Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant

Best Margaritas ANYWHERE~BUT.... If you LOVE Margaritas this is the place to come. They are AMAZING! ~BUT~ The food is not. I have tried a few things I can say are decent though. Try a chile relleno, extra crispy with a side of their green chile. The queso is pretty good if you mix some of the salsa in it. The beef on the nachos is always tough. Cheese enchildas are ok. They do have the BEST sopapillas I have ever had. They come covering a dinner plate and are crispy not doughy. Don't forget to drizzle with honey. Just go for those margaritas and you won't care about the food.  View Less … View More

I Love this Place. I started out loving this place in the 90's when i went to CU and still love it today. I always have loved their margs and queso. They recently added a new marg that you can call your own tequila, which suits me as my palliate has evolved a tequila connoisseur. This place is still a fun place to hang out before I head to an Avs game. Thanks Rio  View Less … View More

Very Disappointed. I was a Rio regular: I live in Denver, work downtown and bring friends and family here all of the time because of the good margaritas and food. However, I brought family from out of town for dinner on Saturday night and had the worst experience I have had at any Denver restaurant.

We showed up a little after 7:15pm and put our names in. The hostess told us it would be 45 minutes to an hour. We decided to wait outside since it was so crowded in the restaurant and we thought it would be more polite to keep out of the way. Around 8:00 or so we asked the hostess for an update on the time and she said (rudely) the original time frame she gave us was accurate so we expected to be seated in about 15 minutes. In the meantime, ropes were put up and people started lining up. After 8:15 one of us tried to go check again as it was cold outside but the doorman told us we could not go inside because they were at capacity. So he grudgingly went and asked and told us it was "still going to be awhile" with no explanation as to what "awhile" translated to as far as time...10 minutes, two hours? So apparently, the "original time frame" she promised was not close to being accurate.

While we were trying to figure out what to do, we saw two women try to go inside. One had already been inside but had not been given a card when she went to go meet the other woman. The rest of their party had been seated but again, because of fire code, they were told they would have to wait at the end of the line. Even though they had seats that should have been factored in to the total number of guests when they made their reservation. Based on the treatment of those guests, we determined that even if a table was available for us, we would have to wait in the long line.

After we had been waiting for about an hour and a half, we asked to talk to a manager. We waited for another ten minutes and no one ever came so we left.

Overall, The Rio is a busy place and it would probably be in the best interest of the owners to hire competent staff that are polite to the customers and realize that the name of their establishment is "Rio Grande Mexican RESTAURANT" not Bar. Do not fill your restaurant with people only coming there to drink at the bar when you have people waiting to actually eat there. As for me, I will now be visiting and recommending establishments with better service.  View Less … View More