Traditional Spanish and Mediterranean, a craft cooking of classic Madrid eating updated with a contemporary eye. The kitchen keeps daily contact with sea ports, farmers and small shops across Spain, and most dishes can be taken as a half portion or ordered to go. The current carta is published on the restaurant's own site.

The Fonda opened in May 2021 in a large corner space with a good terrace that was once El Olivo and, more recently, La Chamartina. It takes its name from a merendero invented by Emilia Pardo Bazán in her novel Insolación. Patón calls it a contemporary fonda, a celebration of genuine hospitality, market cooking and familiar flavours, and he considers a full dining room every day the greatest recognition.

There are no turns: the sobremesa is part of the experience, and much of the carta is also served between services, from 16:00 to 20:15, from a special afternoon carta. The terrace, full of greenery, is open until 01:00 and the dining room until 02:30, with reservations taken Monday to Saturday from 13:30 to 23:45.

The cooking travels between the popular and the bourgeois, with recognisable flavours and some almost-forgotten traditional dishes, and the kitchen keeps daily contact with fishing ports, farmers and small shops across Spain; in the early days the carta could change twice a day. Escabeches are a signature, from a warm escabeche of pularda with orange to cold mackerel in sherry escabeche, alongside rice dishes, stews such as pochas with hake cocochas and patatas a la importancia with clams, and plates that honour Madrid chefs, such as a gentle bacalao al pil-pil after Salvador Gallego. Pigeon from Mont Royal in salmis with a liver pâté, smoked veal tongue and a Cádiz chicharrón appear too.

Half portions are offered at 65 percent of the full price, and every dish can be ordered to take away with a 15 percent discount. Desserts include a tarta capuchina with Oloroso, an imperial chocolate cake, a Red Chief apple rose with toffee and a coronel made at the table with vodka and cava.

A section of the restaurant's site, 'El panteón de recetas ilustres', pairs well-known names from Madrid life with the dishes they order, from Rafael Ansón's fried eggs with chips and Cristina Higueras' prawn croquettes to Alicia Mariño's zorongollo and Alonso Caparrós' marraná de pulpo. The wine list opens with a long run of sherries by the glass, from Viva la Pepa manzanilla and Tío Pepe en Rama to Harveys' amontillado, oloroso and palo cortado, and includes Madrid's Las Retamas del Regajal and Monmarthe Champagne.