Cafe Rio Fresh Modern Mexican — Restaurant in Gilbert

Gone down hill in such a short time:

This is now the second time we've come to Cafe Rio (in the last two weeks) where they claimed they had no steak available, only chicken. However, this time, instead of leaving, someone said "you can wait for us to make some more". Sure, we said, extremely confused why they just claimed they had no more in the entire store.

Usually you see them make your meal. We were in line half the time as we normally are, which was odd considering how busy it was. We never saw them "make" this fresh per usual. All of a sudden, there it is. We ask the girl to give us sour cream and avocado as sides (my wife can't have anything spicy, which is why we liked the restaurant, in addition to the higher quality ingredients). The girl proceeded to take the scooper from the guacamole, took her finger and scooped out the guac, then scooped half a scoop of avocado and shoved it in the container. Yes... just floating in the container. They always use small cups for the sides so that it stays separate from the meal. I guess not this time. She did the same for the sour cream. We complained to "the manager" (aka what looked like a kid) and she simply stated "I guess I'll try to keep an eye on the line" and walked away.

On top of this, we got home (we're just up the street) and the "fresh" food was stone cold. No heat at all coming from the food, unlike normal. So this obviously was someone else's previous order. And as a "cherry on the sundae" moment, the entire quasadilla was completely uncut. Just one big, uncut, cold quasadilla. Oh, and the scoops of avocado and sour cream? By the time we got up the road to our home... smeared across the pan.

I don't know why I'm complaining honestly, as I'm not coming back. Hopefully, this will help someone else or someone in your company who cares enough about what used to be one of our favorite restaurants in the SanTan area. We live in Arizona, a stone's throw from Mexico. There are countless places to go for mexican food. Trust me, find...

I tried Cafe Rio out for the first time yesterday, that was a mistake. I ordered online. When I arrived at the pickup counter, the restaurant was completely empty. I told them the name for my order and they said they would get started on it. I told them to take their time as I knew I was early. Then, after some back and forth between employees, I was (in my opinion) rudely told that my food was set to pick up at 7:10. It was 6:50. This was unprompted, I was just standing looking around and conversing with my husband as it was our first time inside and we really liked the layout of the restaurant. The employee stared at me until I awkwardly apologized for coming early and again told them that I did not mind waiting if they needed. The employee didn't respond, and I went to go sit down at a dirty table as there were no clean tables to be seen. I watched as employees joked with eachother, took water cups back into the kitchen near the food, and had about 6 people arrive and pass through the line while I waited for my salad to be ready. When the order was ready, they silently put it onto the pickup shelf. Nobody called out the order, I had to walk over to make sure I had the right bag. I left and did not get so much as a "sorry about that wait" or "bye". I got home and my order was missing the seasonal veggies and pollo asada I paid extra for. They also didn't give me my side of elote. My food was sealed in the bag, but somehow the inside of the bag was covered in sour cream to the point where I had to wash the container before I could even open it. The food was mid at best, the portion sizes were about the same as Chipotle. I was so excited to try this place, but unfortunately I won't be returning. I called customer service who offered me a refund but also did not so much as apologize for my experience. I know food service jobs suck, and I know service has gone down since covid, but this experience was...

Horrible customer service. Went in 12-18-21 (a Sat) at 8:55pm. I checked the sign on the door on the way in to confirm they close at 10pm on Saturdays.

We stood looking at the menu board for a minute, then we turned and faced the prep line. There were three employees working on food prep for what appeared to be the next day, and one working with a customer's order. Most of the containers in the food prep line were empty and clean. So it LOOKED like they were already closing down and not interested in serving anyone. There was one customer ahead of us at the cashier area and no other customers behind us. None of the employees acknowledged us.

We stood there for a couple minutes while the employees were talking amongst themselves while doing other tasks. Still no acknowledging us at all. I asked the employee nearest us what time they closed. She said 10pm and went back to what she was doing. None of them said anything about helping us. We stood there for a couple more minutes, still no acknowledgement from any employees. I said I guess you don't want our business" and went to leave. They didn't say anything.

I decided partway out to go back and talk to them about the poor service. I asked them to come over so I could talk to them. They all SEEMED annoyed that I would want to talk to them and that I was interrupting their conversation while they were busy ignoring us.

I explained that they had horrible customer service. None of them said anything. It didn't SEEM like any of them cared. Its just really disappointing because I like Cafe Rio, but I'm not going to stand around awkwardly being ignored, or made to feel that i am inconveniencing them when there are no other customers.

If you are going to be open till 10 you don't start ignoring customer's at 9. I have worked in food service in the past and it just blows my mind that four employees would so fully...