Rivera's Restaurant — Restaurant in Texas

I recently relocated from a different part of the Metroplex to the Northern Collin County area and have been in search of a good Mexican/Tex-Mex/Latin food restaurant. Riviera’s comes highly recommended across multiple social media platforms for this area. I thought I would venture out to Van Alstyne to give Riviera’s a try. The appearance seemed like a typical hole in the wall restaurant, which never dissuades me to try. As you enter you are asked to wait to be seated. This gave the locals in the restaurant time to look over the new people, us… lol. No big deal, I like the small town feel. Our waiter greeted us and just casually pointed , for us to have a seat at a table. He wasn’t smiling and seemed preoccupied or just not into what he was doing. Once seated I immediately noticed the table was dirty with crumbs!! Ok, I just grabbed a napkin and wiped off the table. The waiter came back and served us the usual, chips and salsa. Chips and salsa are usually the tell tale sign of if the restaurant will good or a fail. The chips were stale and cold served with a tiny bowl of watery salsa. At this point I’m wondering if it’s too late to walk or not. After deciding to stay, I decided to order a safe dish , the Rivera’s Combo. Two types of enchiladas, a taco and the standard rice and beans. My wife ordered the same and the kids had different dishes ordered. The drinks we ordered came out shortly after. I ordered a Diet Coke, in which I noticed immediately tasted like lemonade. My son ordered a lemonade so I assumed there was a mix up, so know big deal I thought… I’ll let the server know once he comes back. I informed the server, upon return and he mentioned the drink all tasted the same and he could change it but it would all taste the same. I was thoroughly confused by his explanation and just nodded. When the servers came back with our meals he gave me a new Diet Coke and mentioned what he meant before is that the fountains drink had recently run out of syrup for there Diet Cokes. As not to make a big fuss I asked for just water instead. The server returned with a water and that was the last we saw of him until he started bussing the table. The plates for our meals were hot but the actually entree was cold at best. As I began to dig in I noticed the food lacked flavor. The chicken enchiladas tasted like boiled chicken and even the beans and rice lacked flavor. Even my son mentioned how lackluster the quesadillas were. I noticed that no one in my family asked me or my wife for a bite off our plates. If you have kids you know they always ask for a bite of your dish, right. Well… not here. The food was subpar at best and the server never came back! To top it off the server still charged me for a soda that I really never had. I have to say Riveras was a huge disappointment, fail. The server seemed inconvenienced and just seemed like we were bothering him. The food was terrible. The service was non existent and the ambiance seemed in a good need of being cleaner. I still have to thank all the people that recommended this place, but boy were they wrong. It’s not worth the money or time to to try this restaurant out and I can confidently say this was our first and last time coming to this restaurant. The food may have been the worst Latin food I’ve EVER had. Save your money and head over to McKinney, where there more of a better chance of finding good Latin food. Thanks…. but...

March 27, 2025 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rivers’s is located in the heart of downtown Princeton, TX. 🏙️ Its location used to be the old bank 🏦. The food is absolutely yummy 🤤, refreshing 🍽️, and gives you a splash 💦 of something unique from all those chain Tex-Mex restaurants. 🌮🔥

We first ate here back in Spring/Summer of 2023, and we loved it then. Today was our second visit, and while still good, a few things stood out that made us drop it from a perfect 5-star rating.

The chips and salsa are just okay 🤷‍♂️—not bad, but nothing special. However, the shrimp cocktail 🦐🍹 is AMAZING! It has a little bite 🌶️, and I love the hint of jalapeño in the flavor. 💚 Definitely a must-try!

I had the Molcajete 🫕—a massive combination of mozzarella cheese 🧀, sautéed garlic onions 🧅, peppers 🫑, shrimp 🦐, sausage 🌭, chicken 🍗, beef 🥩, chorizo 🌶️, and roasted nopales 🌵 in a rich tomato sauce 🍅. It came with charro beans 🫘, guacamole 🥑, shredded cheese 🧀, pico de gallo 🍅🌿, and tortillas 🌮. The flavors were bold and delicious 🤩, but it was a LOT of food—definitely a dish to share or tackle with a huge appetite. 😅

My wife had the beef fajitas 🥩🔥, which were tender, well-seasoned, and cooked just right. 👌 A solid choice!

Overall, still a great spot with some standout dishes, but the chips and salsa being underwhelming and the sheer size of some entrees make it slightly less of a 5-star experience than before. ⭐ Still...

We went out to eat today after hearing so many great reviews from friends about both the food and the service! When being seated the waitress was incredibly nice and attentive. It took a while to bring out our chips, salsa and drinks but it was okay as it seemed like they were busy with current tables and phone calls. After taking our order they tried to fill our chips and salsa when they could as well as other tables around us as much as they could. We didn’t eat them too fast but there were tables that were eating them fast 😬. They brought out our food and made sure we had everything refilled and right and of course everything was & we really appreciated that! After we finished our food our waitress took our plates from our table and we talked for a bit and let me tell you how hard of a day they had today! These poor girls didn’t have a break at all today, and have been dealing with rude customers all today but regardless of this hard day they did an AMAZING JOB! We definitely recommend Rivera’s with their amazing service and food, just call ahead to make sure...