Cafe Rio Fresh Modern Mexican — Restaurant in Garden City

Stopped in to get lunch to-go while my husband was shopping at Cabela's and I figured we'd try a new place while out and about.

First off, it's pretty much Costa Vida but not as awesome. Burritos, salads, tacos, the basics. I ordered a sweet pork salad, a smothered steak burrito for the man, and a spicy green chili taco for us to try. My salad was fine other than things listed in the cons and the man said his burrito was good. The only thing I have to say about the burrito is that I found it odd that, after the server folded the tortilla up, she put one single piece of steak in the dish, next to the burrito. Was there a reason for this? Is that how they normally serve the burritos? With one piece of steak on the side? It was odd.

Pros: Portion of meat on the salad was perfect Portion size of the burrito was enough to satisfy the man for lunch HOWEVER at 11.49 for a smothered burrito, the price was a bit ridiculous and he would have needed two to satisfy him for dinner. He could get three times the food for about the same price with a meal from Fiesta Guadalejara. Menus everywhere Food was still warm even when we got it home to Nampa Decent salsa

Cons: -I got a black bean that was so over cooked I couldn't bite through it so chew carefully; I avoided the rest of my beans after that -The salad dressing is basically ranch -You have to really like cilantro to eat the whole salad and especially all the stems -Lettuce was cut in sizes too large to fit in the average mouth -With a to-go order, you have to go get your own silverware and napkins -Only one employee smiled, everyone else looked like they really didn't like their job and I'm not trying to be mean, I'm completely serious. It was kind of a downer watching the sad lady flip the tortillas as you start the line. Instead of getting excited for food, I was contemplating just what happened to make her hate it there so much. The cashier pretty much had the same effect on me (see taco cons). -Really loud in there -Servers didn't know who's food was who's as it changed stations -The cashier should find a better way rather than saying something along the lines of "Is all that for you?" 'Cause, yeah, that doesn't make an individual feel at ALL weirdly shameful...

Taco Cons: I told the server I'd never been there before and, even with that information, he didn't tell me rice and beans were extra so, imagine my surprise when I was charged $6.79 for what I was thinking was a single taco. I informed the cashier that the menu says a single taco is $3.79 and her dead pan response was, "that's without rice and beans." I explained that I didn't know that and hadn't expected to be charged what I was and she just stared at me. Since the restaurant was full and there was a line behind me, I just dealt with it. Now, if you do the math, after tax, I paid practically four freaking dollars for a taco and that's insane but I figured it might be large or have a lot of stuff on it like you'd get at Chipotle (which is really less 'taco' and more 'taco buffet in your lap' if you're not careful with those bad boys). Upon inspection at home, this $4 taco was shell, meat, practically a head of lettuce, and that tomato/onion stuff. The extra $3 I was charged was for the rice and beans (also an outrageous price, see the photo). This spicy green chili pork taco was an addition to their menu and not something we'd normally order so I figured it would be fun to try since we like spicy stuff. Yeah, the orange juice I had this morning was spicier than that taco. Huge let down. And, oddly enough, it had bite-sized lettuce on it instead of the massive pieces that my salad got. Just, why, Cafe Rio?

tldr: Overpriced food, uncaring staff (for the most part), loud, wish I had gone somewhere else, and you shouldn't have to cut your lettuce...

Let me tell you about the worst experience at Café Rio. It was hallows eve we went into cafe rio around 9:00 PM (they were closing an hour early by the way)first we began ordering our food, burritos. The woman was obviously new since she didn’t know to put sauce inside of the burritos. Also she acted as though running my burrito through the oven was like doing me a favor when in reality that’s just what you do when you order a burrito enchilada style I know because I come here a lot. So we continued on as normal we checked out, the guy was a little easily confused, but it was fine, we made it out the door, we drive all the way to our home, only to find BUG EGG SACS on our Lettuce. I’m talking little brown raised bumps, possibly an aphid pod. Now this is where it gets good, we drive all the way back to Café Rio in a blind rage. We get there and immediately asked to speak with a manager. The brown haired girl seemed pretty annoyed have to get a manager. This handsome young buckeroo comes out. This manager must’ve just graduated from manager school unlike the wetzel pretzel manager, see our other review (two stars). He was very understanding and looked at the lettuce closely and then offered to make us knew burritos without the lettuce. We went back in line to get our burritos still dealing with the same two girls who this time gave us some serious attitude. While my sister was telling the blonde girl about our situation with the lettuce trying to be nice and inform her that maybe the lettuce is contaminated because the manager didn’t even mention it and they didn’t even look at their lettuce supply. As my sister was explaining this I watched this other employee straight up role her eyeballs and make a very rude face. That is unacceptable customer service. Honestly we would recommend just going to chipotle because they are much better in terms of taste and also they are never rude like this. Also they have sofritas which is first of all Delicious and second of all not available at Café Rio. Disappointed. If your vegan and want some source of protein other than beans your only gonna get it in the form of insects Egg sacs. And for dessert plenty of eye rolls...

Unfortunately, this Costa Vida location on Franklin is going to get itself in trouble from a food safety perspective. Most of the food prep areas were very unsanitary and did not appear safe to be serving food. No real surprise because the rest of the restaurant was the same (overflowing trash cans, dirty drink serving area, garbage on the ground, tables covered in trash, etc. with only 1-2 small groups in the restaurant) Saw one of the workers take a tortilla off the ground and cut a smiley face in the tortilla with his finger (IN A FOOD PREP AREA). I have no idea what was ultimately done with the tortilla, but that food prep area was then very unsanitary.

Friday night at 7PM on Franklin. Took the family. Restaurant was mostly empty but trash bins were all overflowing, floors were dirty and multiple tables were covered in trash and food. Couldn't hardly find a place to sit in an empty restaurant (I now know why it was empty on a Friday night) There were 2-3 employees working very hard behind the food, serving customers. The guy running the cashier was standing around texting with his friend (who was sitting in the restaurant). The employee cut in the middle of a couple of large orders to make his buddy some free food, delivered it to him and then went back to standing around and playing on his phone. All of the drink dispensers were empty. I asked the "texting employee" if they usually ran all of their juice dispensers on empty... he sighed painfully decided he would make the effort of refilling one. Also asked if knew all the garbage cans were overflowing and the tables were all dirty - "why do you care?" was his response. I understand it is hard to find labor, but figure the owner would like to know he's got an employee on the take and not performing any of the basis duties. I feel bad for the other members of the team that were working hard.

I'd love to be able to share more with the owner/operator, but it was very disappointing experience from a concept I usually enjoy. I supposed Chipotle or Costa Vida nearby are the much better...