Cafe Rio Fresh Modern Mexican

Some of the best non-authentic Mexican chain restaurants out there. A little more expensive than regular Mexican fast food chains like Del Taco or Taco Bell, but you definitely get what you pay for. Huge portions, I go here instead of Chipotle because they have a lot more options.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I took my wife to eat at Rios in Aliso Viejo. We when we arrived at the parking lot there were a lot of cars out front between Rios and Caines chicken tenders. We walked in to Rios and noticed that the place was very empty. There were 3 people in line just standing there. They had two people working behind the counter. One was making tortillas because we were told the were out of them. The other was filling an order and was in no hurry. He was watching the food and never looked up to help anyone. Like maybe take their order to speed things up. I started to look around and began to notice how filthy everything was. Obviously the pride of ownership has not been here for some time. We left and went next door to Cains and the place was clean and very busy. Get your shit together.

Good service. Call out to James.

Parking: Good service at this location.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Burrito

Fresh healthy food that tastes great. This restaurant makes Taco Bell and Del Taco so jelly! Sign up for Rio's app and generate credits for their food in record time. They have daily specials from Mon - Fri.

Vegetarian options: Although a customer can use pure vegetables in choices (except for a quesadilla) there are only a handful of vegetarian options.

Wheelchair accessibility: It is easy to get a wheelchair to the front door but they do not offer any automatic method of opening it for a wheelchair bound person

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Shredded Chicken Salad

I tried Cafe Rio a few months ago and went back last week with a friend and we loved our food so much that I took another friend today, while the other friend keeps asking me to go there with her. The food is just amazing and we feel like we are eating healthy and are happy about it. And we absolutely love it. :)

Vegetarian options: I love the burrito and the salad. I'm getting hungry again thinking about it.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Sauce, Burrito, First Timers Bowl, Side of Creamy Tomatillo Dressing

FILTHY! Now I love eating at Café Rio, but this particular one was disgusting!

The floors were really dirty, filthy, and not mop, or only halfway mopped with clear foot prints all over the place

We looked for a clean table to sit at, But we saw crumbs on all the tables.
And there was even a attendant in the dining room they're supposed to clean stuff but clearly somebody was not doing their job.

When we were ordering our food, it was very clear that the food had been sitting there for many hours, and was getting all dried up.

What shocked me was that I saw an employee hop up and just sit on the prep table chatting with another employee, this shocked me, and this was in plain view of the dining room. What employee does that? Talk about a health code violation.

In the bathroom there was left over toilet seat covers, so gross !

When I went to go get drinks, I noticed that the punch circulators were not operating, how long was everything just sitting there stagnant? I had to turn the switch on and then the refrigeration started up, so was everything lukewarm?

One of the exit doors was locked, that's a fire code violation

It's very obvious that the management is not properly training their employees well, and the overall restaurant is dirty and not kept up to proper standards.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 2

Service: 1

Super friendly staff, the lady in the register was smiling and super helpful. She was super busy but still acknowledged me and was so cheerful

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Their oven was broken so there was no "grilled" meat. Their shredded chicken was okay, very salty and not a lot of other flavor. There was a puddle of water on the floor with a cone blocking it and the ice in the soda machine was like shaved ice.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 3

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Creamy Tomatillo Dressing, Salad with Grilled Chicken, Side of Creamy Tomatillo Dressing

The food bar is always so gross they never clean and refill pans during the day and it looks like they never cleans the kitchen at night. ITS DISGUSTING!

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 5

I go to Cafe Rio often and in the last few months I've gone to this location the most. The food is consistently good and so is the service. I almost always get the salad. I always recommend this place to others

Parking: Overall the entire parking lot is huge so you can always find a spot somewhere but during busy times, the section of the lot intended for this place and canes gets really full.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Creamy Tomatillo Dressing, Shredded Chicken Salad, Side Guacamole, Salad with Grilled Chicken, Quesadilla, Enchilada Style Burrito, Chips & Queso, Sweet Pork Barbacoa, Burrito

They got basically my whole order wrong and left out most of the sides

I’ve been a Cafe Rio customer for years and order from this location probably 3-4 times per month for our family. Today, I ordered my normal tostada salad and was eating it when I bit down on something hard. I spit it out and discovered it was a piece of pottery. This is so unacceptable. I can still feel where my tooth bit down on it and will probably need to go to the dentist. I’ve reached out to the company via their survey but I felt others should be aware of this issue as well. My hope is that the company would take care of this issue starting with giving me a full refund of my order.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 4

Only got queso and chips but they were tasty as hell. I will say I HATE when they ask me if I want to tip at the end. Like I have been standing this whole time? What service am I paying for? Hate tipping culture in general for that matter. But the food was good none the less.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 3

They remember me and how i like my tacos. Some really great people work here!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Quesadilla

This Laguna Niguel Cafe Rio was the nicest cleanest friendliest one I have been to yet!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Shredded Chicken Salad