Cafe Rio Fresh Modern Mexican — Restaurant in Arizona

Update: Don't believe what the manager says below; they honestly don't care. They continue to take an insanely long time for anything at this location. Today, came through the drive-thru about 5:00 p.m., with one car ahead of me just leaving. I simply ordered a container of their tomatillo dressing to take home and use with fish tacos I was making. Again, I was simply ordering a container of salad dressing. That's it. The guy was very nice (looked about 12-yrs-old), but it took quite a while for him to understand what size dressing I wanted. But we finally got it figured out. (I've done this at the FLW location many times without so much trouble but here we are. No worries, like I said we got it figured out.) He then said, "let me go grab that for you. I'll be right back." He never came back. After the eight literal minute mark after I started watching the clock, I pulled around and was just about to go inside, as he came out with it. When I asked what happened, he said "oh we have a lot of backed up orders." He was delivering a single order to a single car, I think it was the one that was ahead of me. There were no other visible cars. Again, it was simply an order of dressing. No food to cook. Only prepared dressing. He had said he would be right back with it. Why didn't he just say we have other orders ahead of you, and I'll get to that as soon as I can? Why, because this location is awful. They simply do not care. Enter at your own risk. And certainly when you have A LOT of time on your hands.

Original Review: Don't believe what they tell you; they do not have grilled chicken ready when you order it. So you're paying $1 extra for something that they're then going to have to make for you but not tell you in advance that you'll have to wait for it while they make it. So you get to pay to wait longer for your food. And in my experience-certainly today-they don't even begin to cook it until after your order is supposed to be ready. We ordered online checked out at 6:14 p.m. Our order was quoted to be ready at 6:30. I walked in the store at 6:30 after having waited in the parking lot, because we ordered online instead of the drive-thru at the last minute. So I know they were not busy and they had basically no customers while I sat there waiting. I saw one group go in and didn't even order till after I was waiting. After I came in at 6:30 when my order was supposed to be ready, they inform me that they did not have any grilled chicken ready and would have to cook it and did I want to change my protein. (I did not want to change the protein. It was for one of my children who only likes grilled chicken at the moment.) They are very nice and offer you all kinds of free stuff while you're waiting, but I just wish they would make the order when it was sent to them and not make a customer wait that long. I had to wait an additional 20 minutes. My order was not ready until 6:50. And they lied and checked out my order when I arrived, so it looked like it was ready at 6:34. So they could try to get a good rating for order completion I'm sure. Don't believe it; they don't have the chicken ready. My son confirmed that that's the same thing that happens to him when he goes in. I really think that the people who work here need to go watch how it's done at a Chipotle because in addition to the absolute ridiculousness of them not making the order until after you've arrived-cooking the chicken for it-I mean they also right in front of the customer cut open the boil in the bag black beans and pour them into the serving container on the line. I can't say that Chipotle and other places don't get their beans pre-made, preseasoned, and boil in the bag, but I can guarantee you that all the times I've ever been to any of those places, they have never cut that bag open and dumped it directly in front of the customer so that you are aware that their food is premade. Overall a bad experience. It's a shame cuz the food is good but the rest of it is just not worth the hassle. This is not fast casual This is sloooooooooow as molasses...

I have not been to a "Cafe Rio" before, and today's quick stop in was a nice surprise. The atmosphere was enjoyable, a handful of people around lunchtime on a Thursday. What caught my attention was the immediacy of the staff. They were busy doing what needed to be done and their craftsmanship of the orders was taken care of. I had the days special, which turned out to be the Coconut shrimp tacos, accompanied by the Mango nada to top it off. We got the order to go. I also noticed the portion sizes which to my delight was exceptional. No wimpy tacos here, but enjoyable portions to fill out quick lunch crave. One taco was satisfying for me so I'm saving the other for later. The service was fast and we were in and out of there within five minutes at least. I tried to soak in the details of the restaurant which was clean, well lite and enjoyable. I'm still trying to capture the Mango nada in terms of taste. It was interesting, of course there was no mango bits in it as I was expecting and the slight spice of the jalapenos was a nice surprise. I recommend not breathing in as you take a sip. Refreshing and light. Thank you for the nice introduction to your...

Staff was pretty rude and food was not good. Never been to cafe rio went in today the staff was very rude treating me like I was a idiot because I didn’t know what to get. Staff can barely speak loud enough for me to hear them. Ordered a drink but the Ice machine wasn’t working so that was pointless. Cashier doesn’t say “thank you” or “have a nice day” just what my total is. Beans were extremely stale to the point where all I could feel in my mouth was hard little rock’s. Never going back to this Cafe Rio. Might never go back to Cafe Rio in general. Can’t believe they are in business especially comparing them to chipotle burrito express and any other place that sells burritos. Hopefully they go out of business. Have a good day besides the cafe rio employees:))) 0/10...