Cafe Rio Fresh Modern Mexican — Restaurant in Santa Clara

At times I am hesitant to give substandard reviews by giving the benefit of the doubt for an off day. However, after reading the most recent reviews, my hopes are that those in charge take these negative reviews more seriously and not toss off the "we appreciate your thoughts and will take them into consideration and please give us another chance". My experience is similiar to others, but I will elaborate further so as to ensure you, dear Google Review readers, understand the depth of my disappointment. Bear in mind that I frequented Cafe Rio here when they first opened and always had an enjoyable experience. I had not been in some time, but on this day, I had family visiting and they wished to have a pick up of Cafe Rio. I made an order using the app and was provided a time the order would be ready. My family decided to order when we went to pick up my order as they wanted to see the many options. We arrived at the given time. The restaurant was not busy. My order was not in the "To Go Pickup" area. I was asked if I had ordered online and what was my name. I gave it and was met with a blank stare. It's not ready. We don't have your order. I wait. My family member orders theirs and has her food while I am still waiting for mine. Other folks walk in and out with theirs also. I see two other folks come in and speak with the cashier for some time, obviously asking about their own pickup orders. I still wait. I go up to the counter, inquiring about my order, have they found my ticket? Met with, "They're working on it", in a rude tone. I go back to sit and wait. Suddenly, a member approaches and huffingly places a bag, presumably my order on the table, turns and rushes away without a word. I am frustrated at this point, but family is waiting at home, so we leave. I want to add here that I had PLENTY of time to observe the staff. The young workers definitely had an air of being disgruntled, angry, and made that clear to anyone there by their lack of movement . There was, however, a rather fat guy who was apparently the boss at this time, who knew what was causing this aggravated atmosphere in the kitchen, but was smirking through it all. That's the appearance y'all gave to me. Nice going. So, I get home and you guessed it, the order has missing items, wrong dressings, etc. What else could I expect after that encounter? So please, don't respond with, "please contact me to help us do better". This review with all the other most recent reviews are telling you what...

12/31/2018 - Don't make the mistake of thinking ordering online from this place will save you any time. We placed an order at 4:40pm to be picked up at 5:30pm. We showed up at 5:40, and they hadn't even started it. It's 6:20 now, and they've continued serving everyone in the line with no attempt to even start my order. They've turned 6 other "pick up" orders away, too. I would have already been out of here had I just got in line, but for the first 15 minutes, no one really talked to the "pick up" line. Just handed out cups, saying they're running behind, with no promise of when the order would be ready. They didn't even ask our name to see which order was ours... I'd ask about it and get "we're trying" as the response. But, trying looks better than not even starting an order in my book.

Update 6:44 pm - We finally got our food. That's over 2 hours from when we placed our order online, and over an hour after we said we'd be there to pick it up. To add insult to injury... After turning away at least 6 other take out orders (refunding them instead of filling the orders), knowing they were way behind and losing business... Three employees left the kitchen, clocked out, and walked past the few remaining pick up order customers who weren't getting served as they headed out the door for the evening. Felt 'great' to know my order online means far less than those in the line. Feels even 'better' knowing trying to take care of the customers at this place means not even starting their orders and employees leaving angry customers as they clock out as opposed to pitching in to help fulfill orders and get the line caught up.

I've never been treated so poorly and seen so many other customers similarly treated in any other Cafe Rio or any other restaurant for that matter. If you can't do the online order thing and keep up with in store customers, don't offer pick-up ordering!

Update 2/13/2019: Corporate responded to a review I sent them directly saying they're going to have someone from their team look into things as they've had several complaints. They offered a free meal at this location, which I declined because I'm from out of the area. I also didn't want a free meal - especially one comped by another, more competent Cafe Rio store owner. It'd take quite a bit for me to want to return to this location. Even my step-daughter commented on how she had never seen me...

I wanted to give this place the benefit of the doubt but after tonight I won’t come back.

I usually order on the App for pickup when I come here so I can get my food quicker. I live about 10 minutes away. I have had to wait a little longer than the estimated pick up time In the past but today I waited 50 extra minutes. I saw people hop in line get their food and leave before my pick up order was finished. I ordered a quesadilla, a tres leches, 8 sides of tortillas(to make quesadillas later at home), a few dressings, and a horchata. The order was about 35 dollars. By the end of the 50 minutes they came to me and told me they couldn’t give me any of the sides of tortillas, the Horchata(they were out of Horchata), or the tres leches(they were out of that too). It was the dinner rush so I said it was fine just as long as I got a refund for them. They said they were unable to process a refund because they had already captured the funds and had no way to refund me. They said they could give me chips and queso to make up for it and I was so exhausted by this point so I took it. At the end of the night I paid 35 dollars for a quesadilla and chips and queso. You give this location an inch, they take a mile. At this point I don’t even want you to respond to this review because it’s going to be the same BS. “We will take your experience into consideration and discuss this with our team so that we can give you a better experience in the future.” Or “We are sorry that you had an unsatisfactory experience at our establishment. We will use this information to improve our service. Thank you.” Quit making promises you will never fulfill and quit exploiting your customers. Whoever runs this particular location is a joke. The systems and operations they have established with their employees are obviously failing and broken. This place is understaffed at all times and their employees are visibly overwhelmed and are not present mentally. Fix your business,...