Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Boulder

food was tasty, the cooks definitely know what they're doing and the servers were friendly... but the portions size to price was egregious paid 30 dollars for fajita skirt steak and got maybe 6 strips of steak and the total size was smaller than a hamburger patty, they were also cut with the grain so the meat was chewier than meat flavored gum and were served to us rare without ever asking us a temperature we would have liked them. yes it came with some roasted veggies (3 slivers of roasted bell peppers and a slice of onion) beans, rice and a 'dollop' of sour cream and avocado but that shouldn't have cost more than 20 dollars tops. chips were awful had zero favor or salt and tasted like plastic and old flour. the salsa had good flavor but was practically puréed and spicy water. the service to put it frankly, was abysmal. and by abysmal i truly mean that every time you needed your server it felt like you fell off the face of the earth into the void because any interaction took 15-20 minutes of waiting and waiting as you stared down your server walking past you and unable to hear you over the BLARING rock music (good song selection tho) that drowned out the person sitting right across from you so of course your server was unable to hear your pleas for help. the whole evening was spent trying to make the food stretch, repeating yourself or asking your date to repeat themselves, flagging down the server unsuccessfully or trying to avoid touching the dirty table and salt/pepper shakers with your hands (which we had to ask for also??). it was nice that the water was in its own bottle so we could serve ourselves because lord knows how long we would have had to endure waiting for a refill. totally does not fit the appeal of pearl street where after some walking and shopping you want to settle down for a casual but nice meal. super duper overstimulating and not neurodivergent friendly at all. you're also seated way too close to other tables/patrons which makes it very uncomfortable and difficult to have a conversation because you can overhear everything being said around you. complete let down and very poor experience. i would only recommend this restaurant to my worst enemy who would enjoy the tasteless, unsanitary, and overpriced atmosphere because there are much nicer, cleaner, more authentic restaurants around boulder and this one failed on every level. as a former resident of the rio grande valley in texas idk who this restaurant...

I have always liked the Rio. When I was in college at CU I would often times go there for tasty and relatively cheap margaritas. Since Covid I have opted mostly to dine-out. I usually order the family enchilada meal. This comes with 8 enchiladas with a protein of your choosing, beans, rice and chips and salsa (By the way the chips are amazing and made fresh by the cooking staff). We have three in our family so this amount of food works out to be two meals for us. The food in my opinion is very good. And what you should expect from a higher end Mexican food restaurant. But like I said, the chips are phenomenal. Every time I call I am connected with a very pleasant person to take my order and they do so extremely fast. So not only are they pleasant to speak with, but they get the order going promptly. They are also accommodating. For example I asked for a little more rice and they did so with no extra charge and did not even hesitate. The single issue I ever had in the years I have been ordering out was one meal they forgot the beans and rice in. I live in the mountains. So when I got home it was too inconvenient to return and pick up said missing items. I spoke with a manger and she said the next meal was on the house and she even gave us three free margaritas to go. She asked if we wanted anything else. Almost as if she would give us anything else in the restaurant. In fact I heard her speaking with the bartender and she said to give them whatever they would like no questions asked. If that does not speak to how amazing the customer service at the Rio is I don’t know what would. Finally, this is a small note but for the to go orders the Packaging is fantastic. It keeps everything warm and also they place it in a box for easy carry. I highly recommend the Rio. Great for family dinner,...

My partner and I decided to go out for a late dinner Friday night around 9pm and left the restaurant shocked by the disregard for basic customer service.

We had been coming to the Boulder Rio for years, it always had been a place we could rely on when we are looking to have a great time. Sadly, we will never feel comfortable coming back.

When we arrived, we asked the hostesses downstairs if the rooftop was open seating, and they said yes. The rooftop had plenty of open tables, no hostess and no sign. A group of huddled workers next to the rooftop door ignored our questions with blank stares. All of the above led us to feel confident that it was open seating.

After sitting down at an empty communal table, we were ignored again until 15 minutes later, a brunette waitress came to the table to scold us loudly in front of the other tables. Embarrassed, we apologized and we were met with explanations of how we should act in a restaurant. “People usually just wait when there is no hostess. Just so you know for the future.”, “not tonight but we almost always have a long wait. People don’t just sit down”. When she was done, she asked us what we wanted and when we asked to see a menu we were met with an eye roll. We walked out, and my partner was so upset she was literally brought to tears.

I have never seen such blatant disregard for customer service. After reading reviews from customers who had similar experiences to reading responses from management that stress employees are trained to make all feel welcome, I would strongly suggest you revisit this training with staff. We cannot justify coming back and I’m sure you’ll lose more long time customers if you don’t take quick action to remedy to customer...