Cafe Rio Fresh Modern Mexican

Last few times I went there the food was not very good, the chips were stale and extremely salty and so was the queso.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 2

On 12/4/25 I ordered online for in store pick up. I showed up around 11:00am and left about 11:20. I stood there for 10 minutes before anyone acknowledged me even though there were no other customers in the store. When I was asked what I was waiting for I was informed that it would take 15 extra minutes to prepare the shrimp that I ordered on my shrimp taco so I chose steak instead. The girl then went to fill stock in the dining room while no one made my order. When she came back and decided to make my order she another employee got into a loud argument when the other girl told her she didn’t think my order had cheese on it the first girl got very angry and accused the other one of “disrespecting” her. The other girl argued back that there was no disrespect then the first girl said she was done and went into the back- I wondered if she was walking off the job-the other girl followed her to continue to argue. Eventually they both came back and finished my order. There was another employee making food for either drive thru or online orders that appeared to be as uncomfortable as I was from the situation.
This was at the Kuna location I won’t be going back.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 3

Service: 1

Jay was incredible !! Such a sweetheart!! Ben and Preston are super through and patient on the food line with a great sense of humor Kate made some of the most beautiful tortillas I have seen and I’m from Tucson Az!! this crew is probably the best crew I’ve ever run across at any fast food place/ dine in eatery.. their energy is amazing!!! The staff sang and cheered when asked.. but also they had impeccable service. Please recognize each one of your members and give them a raise.please give them an extra day off extra food, anything and everything more hours more benefits, more money each of them!!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Always awsome

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Ummm this is the second my husband has gone in to get us food. Don’t expect anyone to greet you or even look at you, they will just be on their phones and glance at you until they are done sending a text….my husband stood there for a solid 3 minutes before someone said “can I help you” he ordered me a salad, and he ordered a burrito and why it took so long certainly doesn’t make sense to me, but there was no rush so that isn’t something I’ll complain about, my husband had better customer service AS THE CUSTOMER, like why they were rude to him beats me. After my long 14 hour shift I was STARVING! So he comes home and there was no lettuce on my SALAD! See pic below! Weird service and not very friendly which is just sad because I love cafe rio food, but I’ll stick to the location near my work. Whoever owns this franchise needs to watch out because this place will soon not have anyone coming in 🤷‍♀️

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 2

Service: 1

Online app order. Live 3 miles away and still wasn't ready until 15 minutes after I arrived. This was the same case last visit. Food looked like someone absolutely didn't want to be working that day. All tortilla were so hard and crumbled if looked at. Probably cooked 2 days ago. Ordered chicken salad with fajita veggies and tortilla chips. Unchanged and got neither. Burrito bowl had dry rice with mysterious chucks of something not usually in thier rice. I was the only customer there, ordered 25 minutes prior to arriving and food still was ready. Staff seemed to be socializing in the back corner before actually realizing I was there to pick up. I watch one staff member grab a red wash/cleaning bucket removed the towel and proceeded to wipe down counter. Then she decided to help the others prep food with the same gloves she was wearing while using the dirty towel.
Clearly after reading the reviews its shows many others have had the same experience or worse. Just to get a follow up response from café Rio apologizing and that they will address the problem. Its apparent that they (management/corporate) dont care and will never address the problems in these reviews.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

I usually never review negative but this one just took the cake. It’s a shame too because we love the food here but the service during lunch time is HORRENDOUS. To the kid working today that insisted on wearing his hat so low over his eyes that he’d have to lift his chin to the ceiling practically to see anything in front of his face, that moved so slow that both my MIL and I had to ask each other “Is he high while on the job?”, who made the process where we were the only ones in line when we showed to then start to finish of getting checked out took close to if not over 15 minutes to get our food, he needs to be let go, retrained, or put in the back so he’s not dealing with customers. I asked for cojita cheese on my smothered burrito but there was no spoon in the dish, he went looking for one and was gone for over 3 minutes as I watched him walk the entire back areas twice AND over by the fountain drink area to then come back with NO UTENSIL whatsoever, and just use his gloved hand to grab the cheese and put it on my burrito ( no glove change either so idk how long he’s been wearing them or what else he touched while wearing them as he was literally wearing them when he went on his utensil quest anyway). Then he proceeded to ask the typical “eating here or to go” which I replied “for here.” To which he realized he had no trays to put the dishes on and disappeared again for MULTIPLE MINUTES where my group was like “where’d he go?” To have him come back toward the front with maybe 3/4 wet trays and we watch him take a towel and in the slowest way possible dry them by wiping in slow circles (think like rom com where the girl is daydreaming staring off in their head slow circle motions) while we literally stand there waiting for him to come back and finish prepping our food and checking us out. When he finally finished prepping our food after us waiting so long, he didn’t even check us out, he started serving the two gals that had ended up in line behind us because they were taking so long with our food. The other gal who was at the front of the food making station at the meats had to come check us out because she could tell we were getting way frustrated at this point (to which it was obvious this boy had no concern over at all). Absolutely horrible AND embarrassing for us because we recommend this place for lunch to my parents in law since my husband and I like the food to have this be the experience was just unbelievable. Management - do better and if you’re not willing to the owner or corporate needs to come in and do some serious revamping and retraining.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 5

Service: 1

Came in at 2pm I asked for a bowl. The lady helping clearly did not want to be there. I asked for a steak bowl and said said we don’t have stack or chicken. I asked for an ETA and she said about 15. Sad a place that can do so well but falls short due to management not training their employees properly

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

Place is a dump. Cant do anything in a timely manner. 30 minutes waiting for my food.

The place was not clean! It was not terrible but it was not clean! Im not a fan of the lack of flavor im used to! The ppl working were nice and very polite and eager to please!

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 3

Service: 4

I have never been to a Cafe Rio. I should have read the reviews before hand. This location in Kuna was dirty. I was contemplating if I wanted to eat here. Even though the meat looked so dry and all the toppings looked old I went ahead and ordered. I was starving! As I was eating I seen a girl place a raw box of chicken on top of a counter partially on a cutting board that was used to cut up cooked chicken. Now im hoping I do not get food poisoning. The food tastes like your typical American-Mexican. The atmospher felt gross. The service was great, but because of the cleanliness and possible cross contamination I will not be back to this location.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 5

Excellent experience! Great service and yummy food!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Have given this location so many opportunities to get it right, but something always goes awry with either the order being incorrect, unfriendly staff, etc. I will be going to another Cafe Rio in the future.

I have done business at this location both as a delivery driver and as a customer. In both instances, this location is painfully slow. Granted, there has been intermittent employees that have been an exception, but as a customer and a vegan, whenever I show up they have always been out of their grilled vegetables and corn salsa. Since their rice is not vegan (it has whey in it), that means I just get black beans and a flour tortilla. This location is the only location that won't put the corn salsa and lettuce inside of the burrito. This has happened (being out of items during business hours) at least five times for me. I regularly go to the Franklin and Meridian Mall locations and never have these issues. I complained about the issues on their website and....crickets. No response at all.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 4

Service: 1

Always end up waiting 5-10 minutes even with no line. Workers will look at you and not help or say anything. If you go through the drive through you will end up with the wrong food. When you do get served inside the food is good just bad customer service

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 4

Service: 1