Cafe Rio Fresh Modern Mexican — Restaurant in Grand Junction

I’ve enjoyed Cafe Rio in the past, but my recent experiences have been frustrating. Almost every visit, something’s missing. Most of the time, it’s just a missing sauce or topping that I can overlook, but my recent visit was frustrating enough to warrant a review. Upon arrival, my husband and I were informed that our food wasn’t ready yet—no big deal. However, when we finally received our order, I immediately noticed that my sauce was missing, which has become a common occurrence. We had ordered two chicken quesadillas, one shredded and one grilled, with fajita veggies. As I started checking the quesadillas, the staff member who handed us our food was watching from a nearby table. When I pointed out that the veggies were missing in one of the quesadillas, he jumped in to say they had run out. I appreciated his acknowledgment, but when I then asked about my sauce, I noticed that instead of the grilled chicken I ordered, I received steak. The staff member approached again and explained that they were out of grilled chicken and substituted steak as the “next best thing.” My husband said steak was fine, but we still asked for the sauce again. While the staff member was polite, it was evident that he was annoyed we checked our order. This raises a few issues: Communication: Why not inform customers if something is missing or has been changed? Transparency would improve the experience significantly. Options: If the food wasn’t ready, why not offer us alternatives or let us know about the missing items beforehand? Substitutions: Substituting chicken for steak doesn’t make much sense when shredded chicken is available. It would have been a more fitting substitute.

Despite the quality of the food, these consistent ordering issues are frustrating and leave me questioning whether I’ll return. I hope Cafe Rio can improve on communication and service, as the food is truly enjoyable when...

On Friday at 6pm we went into Cafe Rio and it was pretty busy. Many tables were full and there was a reasonable line. While we waited in line I thought it would take a while, but it moved quickly. The young man making the food was fast and he even took the time to be gentle, kind and patient with a little girl who wanted to order all by herself. I was so impressed by how sweet he was with her. He also did a great job offering a suggestion when I asked what burrito he thought would be best and said to try queso with pico on chicken and it was Delicious! We got our food and ate, but I was still impressed watching the staff. They all worked together as a perfectly oiled machine. The stronger gentleman was going back and forth making the food and doing other necessary things, while another woman was moving fast making what looked like other orders, I can assume to go orders as they were being handed out, but not in the line, but she Still took time to stop and sweep the floor as it had become quite the mess with how busy they were. The young girl at the register was very polite. A customer came up and was not exactly kind to her and she continued to smile and offer her kindness back. I was just so impressed by how well this team worked. The atmosphere felt happy as each employee kept a smile on their face and did their best to work fast and efficiently. I enjoyed our delicious food (and note to the gentleman with the suggestion for the queso and pico on the chicken, it really was one of the best burritos I've had there!) plus I just felt like I could relax even with the crazy crowds they had. Good job to the team...

Did an online order from the road and showed up 10 minutes early to find that they didn't even know about the order. They found it after asking around to random employees. Anyway, so they start it and I sit there for 15 minutes. I'm the only one in there, as it's about 45 minutes until closing (they were almost completely closed up when I got there.) So I go up and say, "can I order something else... would that help with the speed?" To which a very snotty teenage girl replied, "ma'am, you were 10 minutes early for your order, so it's going to take a while." I replied, "Right, but you didn't even know about the order, so you started it when I got here, and it's been almost 20 minutes since I got here." She didn't respond, and turned around and huffed off. Another girl walked over and said, "I'm sorry ma'am, what are you waiting on?" "Just a salad," I say. "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry! I thought you were waiting on a huge order or something!" She then yells at the teenage boy picking his nose by the tortilla maker and he says, "Yeah, OK, just warming up some meat, guy!" I got my order about 5 minutes after that. It was stone cold. Fun times. This isn't the only bad experience, I've had at Cafe Rio, just the only one I feel like posting. After all, I'm not some weird old cat lady with nothing to do but write bad reviews. Just a normal girl who got treated like crap at a stupid restaurant. OK, back to real life now... hopefully it won't be late or...