Rio Grande Cafe

This was a favorite of ours years ago so we stopped in for dinner after the State Fair. We didn't want greasy food from the fair and wanted to go out to eat. It was honestly the most bland, tasteless, and even yucky Mexican food I've ever eaten. I got the Taco (carne asada) with a Chili Relleno, which is my very favorite to order at almost every Mexican food restaurant. My husband got the Tamale Combo, which according to the description in the menu, we were pretty sure it was supposed to be one tamale with one chili Verde burrito. Instead it was two tamales with chili verde on top. The tortilla for my taco tasted like it was straight out of a bargain bag that you buy at the grocery store. It was cold, raw and tasted like the plastic bag. The carne asada had no seasoning whatsoever. It did not taste like restaurant food at all. My husband's tamales were just as bland, cold, and also tasted like plastic wrap. The rice and beans, while extremely bland as well, were the best thing on either plate. But the real "star" was the chili relleno. It came out looking beautiful. It looked perfectly fried on a bed of red sauce. They even brought out a small bowl of the red sauce on the side so that the relleno stayed nice and crispy. I was so excited to see it! But my first bite opened a flood of cold oil...and I mean a flood. It soaked the bottom of my plate and it was deep enough to eventually leave the entire bottom of my plate clear with oil. My first impression was that it was very bland and that the pool of oil was just the juices and from the cheese but I was wrong. It was the cooking oil. The breading was all wrong. To me, it was more similar to like a pancake batter instead of beaten egg like a traditional relleno. It was slightly sweet, crunchy and thick. The red sauce tasted like canned tomatoes that were simply pureed with no seasoning at all. The cheese was greasy (but that grease was separate from the oil). It in no way tasted like any chili relleno I've ever tried anywhere. It was so bad that it was inedible and because of the oil spill, it destroyed whatever was left of my rice and beans. I like when restaurants get creative with traditional dishes and create their own recipes but there was almost no flavor in anything and any flavor that there was, was not good. I REALLY HATE leaving such a bad review but it was so disappointing. We should have just eaten at the fair. The servers were friendly and the outdoor eating area was beautiful but the food was not good.