.The fish taco is small.  It is cabbage fish (talapia?) on a soft taco.  The bread cabbage and fish work well together sin la salsa- without the sauce.  The sauce (tomato, jalapenpos, sugar and another spice) has flavor but is overpowered with sugar. With all of the wonderful flavors of Mexico it is a shame La Fuente settled on this.  Try this link to make a sauce of your own: Filetes de Pescado con Salsa Mexicana. The Burrito de Carne or meat/beef burrito is seasoned hamburger that was a tad salty in a burrito topped with what tastes like pizza sauce. The presentation is nothing spectacular. This is how old school I am: it needs green on the plate, maybe slivers of lime. After years of Big Macs, Quater Pounders, Bacon double cheeseburgers, I didn’t like the texture of the small ground almost mushy beef. The flour tortilla is thin; a thicker tortilla would’ve have overwhelmed the beef, so good choice.  La Fuente serves the best-blank around! Non of what I had could be considered signature. Of the dishes I had it was difficult to look at any as a signature dish.The Fajitas de Pollo or chicken fajitas was marvelous.  It smelled great with the chicken breast, onions, green peppers all expresing their individuality. It arrives at your table sizzling skillet on a wooden plate with an insulated oven sleeve on the “can’t touch this!” handle.Either the flavor wasn’t there or the presentation or bothI was very excited when the rice and beans arrived at my table cabbage patch dancing until they were in front of me.  Once again plating is an issue.

The beans were a little too salty. That blobby stuff in the pic is cheese. I asked a server and apparently it is mozzarella. Mozzarella!  What the heck!? Mozzarella is from Guadalajara only if you go by way of Italy. There are wonderful cheeses from Mexico. Many are not standardized but a lot are. Chihuahua and Oaxaca cheese might be a great additiion to the menu. Mexico is tenth in the world in cheese production and it’s a lot closer to Alabama than Italy, just sayin’.Ok this is a little painful.  Did you ever not wanna finish Flan?  Then you haven’t had it here. The plating was broken record bad AND it was covered in whipped cream, drizzled in chocolate with a maraschino cherry.  No! This is just wrong! flan is is is perfect.  Flan is delicate. If you must mess with it and many do, compliment it, meld it with other tastes.  But don’t smother it, don’t hide it. I could see their flan with a dollup  of whipped cream maybe on top and a swirl of chocolate surrounding it skip the cherry.  I’d rather see the cherry on their burrito! I know! the thought of it just make ya, well you know.During my meal the music transitions from tradition Mexican music to today’s popular music.  There were 3 o 4 tv screens mounted near the ceiling where I was that all played the same thing except one set for sports.  DJ Jr. Bear is going from table to table passing out little yellow pads and instructions for, “The Survey Says.” What is it? Come now, it’s a knock off of, “Family Feud,” the entire restaurant can play together in teams of tables.  This seems really novel to me.  have you heard of anything like this in a restaurant?  I know what you’re thinking. Ugh, what a cheesy way to ruin dinner.  Actually, though I didn’t participate it was great fun. Who doesn’t love being challenged by Family Feudery?  If you are that person, no worries, it is so easy to ignore and go about your meal. What’s not so easy to ignore... (and why would ya want to?) are the laughs and the buzz from people playing the game.  Imagine a kid friendly college bar without sloppy drunks and roofies. La Fuente has a full bar at one end of the Meridianville restaurant that had a neighborhood feel to it. I imagine La Fuente has quite a host of regulars for lunch and on whatever night Jerry, er ah, DJ Jr. Bear does, “The Survey Says.”So what do I think of La Fuente, Meridianville?  Was I impressed by anything? Yep, the service and decor, the overall atmoshere, the salsa and the staff.  Also I love Indy (Independent) businesses. Though there are 5 stores I think they still fit the Indy category. Will I return? Yes. There is a lot more menu and maybe I ordered from the low end.  The pictures on the menu are purty!

La Fuente Mexican Restaurant