January 26, 2010

Cafe Rio

We tried two new places for dinner over the weekend. First was Friday, we went to Cafe Rio for dinner. I had never heard of it before, his co-worker recommended it, it's like Chipotle and ironically enough there is a Chipotle and Cafe Rio on the same street corner (Sahara/Ft Apache).

This place was packed when we walked inside, mostly families, but also a few couples. I was surprised how busy it was considering I've never heard of the place before. Seems I'm the last to know. Anyway, they have your typical assembly line ordering system, you tell them what you want. What sets Cafe Rio apart is that you can watch meats being grilled and tortillas being made while you wait.

Frank ordered a grilled steak burrito with rice, black beans and hot sauce. Then, he got it coated in enchilada sauce and cheese. Condiments like sour cream and salsa were added to the side.


I ordered two tacos with corn tortillas: pork barbacoa and chicken.


His steak burrito was worlds better than my tacos. It was pretty good. Large and filling. The barbacoa pork was WAY too sweet for my liking and the chicken was bland. The tortillas fell apart, it was pretty disastrous. Thankfully, Frank was a dear and shared his burrito. We also ordered chips and salsa. Eh, not so great. The salsa was WAY too lime-y.

Dinner was around 22 bucks. I'm not much of a fan of the fast-casual eateries. I'd much rather stick to a full service restaurant.

2 comments:

Hurricane Mikey said...

There's a Cafe Rio right next door to Grimaldi's over here on my side of town. I'll never step in there, though. I mean, if I'm anywhere near that shopping plaza, I cannot escape the gravitational pull of Grimaldi's.

They just picked a bad location over here.

Kellee said...

Completely understandable.

I found it's close proximity to Chipotle funny, but both appear to do well. There must be more demand than I'd guess.