Cafe Rio Mexican Grill

Had a very good experience at Café Rio. I would recommend this location to anybody staying at the Hilton Garden Inn. The price is right, the service was fast and the food was fresh.
The reason this got four stars is because they charge extra for sour cream. But, on the plus side the guacamole is free.

I sooooo want to give Café Rio 5 stars but I have to rate it 4 for a couple minor mistakes. First, I have been eating at café rio for 6 years and it has become my favorite fast-​casual restaurant. Even OVER chipotle. Yes I said it. It’s just that good.
I am from Henderson, NV and when Café Rio came there I could not stay away. Get THE BARBACOA! You will thank me later. It’s the best meat option on the menu. I have had everything on their menu and the barbacoa is just the best. I like their Quesadillas but they tend to be a little greasy because they load it with cheese. My personal favorite is the barbacoa salad. They load you up with lettuce, rice, beans, cheese, salsa, guacamole, and meat. It’s so big I usually make it two meals. Their cilantro ranch dressing is the best. I always try to eat the vinaigrette but that ranch is so good though.
I like their chips and queso. It’s $ 5 bucks but you get 2 things of salsa, a huge bag of chips and their delicious queso. Unfortunately, this is where I take my review down to 4 stars. The consistency of the queso can be lacking sometimes. And it’s super gross if it does. The other day I ordered my food to go so when I got home and ordered the queso, I noticed it was thick and had gross lumps of cheese in it. It didn’t even taste right. I have been told that it depends on who makes the queso on how good it turns out. Well they need to make it consistent and then I would be happy every time I order it.
Also, I’ve had a couple bad service interactions from one of their cashiers. He’s a little persnickety at times but I just pass it off as his personality. Unfortunately, that also brings down the experience which brings down my stars.
All-​in-​all, I still LOVE Café Rio. It’s a chain and I sure hope they open more in Denver. I have to go out of my way to satisfy my craving. But it’s so worth it.
Me encanta Café Rio!

I’ve been here a number of times on my lunch hour with coworkers who religiously come here for their «Tasty Tuesdays» deal, where it’s 5 dollars for your meal. The food is decent at best, with a system that’s definitely different from your standard Mexican assembly line restaurant, bland sauces and under cooked rice.. Though I have to admit I’ve felt horribly sick within the next 30 minutes more than half of the times I’ve been here.
The most notable experience I’ve had here was on a Tuesday though. We had gotten there minutes after they opened, and only one other customer was there already in line. I was ordering for a coworker who was in a meeting, so I had two orders. When a mentioned to the employee working the front line that I had two orders, he gave me a look, and said, «Of f**king course you do.»
Wasn’t really sure what to do in that situation, so I continued ordering and played the comment off. I would understand his frustration if the lunch rush was present, but nobody else was in line except for me and two coworkers. The employees are constantly in rush mode, and often put on ingredients while they ask you if you want it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had you name it put in mine and others meals before they even finish asking.
I could see how Café Rio is so popular on Tuesdays, with its large portions for only 5 dollars, but the food is barely worth that, with getting sour cream added to your tacos costing you a couple extra dollars.

First off, came here because I have been craving horchata. Very disappointing. It was think and tasted like it was from a syrup. It’s like it was made of dairy milk and some sweet cinnamon syrup. Not the traditional rice drink I was hoping for. And to make things worst, it had the most bitter aftertaste.
The food is over priced for the quality. Sure, you get a lot, but my chips were stale, the guacamole was brown, and I was pulling out tomato tops from my pico the whole meal. Guys, those ends go in the trash. They are hard and flavourless. Which is another the pico was, flavourless. No salt, hardly any lime to speak of. It was just onions, tomatoes, and green onions.
Their sweet pulled pork tasted pretty good on it’s own, and tasted more Hawaiian than any Mexican dish I’ve ever had. It was really out of place in my enchiladas and my husband’s burrito.
I’ve had Café Rio before and loved it. In fact, they catered my brother’s wedding out of state, but this location leaves MUCH to be desired.
My Mexican fix has not been satisfied by this place.

I have been to a few of the locations for this chain and this was by far the worst!!! The guy that was making our actually left in the middle of it — for what I am not sure. So ours stayed on the grill a little long — then I said to the girl can you grab that. At the register we paid with a $ 20 — needed 11.63 in change — the cashier said she was out of $ 10’s I filled up our drinks and then came back — she still had not figured out how to give change til I told her a $ 5 and 6 $ 1’s. So all told it took us 10 minutes to get through the line WITH NO ONE ELSE IN IT!!! Tortilla was harder that usual and be pork was dry. Grrrrrrrr

The food has a good flavor. Be warned… Phone and internet orders on a Tasty Tuesday is a joke. Be prepared to wait and have an incorrect order. Today is the sixth time this has happened. I even waited three months in between for a whole new crew. Same results.

I’m literally addicted to their burritos. With places like Chipotle, I don’t even bother with the tortilla because it is too doughy, and filling, but here, they make their own tortillas and YOU MUST EAT THEM!
I have had both the chicken enchilada meal and burritos here, and both are fantastic. They also have a really cool drink bar with lots of choices. You also can get a frequent buyer card, and the staff is wonderful. My first visit they helped me get a drink, and brought my food to my table for me!
A couple of things to note though– on Tuesdays, they have a special in which meals are $ 5, so prepare for a wait! Also, one time I got my food to go, and they don’t put any silverware in the bag, you have to grab it yourself– so now I have learned that lesson. It definitely won’t prevent me from coming back though!
See you next week Café Rio!!!

My mistake was coming here after a workout, I guess I imagined the food to be somewhat similar to chipotle, it sure isn’t. The portions are huge! I got a burrito with guac and sour cream, this thing was MASSIVE. I managed to eat maybe half, not even. The sweet pork has a great flavor but it is really sweet, maybe too sweet for my taste? Also the pricing for fast casual was higher than anticipated. Rumor has it on Tuesday’s pretty much everything is $ 5 so that’s the day to come here!

I’ve eaten here many times and I always get the tacos. Their corn and flour tortillas are homemade right there in front of you so it doesn’t get fresher than that! Yum! I eat a lot of tacos all Denver and Café Rio definitely delivers yummy quick food. The rice and beans are very tasty too. Sometimes the service is so-​so. I had one guy who was unbelievably rude but I haven’t seen him since.

I’ve never been to excited about Café Rio, from its ecologically unsound disposable metal pie-​tin plates to its bland flavors. However today I went in with some people from work and two of us ordered carnitas enchiladas. I got mine with a mild green sauce and my coworker got his with a spicy red sauce. The plates are served with rice and beans. In both our cases we noticed the overwhelmingly sweet carnitas sauce completely wiped out the flavor of the sauces we ordered. It actually made the dish taste bad, like someone had poured syrup on the meat. Then to add insult to injury, the rice was undercooked and hard.
After the meal I went to the manager and told him our experiences. He said «you either like the carnitas or you don’t» and «sorry about the rice». We was happy to replace the food but being on a tight schedule, we’d already eaten it. I was surprised that he didn’t replace the pan of rice as well. While I stood there I had fantasies of Gordon Ramsey coming in an throwing out their barbacoa and hard rice, yelling at the kitchen staff. Instead I just left.
Within a mile there is a Wahoo’s and a Rubio’s both of which can do a much better job.

Well I rarely review a place after eating there, but Café Rio calls for it. First off, the pictures on their website look great! Ordering online is confusing because, depending on how you navigate the website, your location may or may not have the online ordering option available. Tip: click the Online Order option where you have type in your zip code.
My notes: the medium Green Chile salsa is sweet. Like dessert. It was weirdly offputting.
And the ingredients inside could have been more flavorful. Rice, beans, meat is not enough.
They are rather fast for orders done over the phone.

We have been to Café Rio a number of times. The food is consistently good and fresh. They prepare your order in-​front of you and you get to customize your ingredients and toppings.
The people who work there are always welcoming, helpful and friendly …

I love Café Rio food, but threw manager and staff at this location are so obnoxious and rude. They are extremely stingy with their portions, especially the meat, but even the rice and beans. it’s pathetic. I’ve been continuing to go there because it’s on my way home, but I’m done. They are not worth my time or money.

This is the weird cousin of Chipotle and Qdoba. I guess I like what I’m used to… but I feel like there should be certain things that every burrito place should deliver on. For example, I expect to eat my burrito with my hands… and not be forced to open it back up. The burrito here is sealed and toasted after adding rice, beans and meat. And if you add salsa, lettuce or sour cream (they charge extra for sour cream too), you have to reopen your burrito, which becomes a horrible, horrible mess. The flavors also didn’t blow me away (chicken was dry and lacked seasoning, the rice was kinda hard and undercooked). The one redeeming quality is the flour tortilla, which is chewy and excellent.
However I’m not going to fold this place into my chain burrito routine — Qdoba and Chipotle deliver a higher quality chain burrito that you can hold in your hands.

Café Rio is just… ok to me.
I walked in on a Saturday around noon. I ordered a chicken salad. They pulled a tortilla with cheese (the base of the salad) that had already been processed through the conveyor, so it wasnt warm anymore. They did not put much meat, and the salad dressings hardly had any flavor.
I still much prefer Café Mexicali, and I look forward to them expanding more.

Never had a bad experience until today… the (I’m assuming manager) was a complete douche and was undermining his empliyees the whole time. The food was delicious. But whoever the tall grumpy white dude is needs to go. Asap.

Had the chili verde burrito. The meat had a sweet character that balanced well with all the other ingredients. A huge meal presented in tin pie plates. Really good

So, I’m glad I didn’t write this review after going there the first time. It would have been a solid one star. They screwed up my order, the food was cold, and it wasn’t even tasty.
BUT… I had the opportunity to give them another chance last night, and I’m glad I did. I came in really close to closing time and was received with smiles and courtesy. The guy who took my order was really, really nice. I had the vegetarian salad, which was a ridiculous amount of food that I plan on finishing for dinner tonight, plus the chips, salsa and queso. The salsa is good and they gave me both pico de gallo and salsa, but I just can’t get on board with their queso. It’s underwhelming and just… I don’t know. Needs some kind of bite. I mixed in a bit of the pico de gallo, which helped but I’m not sure I’d order it again.
Overall, I don’t think i would chose this place over Chipotle or Cal Tort, BUT I’m glad I went back in, because for $ 8 I got a TON of food, easily enough for two meals and it was pretty good.
It’s also really close to the hotel my company puts me up in when I come out here, so there’s a good chance I’ll be back.
One and a half full stars for the super friendly staff.

This is fast food Mexican but it is fresh and not greasy. I found the pork to be tender and the pulled chicken was not dry as someone else stated. The nachos with sweet pork barbacoa is the best thing on the menu. I’m very afraid that I discovered the nachos at Café Rio. It might become my new addiction.

I am a burrito connoisseur! Chipotle Is my middle name and the name of my future first born. I had to come here to see what the hype was about. I can hear the opinions of my friends in my sleep…“You should try Café Rio, it’s better than Chipotle” «B, for as much as you like Chipotle, you should try Café Rio».
My girlfriend takes me to Café Rio and I order a smothered burrito with the sweet pork, per the employees recommendation. The burrito was «ok» the chips were «ok». There were more employees sitting in dining area talking and eating than there were patrons. This place is behind Chipotle AND Costa Vida! Chipotle’s burritos aren’t even in the same category as Costa and Rio. Chipotle is the Successful father and Costa is the Successful son. Café Rio is simply that son that never moved out that doesn’t quite have things figured out yet. They might get it in the future, but as of now they will keep playing video games and doing nothing with their life.
Until next time Café Rio… or not.