Yes it is. My ex-girlfriends family owns it. They immigrated here and opened the restaurant. Killer stuff.
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The first few times I went to Chipotle I would've agreed with you. However, it was just a matter of finding what I like. If you get the right thing, it can be delicious and nutritious.
My favorite is the burrito bowl with: chicken, steak, brown rice, black beans, extra lettuce, red hot sauce (hold the cheese, sour cream and guac)
705 Calories, 18g fat, 65g carbs, 67g protein. All for like 10 bucks!
I was in Vegas 2 weeks ago and really enjoyed both these places:
http://www.opentable.com/el-segundo-sol (braised beef tacos were awesome)
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...as_Nevada.html
Or yo could go to the Red Iguana and get real Mexican food. Attachment 454
My take is that Red Iguana gets more kudos than it deserves, and that Cafe Rio gets more bad reviews than it deserves.
I don't know anyone who says that Cafe Rio is authentic Mexican food. But it isn't bad food. And if you like it, why not eat there? Also, I have been to RI, it is good, but in my opinion not any better than other Mexican restaurants in the area.
My opinion is based solely on what I like. I generally don't care what the critics say. The only time I care about the critics is if they absolutely hate a place that I like, and there is danger of them going out of business. Regarding the mole, we went to RI so my wife could get the mole because she loves it. I don't care for it at all (at any restaurant). That may be part of the reason that I think there is nothing special about RI.
Well if yo think Rio should be more highly regarded I think we've established your taste ;)
I spent my summers growing up in rural Northern New Mexico. I ate at residences as well as small restaurants in small towns, amazing food.
The only Mexican restaurant in Utah that's on that level is Red Iguana, not only in the quality but the style of food. Cafe Rio should never be compared to Red Iguana and vice versa. One is a restaurant, the other is a fast food restaurant.
I think the reason Cafe Rio gets so many bad word of mouth reviews is two fold. First, it's fast food that really can be obtained at many similar type places in Salt Lake. But the bigger reason is the hype created for it by so many people.
I don't believe I compared the two, but okay. Just saying that blasting people for going to Cafe Rio is ridiculous. There are plenty of folks who do that, and also plenty who put RI on a pedestal and ridicule those who don't.
For the record, by favorite "Cafe Rio Type" place was Pistol Petes. I was very sorry to see it close.
The hype is the thing. I heard about Cafe Rio long before I ate there. I do enjoy Mexican food, but it's sometimes hard to know what's authentic Mexican and what's not. With Cafe Rio, that's easy to say - it's not. Maybe that's the reason for the derision. It's such a departure from what people know as Mexican food. I guess it's like how the original Volkswagen Beetle was designed by Ferdinande Porsche - but if you try to equate it with a Porsche, you're going to get laughed out of the building.
Yeah, there's Tex Mex and Cali Mex, but I guess that the real difference is that a lot of the Cali-Mex and Tex-Mex restaurants have a true Mexican influence, while Cafe Rio was started by a caucasian, Mormon couple from St. George and is headquartered in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. For example: one of my favorite Cali-Mex chains is Wahoo's. It was started by brothers who grew up in Brazil, moved to California and became surfers, spending lots of time in Mexico - they brought the Mexican fish tacos they grew to love into California.
Utah Mex, on the other hand, is much more counterintuitive. Cafe Rio is just so white. It's way too sweet, and strikes me as a returned missionary version of "authentic" Mexican food that he sweetens way too much because if he has to be honest, he doesn't really like the taste of the real stuff, but it's the cool thing to be obsessed with your mission food.
Bravo! This is the perfect depiction of Cafe Rio hate. It is your garden variety self-loathing of LDS and Utah culture masquerading as hipster foodie condescension.
I am not a big Cafe Rio fan, but it tickles me to see it succeed so wildly and franchise out into other states. The cognitive dissonance this causes is hilarious to watch.
The discussion of this subject has always seemed odd to me. (BTW, the guy who started Cafe Rio was from Bountiful - he's since passed away, and far too young -- in his early 40s). It's just food, and every kind has its buyer, it seems to me. There used to be a place in Bountiful called Casa Melinda, and it was the most Gringo-ized Mexican-themed food I've ever tasted. But my in-laws loved it. So did lots of other Bountiful folks. But we are not talking about Mexican food, we are talking about Mexican-themed food, IMO.
Cuisine evolves. The only place to get "real" (i.e., less-evolved) Mexican-themed food is in Mexico. The same is true of most ethnic dishes. For example, on the very rare occasion when I want a pupusa (Salvadoran), there are plenty of pupuserias in L.A. The more recently the owner immigrated from El Salvador, the more it reminds me of the pupusas I used to eat on my mission. The ones at farmer's markets are the most authentic from that standpoint. But the longer the purveyor has been in the USA, the more creative he or she gets (different ingredients, different type of preparation, oil used for frying, etc.), and the more evolved the food is. I'll bet if I went back to El Salvador I'd find that pupusas are different and more varied now than they were 30 years ago. I could say the same thing about Guatemalan tamales. Or "Italian" pizza, for that matter. When it comes to food I guess I am a firm believer in evolution. ;)
So when I am in Salt Lake and want Mexican-themed food, I can choose Cafe Rio or Chipotle (I prefer Chipotle) or Red Iguana or that place at the Rio Grande terminal. I'll go based on what sounds good to me at the time. But I am under no illusion that I will be getting "real" Mexican food. I'm not even sure what that means, or if I can get it even in Mexico.
End of rant! Not directed at you, SC Coug. Just at the subject in general.
If you ever want to wish you were at Cafe Rio, go to the "Italian" restaurant started by these same people. I've never had a more disgustingly sweet red sauce in my life.
First off I am no foodie nor a hipster. But you are right that aside from the fact that I think the food is disgusting, the orgasmic delight folks around here have over it is what kills me. People who have it as their "favorite restaurant" or squeal in delight when they find out Cafe Rio is catering the work lunch.
It is hip to hate on Cafe Rio in some circles it seems. I sometimes go there just to kind of say F#$& you to the haters. I also think Crown Burger is terribly overrated but my opinion seems to go against the established food dogma in this state.
I think it's funny.
Another question for the hater crowd: why the obsession with Cafe Rio with hardly a peep about Taco Bell? You can't possibly find a more bastardized inauthentic form of Mexican food than Taco Bell and they absolutely dwarf Cafe Rio.
Answer: not a Utah product.