Cafe Rio

Food is always good but really learn how to roll a burrito if you spend a little more time i wouldn’t have had to been re rolled and also no one was in line the employee was like going as fast as she can seems like she didn’t even care

I am obsessed with the salads! Although it’s probably not entirely healthy since it’s layered with a tortilla, beans, rice, cheese, and tortilla chips. All other ingredients (lettuce, salsa, cilantro, dressing, and guac) I feel are considered healthy since you can find them on traditional salads. I like how they have an open kitchen so you can watch them make their tortillas while standing in line. I’m always fascinated by small creations like this.
I also enjoy how fast they are. Even if there is a long line when you walk in, you’ll find yourself sitting and chowing down in no time. They have a great selection of drinks, my personal favorite is their mint limeade!
They also switched to a new app system to track your purchases, instead of their previous stamp card. What was awesome for my previous experience is the timing of the switchover from the stamp card to the app. I had about 7 stamps on my card and didn’t know of the app change until I got there. I was hoping they would still be honoring the cards until people were able to complete their 10 purchases, which they did in a way! They cashier saw that I was close enough to the 10 and gave me my meal for free, but just prompted me that I needed to download the app from here on out. Such a kind man!

love café rio; the meats are amazing! the fire grilled chicken, shredded chili beef, tomatillo ranch, lettuce, tortillas, chips are so good and worth the price! The salads are huge, you can’t finish in one sitting, with good lettuce and crisped tortilla; it’s amazing, as are the tacos and burritos. it isn’t a low cal option with all the fixings, but it’s customizable if you choose; it just won’t be as good and worth $ 9. so it’s more a splurge meal that’s well worth it. i like Costa Vida, their pretty much the same thing competition others have mentioned, but have found that the quality and taste is even better at café rio. I also never wait too long in line, so that’s nice; however I have had to wait too long for called ahead orders and that’s irritating as I could go through the line in less time. I don’t mind waiting for a couple mins after i show up but shouldn’t have to wait long.
The reason for not giving it 5 stars is that the manager is rude and unfriendly on several occasions and nobody, especially her, seems to care or put in any sense of urgency as you show up and have to then wait and wait for your meal that you *called ahead because they didn’t ever bother to prepare it. Many of the line staff seem impatient, but honestly, there is a tall window barrier at the line, so not being able to hear you could be the problem. I personally appreciate that taller window barrier at the line, as I don’t want anyone in line hovering over the food I’m going to order with their hair, coughing or whatever, just as much as the next guy. so that doesn’t bother me if I have to repeat my order as it seems to bother others. good food and worth it; they just need to work on customer service skills a bit and it starts with management.

I have used their catering twice now for parties at my home. I go with the tacos everytime because you can’t go wrong. They show up timely, set everything up, and are very courteous and professional! The food is delicious and my guests always rave about it! I will use them again and again!

The food is pretty good here. My biggest complaint is when you order online and pick up they always give you such a tiny portion of meat. It’s like because you’re not there watching them make it they rip you off.

Consistently great food and speedy and efficient service. My kids love the quesadillas, I think they’re free, and the pork salad is incredible!

I like this place!
I wasn’t a fan of the sweet pork, just too sweet so I switched with another person at my table that liked it .
There is pretty much always a line but the food is great and the service isn’t bad either

Food is good. Salad with ranch is there best item. Staff are not super helpful and the line takes for ever.

Another example of a very poorly run Café Rio. Where are you finding your managers from?! Today’s shining example was a manager unwilling to budge and honor the price that their employee offered.
I wanted to try the shrimp tacos, which were on their daily special. I asked specifically if I could order them ala carte like the regular tacos. I was told yes. When I got to the register, they tried to charge me the price of the tacos as a meal. I told them no, I ordered them ala carte. Long story short, they couldn’t ring them out that way. Manager refused to honor the price by ringing them out as another type of taco. THEN THE MANAGER WOULD NOT EVEN COME SPEAK WITH ME FACE TO FACE, EVEN AFTER SEVERAL REQUESTS FROM HER STAFF. She just sat in her office and relayed messages to me via her cashier. I asked her staff to ask her if she would rather just lose the sale and waste the food because I wasn’t going to purchase them as a meal. Her one word answer, «Yes.» Her blatant disregard for customer service is a shining example of what’s broken with Café Rio as a Company.
Thank goodness there are plenty of Chipotle’s close by, and a couple new Costa Vida’s as well. They seem to actually like their customers and and treat them well.
First and last visit to this place!
Hey Café Rio higher ups, if you are reading this, it’s a bad trend in both of your locations that I’ve visited. Your managers and staff need more customer service training. In a market that has plenty of competition, with reviews and ratings readily available at our finger tips, it’s your service that sets you aside and keeps driving new business in or out of your locations. …but what do I know, I’m just a consumer looking for a place to spend my hard earned money.

One of my clients order catering for their group from this Café Rio location. They delivered on time, had an efficient set up, and plenty of food for 40+ people. After their group went through they offered the extras to our staff and we were all very impressed. The chicken and steak were well seasoned. The rice, beans, and salad were delicious. Everyone LOVED the salad dressing (I even put it on my tacos). I will recommend Café Rio to all upcoming groups!

The food is very fresh but if you place an order for pickup, you shouldn’t have to wait an additional half hour after the pickup time you are given

I really think you TRY to be this bad. And you try HARD.
I ordered online. I selected «substitute shredded lettuce.» When you charge NINE DOLLARS for a veggie salad, one would think that you could get the lettuce right.
Instead I get pieces of lettuce the size of my HAND that are damaged (bruised) and clearly still dirty and /​or wilted. The rice was cold, the tortilla was never heated. Maybe you are not familiar with the components of your salad. P. S. An entire BAG of tortilla chips cannot hide the fact that your salad is comprised of things I would put in the disposal rather than consume.
I have *no* idea why I went back to this location.
You are an embarrassment to Café Rio. I hope they shut down your franchise.

This food here is very good, but this place has a major issue though. The lack of staffing, only 3 people preparing food and sometimes two. They are so nice and friendly, if you come here at dinner time you probably will waist long time on line waiting for food. And always food gets cold because it waits to long before you get to the cashier.

So honestly I feel like this place is getting a bad wrap. I saw the reviews of this place but still wanted to check it out despite it only having three stars. Everyone was saying how awful the customer service was but I’ve only heard great things about it from friends. Despite the poor reviews about bad customer service I found the staff to be very friendly and helpful. I ordered the pork salad because I’ve heard how amazing their pork was and it definitely did not disappoint. The salad dressing/​pork combo was pretty fantastic.

If you like horrendous customer service, poor food quality, and walking into a restaurant thinking… «Well this could ruin my night»… head on down to Café Rio Gilbert because they will surely take care of you.
Having ate at many Café Rio’s throughout North America I have always enjoyed the food. I have tried this Café Rio on four occasions. The first time I arrived at this location was around dinner on a Friday night… the place was dead. I was thrilled as I was used to waiting in 30 minute lines to order my food at several locations. Little did it take to figure out why…
Every single time the customer service was absolutely horrendous, and there was something wrong about the food (Uncooked Tortilla for a steak salad *literally still dough*, uncooked rice *the kind that crunches when you chew*) Two times, I have thrown away my entire meal without even eating a ¼ of it. Beyond disappointing. Finally, I had enough and I called in to let them know of my disappointment. The manager agreed to give us a free meal the next time we came in, asked for our names. Even went as far as stating that when we came in the next time we should just give the cashier our name, these were the only instructions we were given.
Well — we came back to give the Café Rio Gilbert another shot (first mistake). As we went through the line we informed the cashier that our name and that we had a free meal on record. This resulted in the cashier asking, «how?» When we explained why, the cashier walked away from us mid sentence and started to speak to another employee in Spanish directly in front of us. At the end of it they asked if we had our receipt from the previous visit. We did not due to the previous conversation regarding the free meal with the manager. When we tried to explain we were cut off again and ignored as they went back to speaking Spanish in front of us. Eventually the lady quickly tried to hand us our bag and said «here». The thing is we had other meals we needed to pay for and our order was not complete. When finally went to leave the cashier told us that we should of brought our receipt…
My question to this is why? To show we made a prior purchase at Café Rio? I had online statements that can show that directly on my phone. Customer Service dissatisfactions are generally documented and monitored internally. This is how a business should be ran. You track these concerns to see if the restaurant is losing its way. Customer dissatisfaction is the first alarm in a location being in trouble… apparently here, that alarm is not available… along with its customer service, and food quality.
This all being stated… the customer service at the Baskin-​Robbins next door is outstanding.

Really stunned by this place.
The staff was not friendly, food was over priced for what you get, and the taste was bland.
Had a pork enchilada with hot sauce.
Seriously it wasn’t even up to Taco Bell level.
Chips were almost stale and the salsa was terrible.
I feel bad leaving reviews like this but I felt compelled in this my one and only trip to Café Rio

I visited Café Rio on Taco Tuesday. One taco for $ 2, and for another $ 2 you can add beans, rice and a soft drink. I thought this would be a great deal. This was the strangest taco I’ve ever had. It was greasy, but yet it wasn’t fried. Not sure how they accomplished that, but for that reason, I won’t be returning. Food was bland, at best.
Like another Unilocaler mentioned, the height of the dividing wall between the food prep and customer area so high I had to stand on my tippy toes to shout my order to her. I asked for retried beans three times, but nope, I got regular pinto beans. They were still better than the taco!

Love café rio! It is kind of like chipotle, except good. The barbacoa is where it is at. I always go for the enchiladas with hot sauce. I don’t care too much for their beans, but the rice is great as well. They do fresh tortillas on the grill. I always grab an extra one as they are too good to pass up.

I’ve been here a few times recently and every time it’s been a similar story. Before I get into that, I’ll say that I personally prefer Costa Vida to Café Rio (they’re sister companies) but that’s more of a loyalty thing than anything else.
The food is good. The pork is amazing, everything tastes fresh, the tortillas are homemade. All positive things.
The service at this location leaves something to be desired. It’s not that the employees are necessarily rude, but their English is difficult to understand. Normally I wouldn’t complain about this at all, but 50% of the reason for this is that the barrier between the employees and customers is RIDICULOUSLY high. I’m an average height and I have to stand on my tiptoes to communicate with the employees. That’s not alright and it needs to be changed. If that small detail was changed I think the whole experience would be significantly better because we wouldn’t have to repeat ourselves (both customers and employees) like ten times to be understood.

NEVER EAT AT THIS LOCATION.
The sweet pork tastes good, but I am absolutely outraged by the lack of customer service at this location. While they were making my tacos they «realized» that they put «too much» chicken in the pan and promptly removed it from my order so that they could save money on the meat they were using for my order. On top of all that they got the order wrong and only gave us two tacos instead of three. Horrendous customer service and complete lack of ability to provide to the wishes of the consumer.