urban rio cantina & grill

my son and i were looking for a late night bite to eat and decided to tryurbanrio friday night at 10pm. we went in and we're seated promptly. the booth was very comfortable. we reviewed the menu and i decided on brisket tacos and my son got brisket quesadillas. they brought chips and salsa and a black bean dip. the bean dip tasted strongly of cinnamon. it wasn't bad just a surprise. it was also served hot. the salsa was very good. just the right amount of heat. our food came out fairly quickly. mine was served in a kind of taco holder and looked like street tacos. they looked pretty good but had bbq sauce all over the meat and that was a disappointment to me. same thing with the quesadillas. food wasn't bad. just kinda mediocre and pretentious at the same time. we probably won't go back

enjoy the eats aturbanrio. i like howurbanrio starts you off with chips, salsa and black bean dip. the salsa had a subtle kick and the black bean dip helped neutralize each bite. watch out though, it's addicting...and you will need to leave room for your meal. we also enjoyed a bowl of their homemade guacamole with those chips - which was excellent. for my main course i went with the rack of veggie tacos (mushrooms, garlic, squash, bell peppers and avocado) cheese and their mexican crema sauce are served on the side without which you can keep this a vegan option. for the meat eaters in our party the stuffed avocado earned rave reviews. there are several seating options at this location. the main floor dining room had a certain elegance which was nice. the upstairs features outdoor seating, but definitely feels more bar-like. over all we had a great dining experience. good service and great food.

after our wedding plans had been cancelled due to covid, we decided to reserve the tequila room aturbanrio two hours from 4-6 to make sure it was before the busy dinner hour and reduced the number of people to just our children and 80 yr old parents, for a total of 11 people, including the officiant (a family member) and our photographer. we reserved the room months ago and emailed back and forth with kali, who although we we understand covid changed the game, the changes she arbitrarily made to the terms and conditions of the contract had nothing to do with covid. we provided an exact schedule down to the minute, including that we wanted the food not to be served until 30 minutes after we arrived, so that the food would be warm and fresh and so that we could have our unorthodox ceremony that covid had already forced us to cancel more than once, but as soon as we began the ceremony and while it was being videoed, the doors swing open right behind me, the officiant and my new bride and in comes the waitstaff with trays of water glasses....we literally had to stop and move the out of the way, while exchanging vows.
as we worked through that and while the staff frantically attempted to get the room ready and were finally able to complete the very brief ceremony, we were given no instructions on the process, so we all took our seats anticipating that the food would soon arrive. but after interrupting the ceremony, there was no waitstaff to be found. the room was also being used as storage for dishes, warming plates, racks of salt and pepper shakers, etc.....so it took us a few minutes to notice that in some of those piles of pans and warmers, was our buffet style fajitas that had been there the entire time...the same food that kali assured us wouldn't be served until 30 minutes after we arrived. i spent $2,000. to rent a an bright red r8 for the sole purpose of driving off with "just married" plastered on the back window, so please don't think this is me crying about cost vs service, i would have given them $10k to do what they claimed they could. there wasn't enough food for everyone to enjoy a first serving of fajitas, enough so that a couple of people pretended they weren't hungry and opted not to eat anything but chips and salsa. much of our meal was already eaten before we were provided drinks, the room was extremely hot with no a/c or fans...we were all decked out in tommy bahama....not bulky wedding dresses...so just a little a/c is all we needed.
a grumpy, short bald guy rushed in and out a few times, didn't say a word to anyone....kind of looked like a manger who was too good to help his waitress.
after all was said and done, while everyone was sitting with empty glasses, we discovered that the waitress was helping our room that had been reserved for months and still serving tables in the regular dining room. we thanked and had empathy for her situation, but she clearly had no support form management or any other staff.....so we thanked an tipped our waitress and suggest that you spend your money with another establishment who would appreciate your business and not treat you like an inconvenience.

truly enjoyed the food & experience.urbanrio is a very cool restaurant and bar. it's located one full block off the main drag of old town plano. the building is all brick and iron, so it fits nicely into the old town feel. the first floor is all restaurant with a heavy emphasis on browns and blacks. the heavy wood stairs in back take you up to the 2nd floor where the bar is located. it's a little more chic with a lighted bar that rotates colors. part of the building exterior has been removed to create a mid-building patio. the effect, view and atmosphere is just cool.

the food was very good. my wife and i tried rio queso blanco style with chorizo ground beef. for our main course, we tried the chimichurri grilled chicken quesadilla. awesome meal. i am not sure i have had a three layer quesadilla before. i highly recommendurbanrio for both the food and experience.

urban rio rocks -nation gibrick. if you’re looking for some mexican cuisine to leave you with a jaw dropping experience look no further.urbanrio is a conveniently located restaurant in downtown plano, suitable for anyone looking to chow down on some kick ass mexican food. from stuffed chicken avocados to jalapeno cakesurbanrio's menu features a vast amount of unique options. my personal favorite is the “barbacoa-style tamale”. i swear, that with each bite your taste buds will explode and your mind will feel as if it just took a bite of heaven. in addition to the delicious unique options, chefs accommodate for all dietary restrictions. this includes gluten-free, vegan, organic and diabetic options.
urban rio holds true to their hot environment by being the host to a clean, cozy and at home-feeling ambience. the first floor owns a cozy style that lures you in with their calm home-style presence. to top it all off, the restaurant allows guests to enjoy roof-top seating.
evaluating the service of a restaurant can be quite difficult sometimes. however,urbanrio contains the perfect collaboration of employees that will leave you satisfied. every time i enterurbanrio i feel like a king. truth be told the only thing that’s missing is my throne. all jokes aside, rest assure that when attendingurbanrio you will receive a warm greeting and will be treated with great hospitality.
unlike most high quality eateries,urbanrio maintains an economically friendly price range. competing restaurants likeurbancrust are far more pricey and often don’t provide the biggest bang for the buck. for example, aturbanrio i can get 15 chicken skewers for a price of 12 bucks. you just can’t beat that.
why should you go tourbanrio? the environment is hot, the drinks are cold, and the salsas the best you will ever find on either side of rio. business meetings, dates, to family dinners,urbanrio is the perfect place to enjoy a meal for all occasions.

hit it out of the park! we came uponurbanrio after walking around in downtown plano shopping. i am pleased we did. food, atmosphere, and service was exceptional.

loveurbanrio. i truly love this place. the food is excellent, the service is great, and i love the live music in the bar. i'm never disappointed.

a great night out. recently my husband and i were lamenting how it had been a long time since we had a dining experience that was the full package: great atmosphere, great service, and great food. last night we found it with a trip tourbanrio. it was crowded when we got there (it was saturday, after all) and were facing an hour wait, so we headed upstairs to on the rocks. we found a quiet corner with the coziest chairs i've seen in a bar and had a drink while we waited. our server brought us chips and salsa and was attentive, even in the busy bar. it was a very laid back, relaxing environment, and i was a little disappointed when our buzzer flashed. downstairs our server was mick; he was incredible. like refilling your water glass every five minutes and getting your cocktail in under a minute incredible. we had crab empanadas, fish tacos, and the rio steak. all were delicious. our dinner went quickly, so we headed back upstairs to listen to the guy playing acoustic guitar, who was also awesome. it was a fabulous night out, and we will most certainly be back.

another hit in downtown plano. the first thing you'll notice is the lovely atmosphere. just like their sibling nearby,urbancrust, its a very vertical concept with rooftop bar. cozy main dining room on the first level. surprise in the basket of chips were the cactus chips which were green and very thick and tasty. in addition to the standard salsa was a black bean dip which was good.
the queso blanco arrived in a skillet and was piping hot and delicious.
good selection on the menu of grilled items, veggie options, inviting salads and some basics like fajitas and enchiladas.
the chicken and beef fajitas were very good, big portion and came with sour cream which isn't always a given. chicken enchiladas were enjoyed with sour cream sauce.
i don't recommend the corn & crab enchiladas because the crab is more of a garnish than an ingredient. a small portion of crab was served as a topping above the tomatillo sauce. so really i felt like i was eating corn enchiladas because i was. could be fixed with a clearer menu description. and this did explain the low price of only $9.50 for the entree.
lots of cozy booth seating and plenty of flat screen tvs for game time.
special treat is a gelato place in the shared space. salty caramel gelato was awesome.

extremely rude bartender. this was my second visit tourbanrio and it was my definitely my last.
the bartender was so incredibly rude and she had such an attitude that i felt my blood pressure going up exponentially as i sat at the downstairs bar. i actually looked at my husband and said "i can see you..... you can see me too, right?!?! maybe we are invisible!!" because that's actually how she made us feel! well, that's how she tried to make us feel. we have some self esteem. we know we are not invisible, that's just silly!
so....
let's start with my first visit here;
i had the day off, and met some girlfriends for lunch on a friday. we went early because we figured that the crowds would grow on a friday at lunch and i'm glad we did, because the dining room did get really crowded. it was a good experience. but hey, i had a day off, the kids were in school, i met some girlfriends for lunch and we even allowed ourselves a marg or a glass of wine. it was destined to be a success! the chips and salsa were really good. the marg was good. i ordered fish tacos, and they were just okay. they should've been called cabbage tacos. because if you had a mishap, and the one popcorn sized piece of fish fell out, and on to the table, instead of your plate, that was what you were eating. the pieces of fish in the tacos were laughably tiny.
the food was nothing to write home about. my fellow lunch mates neither raved or complained about their meals, but this day was clearly about the company not the food!
i left happy and wiling to revisit to try another menu item.

now, to last night.....
my husband had been wanting to try out the restaurant. he actually works in downtown plano and is always looking for a new place to have lunch meetings, or a local, non-chain restaurant to do their catering. he suggested we give it a try because we were out, sans kids, and it was 8:15ish so we hoped that might put us behind the dinner rush.
we were greeted by friendly, pleasant hostesses and told there would be about a 20 minute wait. no kids to whine, no brainer, we'll wait. hey the bar has empty seats. we can even get a marg while we wait. picture me happy!
then we actually had the audacity to sit at her bar....
i guess you aren't welcome to sit at her bar if you're over 25, which she proved by serving those that she needed to id, all the while ignoring us.
not only were we ignored and treated as if we were invisible, when she finally did acknowledge that we were visible and that she had seen us the whole time, her attitude started! we just thought she had an attitude, when she opened her mouth and actually spoke to us, she proved that she had a bad attitude. so very rude.
we spoke to the manager on the way out, because i feel management should know that one employee has me leaving to get in my car and drive somewhere else to spend my money and possibly start another wait.
i'm leaving.... you had me and you lost me. he didn't say much. we were mad. i'm not sure he could've changed our minds.

i will not set foot in this restaurant again. ever.

here's what blows me away. this restaurant has a great atmosphere, (if you don't mind a mountain climb and a trip through the bowels of the restaurant to use the restroom..... another issue) and this area of plano needs great restaurants. plano's tax base needs it's residents to spend their dollars in plano.
ifurbanrio's owners/management are trying to appeal to the "in" crowd they won't do that by by ignoring patrons that don't fit that niche. we are older. we are loyal. we eat out. often. your restaurant is in my neighborhood and i wanted to like it. fail.
i have lived in the dallas area my entire life. i have seen lots of restaurants come and go because they want to be popular with the "in" crowd. the restaurants that having staying power know that the "in" crowd is a fickle, disloyal group. they aren't the people you want to appeal to. you want to appeal to any customer who takes the time to walk through your door. any customer. because they will talk at dinner parties, business meetings, and pta meetings. that customer gets to decide where they will spend their dollars and they will talk to their friends about it. it's your job as an employee to make every customer want to come back and spend their dollars at your restaurant.

i read a few other reviews forurbanrio, and i can see that this has been a recurring problem with some employees. wow. you are really going to let these people chase your customers away??? this review is a waste of my time. the fact that i can see that this is a recurring problem tells me that you don't care. too bad. you've clearly spent a ton of money on this location. you are throwing that investment away if you allow rude employees to offend and treat your customers like an inconvenience. it's bad business and your business will fail.

very legit place. the location is great, but parking can become a premium on the weekends. the name fits the decor. it is one of the mosturbanhip places around. if the weather is nice i recommend sitting rooftop. food is great and other then the bean dip i haven't found anything that i do not like. they have some of the biggest and most delicious quesadillas ever. also be sure and try their sister restaurant one block over by the name ofurbancrust for some really good pizza.

what a disgrace..... i took my wife tourbanrio on monday night for the first time to check it out. we found an engaging decor, great atmosphere and flat screens everywhere. i thought i was in heaven. we went to sit on the patio and the experience began to deteriorate immediately. the waitress recommended the rio steak, but they were out. they were out of house chardonnay and other items as well. we never recieved chips and salsa until i asked another waiter if they were still serving them. the margarita tasted like watered down lemonade. my wife ordered the chicken torta. it arrived missing avocado salad and black beans as listed on the menu. it was served with a tasteless red cabbage slaw, however. i ordered the supposedly chile rubbed tuna with apricot salsa. the tuna was cooked nicely, however , no chile rub and about a quarter teaspoon of the salsa garnished the tuna. we also ordered the guacamole for an appetizer, but it never made it to our table. what a shame. the place looks like it has great potential, but nobody there seems to either know or care what to do to provide an enjoyable dining experience for gueats.