Cafe Rio

I love love love these steak tacos! And the mint limeade is out of this world good. We eat here a few times a month and have always been greeted by friendly staff and even if the line is long, it moves fast.

Café Rio is always great but I’ve never waited as long so many times at any Café Rio. I keep going back to this one and continually upsetting myself knowing yet hoping it might be different. Sadly it never is. Long or short line it just seems to take forever and is oddly different from other Café Rio’s. The employees don’t seem to care like they hate their job. Food is amazing since it’s a chain it’s pretty much the same at all of them but the staff is the reason for the rating.

I love the portion size here… they haven’t done what so many chains have done, which is less food for more money. I can still share an entrée with my hubby and we always order the chips with the queso and salsa. Also love that they have a daily special here. Service for us has been hit or miss but overall it’s been ok.

Love this place but the management is horrible mistreating their employees and no customer service skills. I haven’t seen the awesome guy that was running register before he was awesome. If anyone else has had a bad experience at this location write your review helpfully that chain will improve their management and customer service.

I eat here all the time, always nice people and fast service. Very good steak burrito my favorite

Placing an online order or even calling an order in is a complete waste of time. Was quoted a pick up time of 12:35 (receipt states it will be ready at 12:25) by 12:45 the order hadn’t even been started, finally was deliver food at 12:50. They said «it got busy». This is not the first time this has happened! To top it off the order was WRONG! Ordered spicy pork enchiladas with sour cream and the side and was given chicken enchiladas with sour cream on top. The food is good, but this location needs to get it together, poor service :(

Absolutely YUMMY Barbacoa sweet pork salad is the best dish in the house! I can never eat it all but the journey is superb! I highly recommend this place!

The service here is terrible. The girl at the register did not great us, thank us for coming or anything! She actually didn’t say anything to me until I broke the silence with, «Hi, I got a pork salad.» I know we can all have those days, but leave your baggage at the door and remember the industry you are in. Tried to get her name, but they don’t wear name tags. Asked one person her name & he apologized stating she was relatively new so he didn’t know her name. I asked another person working there & she said she wasn’t sure but her name might be JESSICA. So if that is her name — Jessica, I’m sorry you legitimately seemed angry for having to help us.
Aside from that, the line was also relatively long… waited at least 15 minutes to order. Felt like of all locations I’ve been to, this was also the most stingy with the meat. Food quality was decent though & that’s what saves this review from being a 1 star rating. I have been to many Café Rio locations and have always been a fan of their food… It’s just honestly a shame when the whole dining experience has to be trumped by people who clearly do not want to be working there and represent the company so poorly. I will honestly not be opting to eat at Café Rio if this is the area I’m around. In terms of what to order:
FOR HER: I always order the SWEET PORK BARBACOA SALAD. The meat is so flavorful — I am not a pork eater but there is no contest in terms of what to order in my eyes at this place. Comes with rice, beans (black or pinto; none for me personally!), a generous amount of lettuce, pico de gallo, cilantro, grated cheese, a scoop of guacamole, a lime and corn chip strips. The creamy house dressing is straight crack! So good.
FOR HIM: He always gets the same thing too: a STEAK SALAD. A fan of the beans, he says its best to ask for the beans on the side — as the liquid they’re in tends to make the tortilla placed underneath and the rice very soggy. He also asks for half the house creamy tomatillo dressing and half of the cilantro lime vinaigrette so that he gets an even mix of both savory flavors. He also often orders an extra tortilla. They make them fresh & by hand, and you get 2 for $ 0.99!
Just do yourself a favor…
Eat at a different location. ;)

If it wasn’t for the fact that I love the Barbacoa so much I wouldn’t waste my time here. The service is always average to poor. I usually swing by on my way home from work anywhere from 7−10pm and about 30−40% of the time they don’t have something prepared or ready. I’ve been there when they’ve ran out of barbacoa, steak, queso and sauce. How do you run out of sauce? I get not cooking more meat based off the time/​demand but not when you are open for another hour or two. I’m also the kind of person that doesn’t go to places when they’re only open for less than 30 minutes to try and avoid these issue.
Here are some guidelines:
Come before 8:00pm
If the line reaches the black stanchions just leave (guaranteed 20 – 30 min wait as they don’t utilize the other register) unless you really want Barbacoa. That and the queso are the only superior items they have over other build your own burrito or mexican places.
Run out of meat: Go to Chipotle across the 215. Don’t reward them for bad practices make a note to tell them nicely and leave.
I want to say a change of management would improve this place so much which is sad because I think they’re relatively nice people.
Also, please greet the next person in line or the only person in line. Doing other duties while talking In Spanish to other coworkers doesn’t bother me as long as I know that you’ve registered that I exist and am not just standing there for a minute. Seriously, something that simple and easy would go a long way.

I love this chain restaurant. My favorite item is the sweet pork barbacoa salad. It’s a huge salad that I usually share. It’s made with a huge fresh made flour tortilla that’s placed in a takeout tin bowl. They add the cheese and put it in the rolling oven. Then place the meat, beans of your choice, black or pinto. I usually get pinto, and on occasion get the black. Rice, lettuce and sides of guacamole, sour cream, and Pico de gallo are added. Of course you can get all or none, but I usually get everything, because I like things in my salad. you get a choice of 2 dressings which is a cilantro lime vinaigrette or the house which is a creamy avocado. Both are excellent but the vinaigrette flavor just so stays on my taste buds.
They have daily specials which is a good price because it comes with a drink. the day I went it was the chicken tostada salad which is similar to the pork salad except it’s on a corn tortilla. But since they ask what meat you want, I like to get the pork always. I have tried the beefs and chicken, but the pork is my fave.
I’m not sure why this location has low ratings. Everytime I’ve been, it fast and workers are customer friebdly. There is always a line, and I guess I always get there just in time, because the line after me seems longer than when I started.
Plenty of seating available, people don’t tend to linger as long as me and my friends do.

Nobody greeted me as I entered their empty restaurant. 2 hours before closing. As I approach to order, the lady helping me was talking to another employee in Spanish nearly the whole time I was getting my salad made. It was unprofessional of her since she failed to give me her undivided attention.
Also, it really was just too dirty in there for the amount of people on the clock and no body else but me in there. Management should’ve been on top of that, especially with the kitchen visible to paying customers.
Lousy staff.
Lousy service.
Dirty restaurant.
The food in all honestly wasn’t bad, and it usually never is here. I enjoy café rios food. It was just the experience here that threw me off. And that in my opinion can make or break you.
In this case, I won’t be coming back to this location for Mexican food again.

Dirty kitchen, dirty dining area. Burnt chicken. The last two time I’ve eaten at this location I’ve gotten FOOD POISONING.
Go to the centennial location instead.

WOW! Not sure what happened here, but they used to have great food with great service! Now it’s bad service, small portions, and a dirty restaurant! What happened to
this place??? They ran out of meats, so the servers started skimping on the portions. Then the drinks emptied out. The horchata was empty and the soda nothing but carbonated water. The bathroom was FILTHY! We brought it to the attention of the cashier but were ignored. Not sure we will come back here.

Let me start off by saying I love café rio. Most of the locations I’ve been to, especially the one near UNLV and the one on eastern, have always been good. This is my second time here at this location and I will never come back to this place.
Reason why is because when I tried to order my usual salad, they weren’t able to put the coconut shrimp on it because they could only put that on tacos. Honestly, it’s not a big deal to me. But when you tell me it’s against the policy to put shrimp in a non taco form even when I INSISTED on paying for it on the side. That’s so freaking absurd! I’ve been and dined in café rio plenty of times and not once have I heard this kind of policy! There were no signs indicating it at all. When I couldn’t get my coconut shrimp, I asked for steak. Then they told me it wasn’t ready and they still have to cook it. There were no people at the restaurant and you still have to prepare steak? After 7 – 8 minutes, I finally received my salad. The staff, overall, looked to dumbfounded besides the cashier. She was nice lol.
Ugh I don’t know about you guys but based on the reviews here as well, this location is a joke. You’re better off going to the Robertos across the street.

This place is soooo dirty every single time we come here but it is across the street so who can complain. Idk I was gonna grab the lady to wipe the table but the rag she was using looked dirtier than the table she was about to clean. Also she didn’t have any cleaner with that rag so shit I didn’t want salmonella or anything else on this table. Anyways I ended up wiping out table with some napkins but to tell u the truth there is a thick sticky layer of guck on the table top so the napkin really didn’t do any good.
They do have some great looking and good looking food and on Wednesdays they have a tostada special for 7 $ including a drink. They also have a drink bar with horchata and lime aid with all the drink mix ins. Will come back cause my friends like this place but not because of the cleanliness.

Worst Café Rio on the planet slow service no drinks they suck save your time and money and go to centennial Café Rio it’s much better.

I keep getting dragged here by my best friend and I gotta say… I haven’t had one thing that I’ve liked.
The portions are big but the food is so gross it doesn’t matter.
The time before last I had nachos cuz’ I was thinkin’…you can’t screw that up! Blech… the chips tasted like they were a month old and fried in the same oil from 1956. I’m not that picky but these chips were icky. My tummy wasn’t right for two days afterwards.
The last time I got a burrito… enchilada style. It was a gross mushy mess. The rice was so mushy and overcooked. It had rice, black beans, and 8 measly little strips of steak. They dumped some green sauce all over it and threw it in a warmer. Yuck. Did not like. Waste of $ 8.79. I’d rather have Chipotle any day!!!
They had a machine with horchata & two different types of agua frescas but it was empty. Boo.

I DEFINITELY took advantage of the Buy One Burrito or Salad, get one free coupon that was floating around on Facebook for the month of March. Somewhere along the way, I became a converted fan of Café Rio. I say convert because I was not a fan of Café Rio previously. I guess all I needed to do was give Café Rio a second chance!
First off, the burritos and salads are huge. Bigger portions sizes make my fat girl heart happy. Second, the tortillas are freshly made. In fact, they’re so fresh sometimes I have flour dust on my hands! Café Rio’s tortillas beat out all the competition IMO.
VEGETARIAN BURRITO ($ 7.79): Comes with «double» beans and rice. I get mine with black beans with hot AND mild sauce. This location loads the burrito up with cheese. Yassss! Guacamole comes with the veggie burrito, but I pass on that. I wish they’d let me sub sour cream instead! Also, Café Rio’s burritos are best eaten with a fork and knife. I learned that the hard way.
Price wise, Café Rio is a bit on the expensive side for a fast food burrito place. It’s probably around $ 10-​$ 12 per person, depending on how many «extras» you get.
UPDATE: OMG OMG Café Rio has the best military discount ever! 25% off your entire purchase. That’s one of the biggest discounts I’ve come across at a fast food chain. Way to go Café Rio!
Worth a Return Visit?
Yup.
TIP: They have Vanilla Coke on fountain drinks and horchata as well :)
Unilocal 100 CHALLENGE 2015: #60

And I thought Chipotle was kinda pricey! This place is even more, and with half of the meats at an extra surcharge. Sorry but I don’t think chicken should be a dollar more on an already almost $ 8 burrito.
BUT, oh man the chile beef is so tender. And I love the handmade right-​in-​front-​of-​your-​eyes flour tortillas. I want that rotating tortilla cooker! I like how you only get meat, rice and beans in your tortilla and then lettuce and pico on the outside. It’s nice if you prefer your hot food to stay hot and your cold food to stay cold. But I do miss the corn salsa from Chipotle, and I think their salsas are better there too. But I like how at Rio your burrito gets put through a toaster thing, but this holds up the line.
I also notice they put a lot more meat in the burrito than Chipotle, but then again, prices are higher. The guy in front of us ordered steak and they put a shit ton of it in there. The most popular seems to be the barbacoa pork, which we tried, and didn’t like. It’s way too sweet, but most Americans seem to like everything on the sweet side.
I’ve been to both the locations in Centennial, and I like this location better. They don’t charge for the creamy tomatillo sauce, in fact they gave us two. The other location across from In N Out on Centennial Pkwy charges for it. Also the Decatur location gave us three stamps on the stamp card for some reason for getting two burritos, and the other location gave us one.
Enchilada style is not really needed, as there is a lot of salsa and cheese on the inside already, and you’ll be adding on another buck for that extra splash of salsa verde on top.
I’d definitely give this place more stars if not for the high price.

This place has steadily gone down hill the past couple of years. It seems as if they let a couple of high school kids run this place now… I like Café Rio because the food used to be fresh and simple, but now I don’t even bother going to this location.
The past few times I was there they seemed to be out of items, for example they were out of chicken once. The last time I was there I was eating the chicken burrito enchilada style and the chicken wasn’t even shredded like it should be. It was huge pieces of chicken instead of shredded chicken.
Also, if your going to have a open kitchen keep it clean.