Fontova Mexican Restaurant

Located across the river in the foreign territory of northern Kentucky, Fontova Mexican Restaurant provides a welcome alternative to bad "Mexican" food too often found in the Cincinnati area (or maybe we just always try the bad places). You can learn more about owner Pedtro Fontova from CityBeat, and Enquirer dining critic Polly Campbell praised Fontova's Azteca chicken soup in her roundup of 2006 eating.

Fontova is small, with just a handful of tables in a pleasant, calm environment. (Of course, when I picked up our takeout order, the place was empty, so that might explain the calm. This was the evening of the most recent Great Snow, so few were fooli -- er, smart enough to be getting Mexican takeout that night.) A colleague suggested Fontova to me, mentioning that he'd visited with some students from Mexico who gave the place their approval -- music to my ears! Be aware: Fontova is open only Monday through Friday, from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

I suspect our food was hurt by the fact that it was takeout -- it had cooled, the homemade tortilla chips had gotten a bit soggy, etc. But still, the food was very good. I had a Big Burrito Plate (see menu on Fontova site) with chicken -- yes, I shared the rice/beans -- and Lisa had a beef burrito (minus several things -- I went with everything -- we both had the "hot" sauce). We also shared a medium bowl of the Azteca chicken soup. So, here are some thoughts. . . .

• Chicken Burrito: Yup, it's pretty big, although not as big as those steroided monstrosities from such chain (i.e., evil), fast-foodish (i.e., evil), corrugated-metal-and-stained-wood (i.e., yuppie) purveyors of grub like Chipotle and Q'doba. (Full disclosure: I actually rather like Q'doba's vegetarian -- not grilled veggie -- burrito. But I'm ashamed of myself for liking it, given its mass-produced nature.) So anyway, the burrito was good sized, and the tortilla had been lightly toasted after it was rolled (perhaps on a griddle) so that one side was slightly crispy -- a nice touch. The most noticeable thing about its flavor was its balance: nothing stood out over the other tastes, but all blended together pleasantly. The chicken was nice little chunks, not shreds.
• Beef Burrito: A colleage recently mentioned to me that a good test of a Mexican restaurant is the beef: if it's ground, be very alarmed. Fontova's beef burrito had good, tasty chunks of roast, the proper way. I think Lisa's beef was a bit tastier -- or at least bolder -- than my chicken. Anyway, it was good.
• Azteca Chicken Soup: Very, very good. The soup base was a good broth, slightly spicy but not overpowering. Chicken shreds (or small chunks) were there in good quantity, as was white cheese that had melted into the soup. Perhaps nicest of all were strips of corn tortilla that has soaked up broth. These corn tortillas tasted homemade to us: a good, earthy, corn taste, as corn tortillas should have. (Note: Fontova makes tortillas -- I think they're available in local Kroger stores -- so likely the corn tortillas are homemade. But there's homemade and there's homemade, and these were deliciously the latter.) On the side were little containers of finely diced onion and chopped cilantro: a nice addition.
• Chicken Enchilada Casserole: A pleasant blend of corn tortilla strips, shredded chicken and sauce (green if you want the hot, red if you want the mild; I had green, of course). I found this a bit bland, although it might be better if you pay $1 extra to have cheese cooked into it.

Well, we tend to like our food pretty potent, so we found Fontova's offerings to be a bit on the mild side. I think I must have seared my tastebuds or something, since I have trouble tasting subtler flavors. Certainly, the "hot" sauce is not hot in our book -- next time, we'll have the "super hot." But there will definitely be a next time -- and I think I'll try the fish then. . . . While not cheap, sometimes you get what you pay for, and I think that's true especially of made-from-scratch food.

This is a great restaurant to know about, and once the Roebling bridge is back in business it will even be conveniently close at hand.

Rating: 10 (3, 4, 3) (What's this?)
Lisa's rating: Give me a Mexican who plays "Tijuana Brass" (i.e., with a bit more zip, pep, etc.)