La Fontaine Restaurant

If you’re looking for a quite, romantic, cozy place then this is not your place. But let me tell you: despite the slow service, the food is Awesome!!!

I have to give this restaurant 5 stars very good foods & very good service seat at bar Nick he really friendly & help me all bout the menu wow is really delicious & best foods will come back bring family & friends

Tried this place for first time. Food was mediocre and could of been better. Steak was cold and lacked flavor. The fries were good though.

Had the chicken and the wife had the chicken cord on bleu.
Both enjoyed our meal, went to an early dinner around 5ish so there were plenty of seats available and had a nice night.
Would return again, if only to try out the other dishes.

Friendly and accommodating staff. I came here for a party and we were the second to last party to leave (past closing time) but the resturaunt manager and waiters were all still so friendly despite what I imagine was a long day. I ordered the salmon wellington and having never eaten beef wellington or any other wellington I wasn’t sure what to expect. The salmon was perfectly cooked and plated on top of rice and vegetables in a lemony sauce. The puff pastry surrounding the salmon was pretty thin and I wish I had more of it to go with the salmon. I could have done without the lemon sauce but since it was poured over the salmon, I just pushed away the excess on my plate and enjoyed the dish. My sister ordered the beef wellington which was good but she also wanted more of the puff pastry. Her wellington was plated on top of mashed potatoes and vegetables which were really good. My mother had risotto which we all felt wasn’t your usual rissotto. It wasn’t bad but definitely different so if you want a traditional risotto, I wouldn’t order it from here. My father had the seafood pappardelle though and we all liked it. We ordered 3 appetizers: grilled octopus — meh, La Caprese — salad that I liked, and a daily special of cheese stuffed dates — not bad, my first time having this. Overall I think the food was not bad but definitely more on the pricey side. The place is well lit and great for parties or a special occasions and isn’t too cramped.

This review is way overdue. I live and work in MV so have tried about every restaurant on Castro. Been here many times and La Fontaine has yet to disappoint and seems to just get better with each visit. In fact, i’d say it’s our favorite in Mountain View.
Since I put the Pro in procrastination, it was after 6 on New Years Eve & I am checking Open Table and calling around trying to get a reservation on Castro St. La Fontaine was high on our list since we have always had a great experience there but they showed as booked on Open Table. We tried calling to see if they had anything at all — no dice.
Long story short — after a bad experience at another restaurant on Castro, we stopped in La Fontaine just to see if they had any cancellations. We lucked out and they were able to seat us right away. Our meal was fabulous. I had the Artichoke Ravioli and my wife had the Pork. Both of us remarked that it was some of the best food we have ever had. And the staff was attentive and fun as usual.
Give this underappreciated gem a try if you haven’t already.

Good service. Yummy seafood pappardelle!

2.5 stars
A mixed up that prevented a solid 4-​star (or even 5-​star) experience.
Monday 11/​30/​2015
6.45pm reservation. It was basically empty; only another table was being served when we came in. We were seated promptly. Our server was courteous.
Grilled octopus was excellent. Melt-​in-​your-​mouth goodness with a nice thin coat of slightly charred brown butter and paprika. It was easily the best dish.
My girlfriend got the Salmon Wellington. The salmon was soft and tender like a toddler’s butt. The sauce and the saffron risotto were creamy, interesting, fulfilling.
It was near perfect up until the pistachio crusted lamb chops. I ordered medium rare, but it came out well-​done. What a crime!!! (I’ve never used more than 1 exclamation mark before).
An unfortunate mistake because I could tell it was made with care and love. Even at well-​done it was still quite moist and decently flavorful. It would have been 100x better had it been medium– rare. The succulent, tender, juicy lamb chops, oh the potential.
Funny enough the table next to us ordered well-​done lamb just a bit before us. I wanted to die a little inside when I heard that. ~$ 30 well-​done lamb chops. I wondered if my well done was meant for them, and they got my medium rare instead, but I didn’t hear they talk/​complain about it, so I’m not sure.
My girlfriend told me to stop eating it and let the staff know asap. I already plowed through half the veggies, and it took quiet a while for our food to come out. The restaurant was now fairly packed. It would have taken another 20 – 30 mins for a replacement. I was too hungry, so I just sucked it up.
Yes, I should have told them. Yes, I realized mistakes do happen, though less of an excuse when it was so empty. I’m not gonna lose sleep over it, just gonna dream of my succulent lamb that never materialized.

I came here for dinner with some girlfriends. I normally go to Vasso Azzuro down the street but wanted to try a new place. The restaurant was fairly empty since it was a Monday night. However for being empty the service was beyond slow. My friends and I were getting very impatient. It took almost 15 min for us to get bread, and then we had to flag the waiter down just to place an order. We placed our appetizer order, which was grilled octopus, but we didn’t get it until 20 min later. Our main dish order didn’t come until 45 min. When we asked the waiter what was taking so long, he said the «to go» orders were taking a while, which was a silly excuse. My friends pasta wasn’t even the right pasta and our waters were never refilled until asked. Only reason why I give this place a star is because the food was ok, but that’s it. Never coming back here again.

I only give 5 stars when a place is exceptional and exceeds expectations. La Fontaine is such a place.
It’s clear from the quality and presentation that there is a well trained and caring chef in the kitchen. We were delighted at how wonderful the food tasted — from the basic olive oil and bread to the crab cakes we enjoyed for appetizers to the excellence of service and attention to detail.
I rarely order Chicken Cordon Blue because it is so often a disappointment but the bartender convinced me to go ahead and try. It was fantastic in every respect.
To top it off, our waiter Levent brought us the most delicious homemade Tira Misu as a compliment of the house.
Next time I will try the Beef Wellington just to be sure. Highly recommended for fine diners for service and quality of food.

I love La Fontaine not only for it superb intermingling of French and Italian food but for the outstanding service we had. We were not rushed and we were served very well. I particularly like their calamari fritti rings and tentacles with lemon and paprika aioli. We tried grilled octopus which was fresh and delectable with asparagus in brown butter and paprika and the eggplant gratin was delicious and a perfect size for appetizer.
We were 6 in the group and each tried what’s on the menu. I had seafood pappardelle, which was fantastic, and my husband had the steak frittes, which was cooked to perfection with truffle frittes. Everyone in the group enjoyed their food choice for the evening. Hinting there was a birthday celebrant in our table, we were not offered dessert menu right away but served a mix of their dessert offerings for all to share. We particularly like their panna cota, it’s to die for and everything else is very good. We ended up ordering more dessert. Again the service was delightful!
A plus to our enjoyable dining was the entertainment from the piano master Henry Concepcion and his lovely wife Victoria who sang the evening away. They played soft music to some foot-​tapping beat. Not loud at all.
Food is absolutely delicious and atmosphere’s vibrant. We’ll be back for another evening and will definitely try their brunch, which we heard was great!

The bread they serve here is SO good. Excellent breakfast food.

The food at La Fontaine is consistently good and it is one of my favorite restaurants for a mixture of French and Italian dishes. On the lunch menu, the chicken paninis are delicious and very reasonably priced! The pesto mushroom ravioli is also tasty! I have tried their soups and my favorites are the tomato tarragon soup and cream of mushroom soup. The cream of broccoli, butternut squash, and lentil soups are also good, but the two former are my favorite.
At dinner, there are specials on weekends which are good. I have tried a variety of their fish specials and they do not disappoint. The smoked-​salmon stuffed sole is my favorite with the lemon beurre blanc and truffle mashed potatoes and vegetables. The fish has been cooked and seasoned perfectly whenever I have ordered it. I have also tried the halibut, salmon, and other fish specials with different sauces and all have been good. The risotto is also tasty, but the portion is a little small for the price. They change the seafood in the risotto depending on the day for the special. The pasta dishes on their regular menu are also good. I like the spinach ravioli and the shell pasta with bacon and peas is a solid dish too.
The panna cotta has been my favorite dessert so far. The raspberry sauce that comes on top of the panna cotta pairs well. I have also tried the tiramisu which was good, but I think the panna cotta is better. The chocolate lava cake is also an excellent choice. The salted caramel ice cream pairs well with the cake, and the inside chocolate oozes out as it should. The only con for the lava cake is it sometimes take a long time to come out.

3.5 stars. Solid food but nothing memorable.
Minestrone soup — mediocre recommend skipping this.
Grilled Octopus — nicely charred but slightly too burnt.
Short ribs — tender meat. Pretty good.
Out of wine by the glass, New Zealand Sauvignon blanc was so so but the Russian river Sonoma county Pinot noir was quite good. This is probably a 4 stars by mountain view standard and 3 stars by SF standard.

The short: great place to eat Italian al fresco
My friend who made a reservation had not arrived yet, so I had the chance to choose where we wanted to sit. I opted to wait inside at the bar, and to my dismay, it was quite stuffy inside. When she arrived, I suggested that we sit outside for some al fresco dining and to do a little people watching. Thankfully, the waiter accommodated us and found us a table outside easily.
We decided on the:
+ Ravioli di Spinachi: I had a bite and was moved by how deliciously warm, rich and creamy ravioli melted in my mouth
+ Pollo d’Angelo: I’m picky about chicken, and I thought it was overcooked and not very juicy. The pasta was cooked well (al dente), filled with delicious flavors of the wine and tomatoes.
The waiter service was very attentive, filling our waters as necessary. I think they forgot about us at the end, when we realized that we haven’t received the check yet. Or maybe it’s a place where you can request the check whenever you’re ready.
Although the chicken wasn’t up to par, I would love to come back to try other delicious eats.

Nuthin’ betta on a warm and breezy Thursday evening than dinner and people watching in downtown Mountain View! Stopped
In here for a patio seat And dinner and not disappointed at all! The food was excellent. I had the free range chicken cordon bleu and a colleague had salmon wellington. All the dishes were nicely presented and prepared. We sampled the house wines and the recommended matches and alternates were really great! Service was outstanding too. Great place to have a wonderful meal and great wine while MV rolls and strolls right on by!

It was surprisingly deserted during lunch hour.
The waitstaff were extremely friendly and attentive. After placing my order, I nommed on two whole baskets of the homemade bread (tasted like focaccia). I’d ordered the seafood with pappardelle because I love seafood and this sounded like an interesting combination – interesting it was, and probably not worth doing again. The pappardelle had a strange texture I’d compare to shirataki noodles, and the sauce it sat in was rather bland. The mussels didn’t taste the freshest. For dessert, I had the tiramisu – fantastic!
I’d come here for bread and dessert. If the entrée was any indicator… I may sit that part of the meal out completely.

You would think that if someone makes a reservation for almost 20 for lunch, you would have enough staff to cover the lunch rush. That was not the case here.
This was not a very good experience.
1. They were understaffed
2. All the wine we chose they were out of
3. Our lunch took 3 hours
4. The food was not the best.
The restaurant is on the smaller side but clean and neat.
We ordered just about everything off the menu since there were so many of us and we wanted to sample everything. I gotta admit they did a good job bringing out all of our entrée around the same time.
This is a great place for an intimate meal but not the greatest for a large party.

I don’t think they know what a Benedict is. The pouched eggs came absolutely over cooked, as you can see on the photo I’ve just posted.
Other than that, my wife’s tartine was pretty good.

I grew up in Mountain View and this is one of the places I never even knew existed because no one talked about it… I had assumed it to be one of those mediocre restaurants in Downtown that come and go, but it looked nice so I gave it a chance.
I got a chicken dish and it was alright. It had nice grilled flavors, but the soy sauce downgraded it to taste like a stir-​fry that I would whip up with leftovers. Overall the dish was sort of just too busy – beneath the chicken was a pile of miscellaneous vegetables, and on top of half the chicken was a pile of more miscellaneous vegetables. The fact that the soy sauce was drizzled all over the way that you drizzle chocolate sauce over dessert made it busier and more confusing. I know I sound like a foodie snob complaining about the presentation being off, but for a ~$ 20 entrée, I am definitely expecting something that tastes amazing and looks decent!
We also got the melon prosciutto appetizer to share. I never knew that the two would be so tasty together, but $ 9 is expensive because there wasn’t anything particularly amazing about either ingredient and this would be an easy DIY for much less $.
The tiramisu was probably my favorite part: the mascarpone was creamy and the ladyfinger layer had been thoroughly soaked in espresso and rum. Delish enough to make up for my presentation complaints. (They should transplant the zigzag soy sauce drizzle pattern here, because their radial chocolate syrup looked like a spider web).
Not bad, but for the most part, my suspicions were correct because it was pretty mediocre especially for the price.