Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Greeley

My review only appears publicly if it has more than 4 stars but it does not reflect my experience. I'm led to believe Rio is censoring what happened rather than dealing with the problem appropriately. The dining experience was okay for the most part, even though some of the dishes were unnecessarily spicy with little to no flavor. The chip salsa and shrimp diablo being some of those. We all agreed it was overly spicy with no flavor or kick. The nachos and drinks were good though. However that’s not the issue. Our table of five were enjoying ourselves up until the very end when our waitress whom I believe is either “Dani” or Danielle, I don’t know, I can’t remember. Either way she said that she was from Ecuador and waited on us Friday night. She had said that Mexican customers do not tip as well as other parties when we were about to leave a very generous tip. She initially had started this conversation by saying she wanted to remind us that she doesn’t get paid well enough and lives off tips and would appreciate if we left something and that led to the discussion of her saying “paisas” do not tip as well as us confronting her, asking her why she would assume we weren’t going to and that we were offended by her remarks. It was an obvious attempt at bullying us into leaving a bigger tip because of the assumption SHE made, which is super unprofessional, false and uncalled for. We can only believe it was because we had joked amongst ourselves about who was paying for the bill prior to asking for the check. It was sibling rivalry. We hadn’t seen eachother in almost a year. It’s normal. But It changed the mood entirely after she did this. Because we have been frequent and repeat customers for years and years and haven’t faced a single issue until now. We do not appreciate what she did. We told her that our family immigrated and that we have been in the service industry, so we know exactly what she’s faced. And that is why we proud ourselves being supportive in those in customer service. We asked her if she would ever bring that up to another party, and pointed specifically to a Caucasian family, and she flat out said no she would not. Which only further proves her prejudices. Unfortunately, the tip we left was not what we had initially intended on, but she offended us GREATLY. I seriously cannot believe this happened and I’ve yet to get a response. I will be sure to make the following review on all social media handles. This is...

The short: Go to a different location, this location has below average food and, at least at lunch, poor management.

I won't make this too dramatic. I've had bad food and service. I really just want management at the Rio to read this. And I want you to know that our waiter was fine.

My wife has raved about your establishment since we met in 2008. Finally, six years later I was able to visit. Unfortunately the soup I ordered had burnt to the pot and I was served burnt pieces that had been scraped off the bottom. They were black and about 4" long. I understand that your cook or the waiter may have missed them, it happens. A few other similar issues with food caused me to complain. After a few minutes the manager came over, did not introduce or identify himself - even though I put out my hand he didn't shake it - and interrupted the conversation. He playfully insulted my sister-in-law, then my wife, before poking fun at my complaint and dismissing it. He did not listen, did not ask questions, and did not apologize. He did remove my soup from the bill. Only my soup. I'm from the Baltimore/DC area and I'm used to bad service. This was worse. I didn't want to make a scene so I ate some chips, but it ruined our experience.

I get it, the dining room (not kitchen) manager was short, unprofessionally dressed, dirty, and spoke poorly, so he has every right to be in a bad mood. Just don't make him the manager who deals with unhappy customers. Put him somewhere else.

I also get that restaurants and kitchens make mistakes. Just don't put an unqualified moron in a position to represent your brand.

The Rio can hope that locals continue to support you even when more established brands enter the market (since Taco Bell is their major competition right now), or you can compete for new customers, especially those new to the area like myself. But I will not return to this location. I hear you have great margaritas, but didn't get to try one.

In the end no one in my party enjoyed the meal, and they were all appalled by how the manager handled my respectful complaint. I can't recommend this...

We were up here for an event, afterwards, my bride wanted to go to the Rio. Years ago, we ate here and she enjoyed it. I had come for lunch a while ago and was not impressed. My son just wanted to eat.

It was later, maybe 8:45 by the time we got here. We had to wait about 10-15 even though there were a lot of open tables. We could only think they were understaffed.

Once seated, our waitress took our drink order and came back for our dinner order. My son ordered a "mock-tail" of a strawberry margarita and my bride a margarita. My son loved his drink and my bride's margarita did not disappoint. The margarita was the best part of dinner. It was heavy on the pour and delicious.

My son ordered nachos and my bride and I split a steak burrito. The Nachos were good. They were a single layer of tortilla chips. I did not see any meat on them, but that may be the way they are. I had one chip and it was okay. He told me he would order something different next time.

Our burrito came and the cheese on top was as though they threw it on as the waiter was walking out. It had not melted and was barely warm, as was the flour tortilla. The steak was okay, not much either way in flavor. It was cooked and not cold. The mild green chili was very mild, and had the flavor of bland, not simmerd green chili. The spicier chili was spicy and had a slightly better flavor than the mild.

Our waitress was good, she made sure our drinks stayed filled and we were okay.

I would definitely come back for a margarita. After my last two times here, I would not be back just for the food.

Sorry, I forgot my phone in the car, and since I preach to the kiddo his phone is not THAT important, I did not go back to get it. So,...