La Fonda Colombiana

STOP PRESS: In news just in, La Fonda Colombiana is pulling up roots and moving to Woolloongabba, with a fully fledged restaurant of the same name opening mid-November.

And here's why it'll be well worth a visit -

Brisbane’s best kept secret, La Fonda Colombiana, can be found in a suburban back yard. Located on Mount Cotton Road, look out for the Colombian flag flying in the front yard to signal that La Fonda - a pop-up Latin American restaurant - is open for business; bringing a little bit of Bogota to the burbs.

On Sundays only, with matriarch Maria managing this family affair, La Fonda serves traditional Colombian cuisine from a shed in their sprawling backyard; scattered with timber tables and plastic chairs, not to mention a playground, swimming pool, ping pong and pool table.

The pa’picar menu is a good place to start with empanadas (polenta pastries filled with minced meat, potatoes, onions and tomato) and arepas de choclo (grilled cornmeal patties made with fresh corn and stuffed with homemade cheese).  To sample a bit of everything, try a picada platter – pork ribs, chicharron (crunchy pork belly), chorizo, empanadas, patacon (deep fried green plantain) and yucca frita served with aji (a mixture of coriander, shallots, chilli, vinegar and spices).

Mains include sobrebarriga en salsa (barbecued beef brisket cooked in traditional Colombian sauce), lengua en salsa (ox tongue), tamales (polenta parcels filled with potatoes, peas, rice, pork and chicken wrapped in banana leaves and steam cooked) and bandeja paise – the national dish of Colombia - (red beans, rice, minced meat, chicharron, chorizo, fried egg and patacon).

If you can still manage dessert, La Fonda offers an assortment of Colombian pastries to choose from including milhojas con arequipe. Translated as “thousand leaves cake”, milhojas consist of puff pastry layers filled with pastry cream and topped with arequipe, a Colombian custard of sorts.

And as if that isn’t enough to satisfy, La Fonda carries Colombian beer and sodas. 

Need to know: La Fonda will be leaving the backyard behind and moving into new premises in Woolloongabba in the near future. Until then, book ahead and reserve the table by the pool.