Rio Steakhouse and Bakery — Restaurant in Smyrna

We got treated really bad last time Last night. I don't have many words but it's very sad because it used to be a favorite place to go to for many reasons. Staff was always a problem but nothing compared to what happened last night.

Knowing how good their deserts are my husband and I decided to drive 30 minutes to get cake from them after having dinner at home.

We went straight to the cakes as we walked in, picked one, and when we were asked if we'd like to eat it there or take it home. My husband decided he wanted to eat it there because he wanted to have some coffee as well. The employees taking our order at the register were very nice. They charged us for everything, and then gave us our cake and plastic silverware so we went to sit while the coffee was prepared. I repeat. We only wanted coffee and cake, no food.

5 minutes later after sitting down a server lady comes to our table with an aggressive attitude and asks me if we need to order anything. I said no because we did already. As we were eating the cake just bought from them.

She acted very upset and just stood there for a moment making us very uncomfortable. We didn't understand the reason for her aggressive body language.

She seemed to be having a meltdown.To make matters even more uncomfortable after she stands there staring us for a minute she then calls out someone else and says things about us in Portuguese.

This other employee comes to our table and starts questioning us about what are we doing there. Let me remind you - as we are eating our cake from them. We then fell threatened by this circumstance, and I said that we just paid for it and also for 2 coffees. Which we didn't have yet cause we had just sat down. Then he starts asking us to who who made the payment to and who gave us the cake. I wish I was making any of this up.

I've never in my life felt so uncomfortable in a restaurant.

After all the questioning that was making us feel as we were eating stolen goods the other employee went on investigating if we paid for it and to who..As we were never given a receipt.. He eventually finds out we did pay for it and apologized.

However the aggressive female employee never did and she's the one who made me feel threatened while sitting at their table.

This behavior îs absolutely dangerous for anyone working with the public.

There are many great hard working people working at this joint. It's a shame that you guys allow your rotten apples to cripple your business. You can't treat anyone like that. If I would've been a native American I would've made a huge deal about it. But there may not be the same next time you harass...

We had a party of 3 adults and 1 child (9 yrs 11 months). I would say that my son and I were somewhat frequent diners where some staff recognizes us when we dine there.

This evening, my sister and brother in law asked us to dine at Rio for dinner. They sat first then we joined about 20 mins afterwards.

My son and I chatted with the meat station staff as usual then dined as usual. When we were done, my brother was getting ready to go pay the bill, I told him to make sure that it's for 3 adults and 1 child. He handed me the ticket to check for the correct charges.

The ticket was written for 4 adults. I simply asked the male server to make the correction on the ticket. He seemed to already have an attitude about something then says, "you have to tell the cashier and do you have an ID?"

I asked him,"an ID for who? My child? He's 9 years old. I don't carry an ID for a 9 yrs old child. We come here often. Nobody's ever asked me for my child's ID before."

My brother in law was already standing at the cashier to pay when the male server darted over to the male cashier speaking in their native language (Portuguese) to telling him to charge us for 4 adults and that we need to show my 9 yrs old son's government ID before changing the ticket for a child's price.

My brother in law didn't know what was going on when the male cashier was asking for my son's Gov't ID. He was just trying to pay our dinner bill.

At this point, the male server and cashier had major attitude so I walked over to the cashier counter to see what was going on. The male server was talking over the male cashier in their native language then the cashier asked if I had a Gov't ID for proof of age for my 9 yrs old son. I said," I don't carry an ID for my child. Nobody carries an ID for a child just to go dine out. We dine here all the time and NOBODY has ever asked for my 9 yrs old son's ID." "That's OK. Just charge me the adult price and let me pay my bill."

The male cashier then gets sassy and slick mouth, " Don't get an attitude. We just need an ID." I calmly said, " I'm saying to just ring up my bill at full price so I can just pay it. There's no attitude on my end. Don't nobody just carry around a child's ID to go get dinner."

My brother in law paid the bill IN FULL and I shall return in the morning to address this with...

Mathematically this came out of to 4 stars, but I would definitely come back, so I pushed it to 5. Value is the big thing. It's hard to find an all-you-can-eat buffet where several cuts of steak are on the menu without additional charge. Especially for the price. I'm from Kansas City, and for some reason, throwing "Brazilian" in front of a steakhouse name there immediately qualifies it for $60+ a plate. Why!? These guys do it for $25. Amazing stuff.

Food: Picanha, Sirloin, and Pork Belly were excellent. Well crisped and tender in the middle. Ribs and chicken were a bit dry, but still tasted good. They had a cheese and beef lasagna on the buffet that had shockingly good flavor. Also, the roasted cinnamon coated pineapple was fantastic. So was the fried bananas on the buffet Try it with the ribs. All around lots of meats to try, too many to sample all of them in one visit. Amazing value for what you're getting. Beats Fogo de Chao at meats. But you don't get the fancy and extensive charcuterie buffet.

Service: Un...the servers kinda forgot me. Lol. They have these nifty spinners on the table to tell the servers you need assistance, and they ignore them entirely. I even had a lady come by and ignore my request for service to take my empty plates. At least she did that. I had to walk up to the bakery counter for a refill. What saves the service is they were nice, and the meat cooks were super friendly and educational. They loved talking all about the cuts they could give out. They had multiple ways each was cooked even. 5 stars from both of them. They pulled it up to a 4.

Atmosphere: Nothing special. Tables were kinda close together with no aisles which made walking to the buffet constantly kind of imposing on others. It was basic, but the bakery and open meat counter give it character and flare. I pushed it to a 4.

Overall worthwhile experience. Would return. With a basic soda came out to 30+tip. Beats other...