The Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant

Beauregardless, you are so wrong about this place.
The fajitas are incredible. I don’t know what they do to the meat but its got this delicious sweet yet spicy marinade on it that has rocked my world every time I go there. Come to think of it, I don’t know that I’ve ever ordered anything else off the menu. The big roasted onions and peppers are the perfect topping… I always ask for cheese and they bring me this little bowl of half yellow half white shredded cheese and something about it is just so yummy.
I think the salsa kicks ass too– it could be a little spicier but as far as consistency goes the texture is just right. Black beans are a delicious side and I love how the rice has peas in it.
I’m not a huge fan of their ‘rita that claims to be the best in Texas or something. I mean, thems big words and I had big expectations. I actually remember it being so bad that if I weren’t such an alcoholic I probably wouldn’t have drank it at all. But I’m not the kind of girl to let good tequila go to waste. One time I had a mexmartini that I had high hopes for but it just wasn’t as good as Trudy’s or Vivo’s. Its Austin man, you gotta make a stellar margarita and mexican martini or else you can’t be taken seriously ’round these parts.

Food: decent – nothing mind blowing
Drink: YUM
Service: awesome
I had the rio marg on the rocks — it was to die for. I will return for one of those. They are ridiculously strong and tasty.
Chips and salsa to start. chips had just come out of the fryer and weren’t quite crispy the first round – we ate those, second round came out and they were perfect-​problem averted. Tacos el rey were recommended by the waitress — good call! Beef tenderloin, red onions, queso fresco, avocado and lime to sqeeze on it. MMMM. Great portion sizes.
not worth waving a banner or anything, but I may try out happy hour.

After taking some friends to the State Capitol Building a few blocks away, then grabbing lunch here, I would have to say that the 3 star rating is correct, perhaps too generous.
Yesterday this place was deadsville. 1:30 pm on a Sunday afternoon and aside from our party there was only one other group in there, and a man with his young son celebrating a 7^th birthday. When I asked our waitress if it’s normal to be this dead on a Sunday, she said that it’s hit and miss. «Some Sunday’s are booming and others dead like today.» One factor may have been that it was about 104 °F outside and there wasn’t much foot traffic in downtown Austin. In fact at the Capitol people were flocking inside to enjoy the AC.
Anyway, enough June 28^th downtown Austin trivia. Let’s get to the food here and I’m not going to spend a lot of time on it as it is what it is. Tex-​Mex. Just as the Rio Grande is miles away, this is also miles away from authentic Mexican. But it’s some nice Tex-​Mex. Since it was (as mentioned but worth another mention) hot as blazes outside, and we were about to go swimming, only three of us ate. We decided to split two plates of Nachos, one with beef fajita and one with chicken fajita. Feel free to see our photos just uploaded. These Tex-​Mex creations tasted just as good as they look in the photos, quite nice and they filled the three of us as much as we wanted to, for $ 20.
This restaurant has a huge long bar and seems to be focused on drinks, but we can’t comment on them as alcohol under the heat conditions wasn’t on our list of desires to say the least. They were kind enough to give us cups of ice-​water to go upon request that oddly came in cups made of corn. Never seen those before.
Being right across the street from powerhouse eateries such as Fogo De Chao, the menu prices seem to be a little pricey as well.
Good service, comfortable atmosphere (even with the music a bit too loud) and interesting décor with lighted tree branches hanging from the ceilings.

This place used to have a crazy happy hour. A cute little sheet of paper would come out and you could pick out what you wanted: $ 1-​$ 2.50 for apps and take-me-home-I’m-feeling-fiesty margaritas at $ 5.00. For under $ 20 for sure two people could have some delicious empanadas, queso with guac, and a bunch of other stuff. Plus that drink. Plus another one maybe — just saying.
Recently they revamped the bar area, putting in black leather couches where tall tables once were. I think they’re trying to make it a fancier spot, and it is overall aesthetically pleasant. The bad news: they have removed their super spectacular happy hour, doing half off the appetizers on their new (boring) menu instead. I think the $ 5 HH margaritas remain. Even their tostada, which was my favoritist entrée item, is gone. But I have residual love for this joint’s old HH, plus I was already stuck after ordering a drink this weekend. So the man and I tried out dinner.
The menu is quite limited. It’s not online yet, but since the chicken and pork tacos were the same price, the kind waitress told me I could order either of them to fulfill the 3 tacos that came out on the plate. The 2 chicken tacos… kind of dry. 1 sad pork taco: abort, abort.
I’m the meat-​eater that doesn’t want to know it’s meat. I don’t want to bite into veins and ligaments and imagine the functionality of these things as the chicken or whatever animal was running away from it’s impending death. So it’s no surprise that I gagged when I ran into something my teeth couldn’t immediately chew, and decided not to finish the pork taco I had ordered. That thing dropped on the plate so fast, my equally fussy sweetie knew exactly what was up. Fortunately for him, he got the veggie fajitas. Unfortunately for him, they were out of the majority of the advertised veggies. Sigh. $ 14ish dollars for fajitas that are missing ingredients = penalty. And really… we’re not big eaters and there were no worthy leftovers to take home. Supreme fail.
Something’s got to give. Either stick to a prime happy hour that delivers, or up the ante on the few entrees that do exist. Because… Manuel’s has far superior food and a fantastic happy hour I’d love up in a heartbeat.

Leave it to SXSW week to take you outside of your typical circadian rhythms. Dragged all over downtown by the promise of buzz-​worthy bands and a few beers too many, we ended up giving Rio Grande a try. Nothing new to report on what they’ve done with the place since the MTV kids lived here and got beat up often, but I’ll give it to the interior decorators who dolled this place up: the inside is pretty slick.
Where they end up falling down however, is in the execution of the fare, and it’s hard to disagree with most here who say that while it’s not offensive, it’s not particularly anything that would make you excited enough to write home about either. I tried on some fajitas on for size, and they proved satisfying enough. If not revolutionary.