Urban Rio Cantina & Grill — Restaurant in Plano

Extremely disappointed in my most recent visit to Urban Rio. I have been there many times with excellent service and zero complaints. Hadn’t been in a year, and it was my first time bringing my parents here so I had high hopes. They were dashed on many levels.

First, we went at 3 on a Sunday. I’m aware that’s kind of between shifts but if you are open, I’d expect service. Entered and the waitress was coming from a table on the first floor- I made eye contact with her so she smiled and said ‘upstairs?’ I said we wanted a table in the main dining room and she took us to one, but it was reluctantly. There were two other tables in the main dining room so I figured someone was working down here and it shouldn’t be a problem. Asked the waitress to go ahead and grab waters while we were settling in, and if she could order us bean and cheese nachos (she did not understand what those were- it was a really rough conversation explaining this to her), but she finally seemed to get it. Took a solid 15 minutes for the water, and five more before it dawned on me that she probably hadn’t placed the order for nachos. In the mean time we HAD ordered margaritas, and I figured those would come at any time so I’d wait until she dropped them off to ask. It was 35 minutes from seating until we got the margaritas, and I would have already left at this point because we also didn’t SEE her, but I was with my older parents and they were having good conversation, so I didn’t want to ruin it. There was a manager at the bar, bartender was back and forth working and prepping, and some other waitstaff probably between shifts or just not covering downstairs, at the bar also. There was football on but I don’t think that was the draw.

There was an incessant dinging. Non stop. I finally figured it that it was door dash orders that no one was accepting. Because no one was going anywhere near the hostess stand to press the accept button. Maybe there is another terminal to accept from, but I don’t think they were getting enough orders to account for this going off for 10-15 minutes straight at a time at this time of day.

Margaritas came, and sure enough- nachos hadn’t been ordered. She didn’t understand I was asking her to order them when I originally asked.

My sister had ordered queso when we were ordering the margaritas as well, which she meant as an appetizer, but it never came, so we figured she forgot that too. We never brought it up because if it wasn’t ordered, we weren’t paying for it so at this point no harm no foul.

I could get into more, but it was just bad. Long story short, we placed our food orders, trying to salvage it, and it was over 30 minutes before my mom finally went to the manager at the bar and asked him how this place managed when they were busy, if this is how it was when they were slow. He came over and said something about a new POS system, but that food was almost ready. Another 10-15 and the food came. The manager didn’t seem interested in dealing with us. My sister’s queso came as a very small 2 ounce (I would’ve said 1) side & was charged $2.50 for it. Sigh. This waitress really needs more training. My parents ordered carne asada and thought it should have come with tortillas. It does other places but I get that it didn’t here. We asked for them. And were unknowingly charged for two orders - neither of which ended up being eaten. My parents were just over the place and wanted to go. This place has always charged for every tiny thing- and rarely explains that to you when you ask for it, so it’s jarring- but I honestly don’t care if I get the service. But with issue after issue, you’d think they could toss in some tortillas.

It’s taken me a couple of weeks to post this because I had to decide if I wanted to, having had a long positive history here, but finally decided to do it, because I’m afraid a management change is causing permanent negative changes. My parents won’t ever try again, but I hope I will.

And yes, I have many years in the service industry, so I have a lot of grace when it seems like...

Management appears to condone waitstaff starting arguments with customers after they spent the entire meal providing bad service. That is what I can gather due to the fact I have not been contacted about this after three attempts to speak to someone.

Kyle waited on my family and friends on a Saturday morning on the upstairs patio. Everytime he came to the table, he addressed me as “brother man”. He told my friend a glass of iced team was being brewed and it would be ready in 2 minutes. 15 minutes later, my friend got his tea. My friend’s food was ordered incorrectly and had to be sent back to the kitchen to be remade. I was not feeling well and didn’t touch my food; not once was I asked if everything was ok? Was there something wrong? Nothing.

Finally, we were ready to leave, and Kyle could not be found. I went inside and asked for the check. He asked how everything was and I told him we did not enjoy his service. He got verbally defensive and wanted to know what he did that was wrong. He believed he provided excellent service. I listed everything that happened, and he still insisted he provided excellent service. He said to me “You got out there and ask anyone else in your party. They will tell you I provided excellent service.” I took him up on his offer just to end this. We went back to the table and my friend retold the iced team and the food issues, and followed that with “otherwise, the service was just ok at best.”

I have never had a waiter start an argument with me in the middle of his restaurant. People were staring at both he and I. It was embarrassing to have him raise his voice to me and then accuse me of starting the argument because I told him the service was bad.

And then for management not to contact me? I left my contact details that day, called the restaurant a few days later and no one was available to talk to an upset customer, and reached out via email last week. Still no...

My family comes here at least once a month or so and have always been very happy with the food and service. Our work team was planning a holiday luncheon and I recommended Urban Rio as the interior and the food have always been so good, and our team loves Mexican. Unfortunately our experience for the luncheon was not as good as when coming as a small group. The hostess was unaware of our party (we actually had a contract done) and sent the first group of us to the wrong room where another group was going to be hosting their party. She had to get the manager to find out where we were supposed to be. We were up in the patio and although the table was arranged we had to wait a very long time for all of the basics (silverware, napkins, etc., they actually had to roll them while we were waiting for them). Drinks took quite a while and then a long time for refills. It just didn't seem like they were ready for us, nor had enough staff to support us until about 2/3 through our luncheon.

In addition, we wanted a nice atmosphere, and I had only eaten in the downstairs area which is very pretty. The upstairs was not very festive, and because it was December, even though it's enclosed, there was still a good bit of outside air getting in making it pretty cold.

The food was all very good, but based on this experience I would not recommend for more than a smaller group of people. Our team had worked very hard to have everything organized for the luncheon, but if it wasn't for the fact they had arranged activities and we just all enjoy being together, I think everyone would have come away pretty...