Ray’s Rio Bravo

I used to love Rio Bravo in Buckhead as a college student, so I was pleased to see it open in this space when visiting friends at a nearby apartment. It was the obvious choice for our families after some swimming on a warm summer Saturday.
Our group of 6 was seated promptly toward the back with kids menus and crayons provided. We started with yellow cheese dip with tortillas. They only brought 3 tortillas the first time. The cheese dip and fresh tortillas were good, as I remembered. The salsa, while fresh, was too watery, lacking in flavor, and full of huge cilantro stalks. The fresh tortillas were quite the hit with the kids as well.
I got the seasonal vegetable enchiladas, while the gents got tacos and the gringo platter. I had to eat my food in shifts, as my 2 year old wanted to tour the patio several times, and being a busy Saturday night, couldn’t be contained while we waited for the food. The enchiladas and beans were decent, nothing great. Jimmy said that his food was generous on the portion but not the flavor.
A-​OK, if you go for drinks and apps and your expectations aren’t too high.

I’ll never go back. Food and service very poor. Salsa was excellent and better than average chips is the only positive thing I can think of to say about the establishment.

Service was a little slow, but the Chicken Fajita was very good.

3, because the food was great. Now if the staff could pick up the slack it would have been a great dining experience.

Having worked at a Rio Bravo in my 20’s I was really looking forward to eating here. It was so disappointing the only thing that was authentic to the original were the queso and margaritas. The tortillas were thick and tasteless and the food was horrible. So sad!

I remember going to Rio Bravo as a kid with my parents in the 90s and it was by far our favorite tex-​mex restaurant in the state. I was super excited to find out that the original owner had reopened the place so I went straight away with a friend.
The décor is very festive and fun and the view from the patio is lovely– it’s right next to a pond with a fountain.
The food… Meh. At $ 23 I expected that the steak fajita plate would be big enough to split between two people since there was no «for 2» option. Nope! Only half of the plate had fajitas (good) and the other half had greasy brownish rice. Barely enough for one person. My friend and I were forced to order another dish so we got the chicken enchiladas. They were pretty good and the serving size was a lot better.
The highlight was definitely the flour tortillas. There is a tortilla-​making machine near the front of the store and those tortillas are the best I have ever had anywhere, just like I remember them. The drinks were also reasonably priced.
Overall, I was pretty disappointed but I think I would be a little less so if I didn’t have such great memories from when I was a kid. The dishes were a little pricey for the amount of food you get and the food was good but not anything to write home about.

I hosted a quick work baby shower for 14 people here and the staff was super friendly and accommodating.
The table side made guacamole was phenomenal, but the queso was a huge miss that if not consumed at the time of service got hard fairly quickly. Most people had the taco combo plate and no one said anything negative other than it was a lot of food. I had the quesadilla and tortilla soup. The soup was too salty, but the quesadilla was well portioned and flavorful (I asked for fresh jalapeños to be added inside)
Overall it was a good experience with great views of the water. I would recommend the appetizers and the tacos as a safe bet.

Overall impression… Meh
We had a reservation. Table was ready when we got there, and the place was hopping, but not ridiculous. No wait. Waitress took our drink orders, and the drinks from the bar made it to the table before our water/​tea did. We had our appetizers before we had our water and tea. Food took forever, but was pretty good. Not as amazing as people had been raving about, but still tasty. Two meals out of 8 were wrong. One got fixed quickly, the other never got fixed. Drink refills needed to requested. Asked for flour tortillas for the cheese dip, and they didn’t come until cheese was gone.
This was a birthday dinner for two friends, and the dessert was delicious. The coca cola cake was out of this world. Our server was very nice, but seemed a little spread thin, and shouldn’t have been.
I’d give it 2.5 stars if I could. But, I’m being nice and rounding up to 3.

The service sucked tonight.
1^st asked for another seat besides under the fan and in middle of room. Was told was hostess that no other tables available, yet looking around there was 2. When ask for the mgr on duty and she came heard the complaint and yet to give apologized and just ok. like she didnt give a dam.
People getting chips and sausa we had to ask.
Lets hope the food is blmuch better as my party was hungry and wanted to stay. .
So i hush up and bare it.
Ok the general mgr (rebecca wright) comes out
And hear our concern about the service the service we received tonight. Handled it very professional and listened and very apologetic
To us on behalf of the mgr that was on duty tonight (6pm)and service received and com The meal that was brought out.
I ask. why couldn’t the mgr have done that rather than say «ok» and kept on her way.
We will be back in 2 weeks
That was my 1^st visit and was not impressed.
2^nd chance in 2 weeks.
Thanks Rebeca Wright for great cust serv
It does still exist.

Not really feeling this place. The service is friendly and the food is decent. A lot of time and focus was spent on the energy and ambiance. Went for lunch and had he pollo con queso. They use «dirty» Mexican rice which was unfortunately bland. Not enough cheese. The chicken was grilled and was tasty but a little dry. The salsa tasted a lot like a store brand salsa and the tortillas was a little thick. For $ 14, I expected quite a bit more.

I was so happy that Rio Bravo is back! This was my go to place in the 90s and I loved the «swirl» margarita as a «kid” – the perfect combo of strawberry and lime. The cheese dip and margaritas are just average this time around though. The restaurant is large and can accommodate lots and lots of people. We made a reservation and sat down within 10 mins. However, the food wasn’t great. I ordered the shrimp chopped salad. It was supposed to come with romaine but it was really iceberg and only FIVE shrimp (for $ 16.95!). My husband got the beef tamales but there wasn’t really any beef. If we come back, it will just be for convenience as we got a place on the river for a few months.

My coworker found plastic on this fajita. Our server was
Horrible and the food was not the greatest

Hats off for making a great dinner experience for me and my two young boys. Mike and all the staff went out of their way. They helped them make fresh tortillas, and let them sample what they made, had a good kids’ menu, and brought out balloons. The location next to the river is beautiful. Plus, take advantage of «kids eat free» from Monday– Wednesday.

Restaurant very nice.
10 environment
10 service
Great Server.
10 margaridas
5 On Food.
very hard and cold meat,

«Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to appear on a tortilla in Mexico.» — The Simpsons: Season 4, Episode 3
Oh Rio Bravo — how I’ve missed you so! This was my high school hangout back in the late 80’s and early 90’s and my how it has returned. My friends and I would spend many an evening hanging out and stuffing our faces with the hot and freshly made flour tortillas and I am glad they have returned with that tortilla station!
My friends surprised me with my own triumphant return for my birthday dinner — oh just a few of us (24 or more) and we had 2 tables set away from the fray and most of the noise. The place was hopping for a Friday night and parking was crazy. We were able to still find a spot relatively easily and were seated right away. However, service was pretty slow because oddly we only had 1 server for our huge party. After ordering, it took close to an hour to get food for everyone — which is nuts.
I ordered a skinny margarita which took almost 20 minutes to get to me. Really, 2 servers for 2 tables of 12 is not an unreasonable ask. My water was only refilled once and I was drinking it a lot — I had to stop the server twice to get her to refill for other people. For my entrée, I ordered the steak fajitas — always a personal favorite of mine back in the day and it is still amazing… dare I say even better?
Having such a large group, they would not split checks. So we took up cash from everyone to pay — which seemed to work out just fine. Over all, I would say that this is not the best place to bring such a huge group of people, but they are back with a vengeance and I will definitely be returning regularly!

Ray’s Rio Bravo is a comeback for an old Atlanta restaurant chain that was popular in the 80s and 90s. The old Rio Bravo was before my time in Atlanta. I moved here in 2000 and by 2002, all Rio Bravo locations had closed. From what I’ve been told by longtime residents, Rio Bravo went downhill after Ray Schoenbaum sold the chain to another business. This is the same Ray who owns Ray’s on the River down the street, Ray’s in the City downtown, and Ray’s at Killer Creek in Alpharetta. He reopened Rio Bravo in August 2015 and this time, he’s attached his name to it, presumably to relieve any doubt in longtime customers’ minds that the original Rio Bravo — the better Rio Bravo — is back.
The restaurant setup shop where Peter Chang’s Tasty China 2 used to be. Tasty China 2 closed in November 2014. This standalone building has seen at least a couple other restaurants come and go including Olive’s Waterside and Chart House. I visited Rio Bravo on a Friday night and was surprised to see how slammed the place was. I’ve never seen the property so busy. There were multiple parties waiting for tables, people out on the deck (I’d never seen the deck in use until this point), a packed bar and dining room (even the upper level seating area was in use), and a full parking lot with several cars parked on the elevated grassy areas since there were no regular spaces left.
Inside, the atmosphere was loud and festive. There’s a tortilla machine just inside the entrance which seemed to be a big hit with kids. The staff allowed kids to help make tortillas by placing dough balls into the machine which flattened and cooked them. I saw staff giving away tortillas, hot and fresh from the machine, soon after they were cooked. I’m not sure if it was just for kids or if they’re given out regularly.
The dining room is awkwardly shaped with all sorts of nooks and crannies. Management has done away with the booths and carpet from TC2 and really opened the space up, making it feel more casual (like you’d expect from a typical bar/​cantina). Kudos to the management for maximizing the space. However, on this particular night, it still felt crammed. I guess it’s a good problem to have for the business, but not as much fun for customers.
The menu has Rio Bravo’s famous cheese dip ($ 4.95+), guac prepared tableside ($ 12.95), soups, salads, quesadillas, tamales, tacos, fajitas, ribs, traditional Mexican combo plates, entrees including chicken (Springer Mountain), sirloin, shrimp, and grouper, burritos, chimichangas, and enchiladas. Expect to spend, at a minimum, $ 15 – 25 per person for dinner. At least $ 20 – 30 per person is more realistic. A limited selection of lunch specials ($ 9.95 to $ 16.95 each) are available Monday-​Friday, 11am-​3pm.
I ordered the skirt steak fajitas. They were $ 22.95, which seems a bit pricey for fajitas, but at least they’ve dropped from the $ 25.95 I saw on Rio Bravo’s opening menu from last year. Steak fajitas are one of my favorite Mexican foods and Rio Bravo’s version was excellent. The meat was fantastic, cooked by default to a succulent, red, medium rare. It was incredibly tasty. Savory, juicy, and just the right amount of fat. A big part of it must be their «secret» marinade. The meat was served atop a small bed of grilled onions and peppers on an iron skillet with a lime wedge. The skillets here have rubber holders so you and the servers won’t burn your hands when handling the sizzling hot plates.
Served with the fajitas was a side plate of shredded lettuce, guac, pico de gallo, cilantro, and flour tortillas. The fajitas come with Spanish rice or beans of which there are a few types (e.g. black beans, charro beans). I had the charro beans which are pinto beans cooked with ingredients like onion, garlic, and bacon. I thought the sides were fine. The steak is what really shined in this dish.
I also tried the Chicken Fajita Chop-​Chop Salad ($ 13.95) which consists of Romaine lettuce, red peppers, red onion, tomatoes, diced veggies, roasted corn, and black beans topped off with cilantro and served with a honey-​citrus vinaigrette on the side. This was a pretty basic salad that felt like one of those packaged salads you can pick up at a grocery store or kiosk on the go. There was nothing wrong with it. The ingredients were sufficiently fresh, the chicken was grilled and chopped, and the dressing was tasty enough, but ultimately, it was just another run-​of-​the-​mill salad.
The chips and salsa were great. I like how they serve nice big bowls of salsa. The salsa is fresh and flavorful. Chunky and robust.
Service wasn’t good, not because of our server in particular, but because there was only one server assigned to our entire group. There should’ve been at least two. Our reservation was at 7:00pm and dishes didn’t start hitting the tables until 8:20pm. One of our CoronaRitas was spilled on its way to the table and they forgot the beans that came with my fajitas. By the time I got my beans, I’d already finished my entrée.

It’s ridiculous when people say «I’m from California and this food is different» well, this is Georgia and this is Tex Mex. it’s different. Just like Mexican food in California isn’t like Mexico.
The chips here are great, made on site. The food is like southern fusion Mexican. I had a brisker Enchilada… very good… and slough our server disappeared for a long time, the service was very friendly. Try this lovely airy friendly restaurant
Excellent!

I’m a native of Southern California, so Mexican food has always been a big part of my diet growing up. There are definitely some hits and misses, but first the obvious. You wont’ find any lingua here, lol. The menu is your typical «Tex-​Mex» food. So from the Tex-​Mex perspective, most of the dishes I’ve tried were super salty! The complimentary chips and salsa was okay. My Tostado Salad was very good, but again the beef was way too salty. I think if they just cut back on the sodium level everything will taste so much better.
Atmosphere is nice and casual. Would be nice to come back for happy hour and sit outside on the patio looking over the Chattahoochee river when the weather gets a little warmer.

This is a fun place to eat with friends or family. There’s a bar area, an outside patio area with a view of the lake, an upstairs section, and a tortilla (?) making station.
Our server’s name was Mackenzie and she was really pleasant and helpful. A child in the section next to ours spilled a drink on the ground and she didn’t miss a beat helping to clean it up and reassuring the customer it wasn’t a problem. Based on her, I’d say this restaurant has excellent service.
I got the stuffed jalapeño poppers as an appetizer and the Tampico combo with a taco, burrito, enchilada, rice, and beans for my entrée. Everything came out quickly and was delicious. I also had enough leftover to take home for another meal. I do wish the soup wasn’t so expensive though ($ 8) so I could’ve tried it as a side.

I was here with 10 of my friends and happened to try 9 varieties, except for stuffed jalapeños all other dishes were disgusting. None of them have any flavor or the freshness which they promised.
Dont even try to order red snapper colimilla dish: fish came out over cooked, without salt and it was too smelly. They dumped coleslaw and all other sauces on top of the grilled fish which spoiled the appearance as well as the taste. We asked them take it away glad they didnot charge for it as its 28 $.
Even the chicken in enchiladas was over cooked, dry and cheese did not do any good in enhancing the taste.
Same with chimichangas bland taste, beans were yakk with no flavor and to make things worse rice was under cooked.
Service was slow as hell and we always had to catch him before he runs away missing our food for another table.
Not even worth a single star. Place with looks but no value added for the customers.