Cafe Rio Fresh Modern Mexican — Restaurant in Virginia

Cafe Rio is a traditional Tex-Mex (contradiction?) restaurant and I was pleasantly surprised by my experience.

The restaurant itself is definitely based off the Chipotle model. Ingredients are made fresh, everything is made to order and there are a ton of different options for your meal. Where it strays from its competitor, I think, is in the amount of food that you get. Chipotle's burritos are large, I'll give them that, but so are Cafe Rio's AND Cafe Rio will give you extra rice, meat and beans on the side at no additional charge. Additionally, their bowls have significantly more food than their equivalent at Chipotle.

I will say, you do pay for the extra food. I paid around $10 for a burrito which is, I believe, a couple dollars more than what you'd spend at Chipotle.

That said, the food was splendid. In my opinion, the portion size combined with the quality of the food makes the cost well worth it.

The one negative I had was the staff. I went around lunchtime so the restaurant was very busy and there were a bunch of people waiting in line. The lady who initially took our orders was, to put it bluntly, rude. It was our group's first time at the restaurant and she became visibly irritated when it took us more than 0.5 seconds to decide if we wanted mild or medium salsa. I get and appreciate that she needed to move people through the line, but there's a right and a wrong way to do it.

In my opinion, when employees are visibly flustered it makes customers feel the same and they don't end up getting what they want/what they're paying for which can ruin an experience.

On a secondary note, Cafe Rio is a PAIN to get to. This isn't the restaurant's fault but it definitely plays into the overall experience. This section of Arlington Blvd. is an absolute train wreck. No left turn lanes, poorly timed stoplights, confusing directions and seemingly no direct routes to anywhere. Not to mention the parking lot is equally convoluted. I easily added 15 minutes onto my drive time just trying to navigate to this place and that was with my GPS running and giving me directions.

Overall, this place is good, but this location didn't impress me. I'll likely be visiting the Cafe Rio in Burke if I want to go again...

Like a better version of Chipotle with more variety and a daily special that offers even more variety, like tamales, fideo, tostada's, shrimp tacos, etc. Also, slightly pricier than Chipotle, but worth the premium in my opinion. I've only gotten the grilled steak burrito because I like it so much. The tortillas are made fresh in the restaurant. You have a choice of black or pinto beans. The black beans are very flavorful and savory made with green onions and peppers. Next you have a choice of protein shredded chicken, pork, or beef and for extra money you can get grilled chicken or steak. The grilled steak was nicely caramelized. You are given a choice of several salsas from mild to hot. Cheese optional, which is a mix of shredded monterey jack and cheddar. You have a choice of getting your burrito enchilada style, i.e smothered in salsa and more shredded cheese. They usually use the same salsa you requested for the inside unless you ask for a different one. Then to melt your cheese they put it through a short conveyor oven. After, it comes out of the oven, you are offered the option of pico de Gallo and shredded romaine lettuce. You can also pay for extras like guacamole, anejo (like Mexican parmesan cheese), salad dressing. Their drink area includes Coca-Cola fountain drinks plus 4 different premium beverages made in-house, horchata (cinnamon rice milk), mint lemonade, piña colada, and a seasonal drink currently cranberry lemonade. I tried the three non-seasonal ones and they are all tasty. They are all on the sweet side for me, but that is lessened as the ice melts or you could add water if you like. They have a nice selection of bottled hot sauces at their utensil stand. Lots of seating, clean, comfortable interior with modern alternative music playing. Men and women's restrooms. I believe the doors are wide enough to accommodate...

I normally love this place (weren't there last week and had the normal great experience) but today, good God! Maybe they have a particular way of making burritos that they stick to (in which case ignore this review) but I said yes to beans and the person put in black beans before I could even specify I wanted the other type. Immediately added white cheese without asking (eventually added the Mexican cheese after I asked a few times, but now that's a way too much cheese), seems seriously confused when I asked for both hatch green chili and spicy red chili (this really shouldn't require extensive explanation at the counter), and had to bring in a second person to help when I asked for lettuce on the inside of my burrito. I understand that sometimes this place puts it on the outside as some kind of a side but I was intending on eating my burrito with my hands so I didn't want anything on the outside. Since they unwrapped the burrito that they had already wrapped up the burrito did not close properly and the massive amount of cheese inside then leaked all over the container. They didn't ask if I wanted a big piece of pork on top and just plopped it down there so now the top of my burrito is soggy. They put it in the oven/heater? before I could ask to add cilantro. It's also completely unable to be eaten by hand so I had to wait until I got home and found a knife and fork before I could have a late lunch.

I'm finally sitting down to eat my burrito that has about three pieces of lettuce in it. With beans I didn't want. Cheese leaking out of the side. And no cilantro.

I put it as three stars because I normally love this place and I don't want to tank the overall rating but wow was today a really...