Cafe Rio Fresh Modern Mexican — Restaurant in Greenwood Village

Where to begin with this review… I don’t really do reviews, however this experience was so bad I felt it was warranted.

Went thru the drive through. One car ahead of us already at the drive thru menu board. We sat there for 10 minutes, not knowing if she was placing a large order or if there was a breakdown between her and the person inside taking the order. Whatever. We found out soon enough. When we get to the window, my husband slowly placed our order. A bowl, a kids meal including a drink, a chips and guac, and a chicken tortilla soup. When we got up to the window, my husband asked to go over the order with her again, as she spoke very quietly and we weren’t sure that she had heard everything. It was like we had never even placed an order at the window. Everything had to be added/or corrected. She had completely missed the kids meal, so we were glad that we went over it with her. As there was a car behind us, we were asked to pull up to a parking spot that belonged to Chick-fil-A that faced their drive-through. After a while, we got the no syrup soda. We sat there for probably another 15 minutes and no one brought anything out. The vehicle that was behind us had already gotten their food and left. We decided to go back through the drive-through. When we got to the window, she started to hand our food out the window right away. I asked her if we had misunderstood that they were going to bring it out, and she said no, but that she had saw us driving our car around and just decided to get it ready. We had no idea why it was not brought out to us. My husband went through the bag, and the kids meal was not in it. As he had already ordered it once at the drive-through, and a second time confirmed it at the window, I was flabbergasted when he asked her where it was, and she responded back by asking us, “you had a kids meal?” I looked at her and said ‘dude seriously?’ My extremely patient husband started to confirm with her that we had indeed ordered a kids meal, but she just shut the window in his face and walked away. A moment later someone else appeared at the window and said that because the kids meal had been ‘ordered separately’, it was missed. It was not ordered separately, it was missed by them at the drive-through and we confirmed it at the window. It was not on a separate ticket. At this point, we did not bother to mention the soda. All time spent, we probably saw 25 cars go through the Chick-fil-A drive-through, while we sat there for a total of over 30 minutes.

The bowl was missing the fajita vegetables, the avocado corn relish and the tortilla strips. It was easily 40% black beans (husband ordered little of both types.) No pinto beans. It only tasted like rice and black beans. Not good. The kids meal was a chicken and cheese quesadilla. While there was not much cheese, the quesadilla’s chicken was actually pretty good in it. The kids meal included a drink. We ordered a Sprite, and then we got it there was hardly any cola syrup in it. All Soda water. Not good. The chips and guac were good. The tortilla soup was good, although it was missing the tortilla chips. When we got it home, it was actually cold, not just warm, but cold. It had to be heated up a lot just to eat it. This made us wonder if it was cold when it was given to us… who knows. Decent food, but what an absolutely...

Our family are fans of Cafe Rio since we were living in Utah many many years ago. Our dedication as customers to this restaurant chain dates since the burritos were $5 a piece ( quite a long time ago). So we are not new or some random people to this particular restaurant or food. And we were so thrilled about this location when it opened, which would be the closest to our house. On October 16 last year I placed my order online. First they got my order wrong: out 2 orders of coconut shrimp tacos we got only one (order) and it didn't have anything on it, literally just the taco and 3 very dry and over fried pieces of shrimp (although on the receipt says rice, beans, shredded cheese, lettuce, mango sauce and ect.); in grilled steak salad also were missing ingredients and rice was way undercooked, total mess in the plate. When I called to ask for refund for the missing part of the order the girl on the phone asked me if I can come and get the rest of the order, which was out of questions since someone had to drive back and forward another hour. There is a reason why people order takeout in the evening - they are tired and just want some dinner from their favorite place. Then she said she couldn't get me a refund because the order was made online - what a bias!!!, I order food online since COVID and no other business never told me that they can not issue a refund to online order when mistakes happened because it is a credit card transaction and since the business was able to charge it, it the same process to refund money back right away. Never had problems before, although only couple of times had to ask for refund some other business. I guess the owner need to learn and teach cashiers how to handle online orders and refunds. After that she took my info and said the refund should be back to my card in 15 days!!!!. I looked at my statement and the changes from this particular restaurant location came from some kind of company back in Utah - kind of sketchy - why Colorado chain restaurant would process their payments in another state ???? Not willing to pay taxes in our state???? Still waiting for the refund though - 5 months later.... Too bad, I guess we are taking our money to some...

I’ve never been here before, honestly because I thought it was possibly like all the other mexi cali places, which I’m not a big fan of. I work right down the street from this location and was craving an horchata all day. So, decided to stop by and get one from here … they have real horchata! Does not taste like everyone else, where you can tell it’s a powder mix. This one tastes like you made it on the stove, all real ingredients, chilled and served! Yum! (Went through drive thru) Of course I decided to go back, again drive thru. Had to get that horchata again! But this time I ordered two tacos. I forgot the meat, but it is the sweet one. These were so good!! I was very happy with my real tasting horchata and delicious tacos …

So I went back a third time, this time to try inside. The staff were always friendly in drive through, but the girl at the counter when I went in was just awesome! So sweet and patient. Held a natural feeling conversation with me that seemed genuine. She made me feel very welcomed. Ordered my usual, as this is only my third time going, and sat down. Food was still just as delicious. Very bright and colorful inside.

I recommend and I will be back. Also, this place is not like all those other places. It is different...