Port Fonda (Westport, KC)

As you can presume, with me living in Kansas City, most of my taco stops will take place in the area. I have trips on the books to Houston, TX next month and then to both the Chicago and Orlando-areas over the summer though, so I will do my best to keep things well rounded (as long as travel budget allows).

This post is going to focus on my experience at Port Fonda. Port Fonda is a local joint, having only two locations - one in the Westport district of Kansas City, MO and one in Lawrence, KS. I would call its style of cuisine modern-rustic Mexican. Their chef is really well known, they've received so much positive press, and the restaurant literally used to be an Airstream trailer food truck. If you hadn't heard of this place, you hadn't been paying attention. So when restaurant week rolled around, I knew this was a stop on my list.

SIDENOTE: I'm not sure how all of you feel about restaurant week. I didn't know much about it until this year, honestly, but after doing some research I found that there were over 180 Kansas City restaurants participating and that three really awesome local charities reaped the benefits of me going out to eat. I get to eat for cheap and help some kids?? Done. Sign me up!

Upon arrival, I forgot to snap a picture of the menu because I was distracted, but I was able to find their Restaurant Week menu online to share with you. For dinner at Port Fonda you paid $33 for a 4-course meal. I took a photo of each course to share with you.

  

I know what you're thinking... this is my very first post, you were ready for a taco review, and yet, THERE ARE NO TACOS. You guys, I did not do adequate research and for that I am sorry. The RW menu did not provide me a taco option, leaving me up a creek. At first I was upset, but then I thought, why not enjoy the delicious Mexican food and tell you about it anyway? I like the idea of covering some other things every now and then, so we're gonna roll with it.

Based on the menu they provided, here's what I ordered:

- Course 1: Chips and salsas with guacamole and chile con queso (perks of eating with someone!)

- Course 2: Shishito peppers with mint crema

- Course 3: Chimichanga with tomato habanero cream sauce

- Course 4: Sopapillas

 

 

Overall, the food was good. By course:

- Course 1: The chips at Port Fonda are really thick. They tasted great and were hot, but I personally like a thinner chip. The salsas, guacamole, and queso were delicious.

- Course 2: I had never had Shishito peppers before and they were delicious and still felt fresh. They were a mild/medium pepper so there was no burning or anything like that.

- Course 3: The Chimichanga was also fresh, but the bottom was a bit too toasted for my liking - in turn, making it hard to cut through. The habanero sauce on the Chimi was delicious though!

- Course 4: I am a sopapilla lover, but I found them a little dry. I'm not sure if it's because they didn't give me much honey, or if it dripped off due to the plating (in a bucket), but I definitely wanted more.

As far as service goes, I feel like it's hard to judge a restaurant's service based on their busiest week of the year. I will say though, they included a non-alcoholic beverage with your $33 dinner, which was nice... but I had to ask for sweetener three times before getting it.

Rating (out of 5):