Cafe Rio Fresh Modern Mexican — Restaurant in Tustin

I treated my family to some tacos from Cafe Rio for taco Tuesday, and I want to start off by saying they were delicious. The food at Cafe Rio is always good. I have no complaints there. The only thing that was lacking was the service. It's understandable because it was Tuesday, and I know they're inundated with online orders, mine being one of them.

I really wish their system was better, though, because I placed my order, and it was supposed to be ready by 5:50 PM so I walked in expecting to get my order only to have to wait 20 minutes to get it. There were only 4 taco meals, too, with drinks and a small side of elote each, but their system over complicated things so much they were struggling to get my order right.

Eventually, they got it done, or so I thought they did, only to realize they were missing one of my meals and all 4 sides of elotes and my 4 drinks, so I had to tell them the second they handed me the bag with 3 meals which only delayed things more.

The girl at the front counter handling the online orders ripped the bag open to check it & pulled up their long receipt with my order. Her and another one of her co-workers who was on the line prepping online orders insisted I only ordered 3 meals. They even went as far as marking the receipt, thinking I didn't know what I was talking about.

I pulled up my email & had to explain to them I ordered 2 taco meals exactly the same & the other 2 were different making it a total of 4 meals, but they went off what they thought was right and basically told me no and that I had to speak to the manager. I persisted, and thankfully, one of them went to get him without me asking.

I showed the manager my online order in my email & explained to him how it's broken down. He checked the receipt his staff was showing me and quickly located the missing order on the long receipt his staff wasn't seeing. He asked them to make it, and they immediately got to it.

I have to compliment the manager, who was nothing but professional and courteous throughout the whole ordeal. He was truly so kind and apologetic for all the hassle I went through, so I am grateful to him for that.

While his staff worked on my missing taco meal, the girl manning the front desk for online orders got my 4 missing sides of corn & my 4 drink cups, which hadn't been given to me when I first was given the 3 meals.

FYI, adding a side to a combo for $1.79 is not worth it. The sides are SO small. They're the size of a salsa they give you. That's not the fault of the employees whatsoever. I know that's just how things are. The corn itself was delicious, but in the future, I'd never add one of those sides again. Instead, I'd just get an appetizer like the queso dip with chips. That order is much bigger and worth the money, but the $1.79 side was not worth the cost at all. Upgrading to the large drink was definitely worth it, though. For $.25 cents more, it was totally worth upgrading to a large horchata for each meal.

Thankfully, everyone was very kind, and a few of them apologized, knowing a mistake had been made. I honestly felt bad myself because their system they're working with is not the best. It puts unrealistic times for orders to be ready and does not break up orders for them in a way where it's easy for them to clearly discern what meals you purchased in a hurry and what extras you added on so I feel for them on that end. I'd hate to work with a system like that. It's definitely setting them back rather than helping them.

Complications aside, the food was really good, and I'd happily try them again. Just maybe not on a Tuesday because their Tuesday's are hectic, and it just is not worth all the hassle to save some money on tacos. I'd rather order from them on a slower day to give them another fair chance because today was definitely not their best, but I understand why, and I am not hating on them whatsoever. I'm still a big fan of Cafe Rio. I just wish corporate would give them a better system to work with because what they have in place is just not cutting it for the...

I’m giving 4 stars instead of 3 because I’m hoping my experience today was just because the restaurant seems understaffed, and some of the staff there seem new. The food was ok, may have been better if some of it wasn’t so cold by the time it was eaten. I submitted a large order the night before through the website. (6 entrees, 2 appetizers, 1 dessert, some extra sides, extra sauces, 1 drink). Arrived at pickup time, about 1.5 hours after opening, during lunch, and the staff was a little busy. Received the bag for my order, immediately noticed it was only about half my order (4 entrees, 1 set of extra sides, everything else missing). Finally got a staff to notice us standing there to ask about the rest. They had to go prepare it. Brought my bag back, I went through it again . I noticed it was still missing both appetizers, the extra sauces, and the dessert. Got staff attention again, they went to prepare the rest. The restaurant was noticeably busier, especially the pickup line. By this time, we’d been in the pickup area for half an hour. Grabbed our bags (we had to ask for a second bag because the staff kept filling the first bag and too many items to comfortably hold the handles. Also a bag for the extra sauces because two of the plastic containers were not closed properly and started to leak, and I was afraid they’d do it again). Got to our family gathering, sorted out the food, and realized I was still missing 1 side of beans, 1 of rice, extra tortillas, and the extra tomatillo sauce. These extra added up to less than $10, but still, something is paid for. Also on some entrees had requested no guacamole or sour cream, or put it on the side, yet they were right there on the entrees. Definitely will always double-check orders on pickup, and will only do small orders in the...

I was excited to find this Tustin location because I ate regularly at the Draper UT location for years and we loved the energy, speed, food, and overall environment in the Draper restaurant. However, this Tustin location isn't one to impress... I feel like it's mostly there to pacify the Utah transplants in the area. I've never had my Cafe Rio meals made so slowly, the staff seem like they're on the verge of falling asleep, and the meals are never put together with much care (like straining the meat before they dump a bunch of juice onto your tortilla, making it a soggy mess to eat, or making meals with burnt tortillas). It leaves much to be wanted.

Maybe my expectations are too high because the Draper location is probably one of their best (or at least it was back in the day if it isn't anymore), but management at this Tustin location ought to get more involved to pick up the pace and energy, and expect their staff to use basic practices like straining out extra juice from the meat and not giving customers burnt tortillas. I feel bad giving one star because Cafe Rio has always been one of my favorites, but this location just isn't good. I'm sure we'll be back at some point, and I'll update my review if it's better then, but after a few visits here, we're really disappointed with the food and...