Urban Rio Cantina & Grill

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joyi | Plano, TX | 1 Reviews

Heard that this was one of the DFW area favorites for Tex Mex and I LOVE tex mex... so we took the kids tonight to officially kick off our holidays... Scott is not going back to work until after the first! So the four of us - My husband and myself, a three year old & a seven year old. We had a wait of 15 minutes... mind you, we went at 7:30 pm on a Saturday night - so a 15 minute wait was more than expected. The wait was made very easy, because we could order drinks as well as some chips and queso. The bartender was very cool about filling the kids cups only half way, and the bar was friendly and helpful. The waiting area was set up in an interesting way... and out of the way of servers and what not - the kids really did not get restless at all during the wait. So A++ on making the wait easy - even pleasant.

Our turn came to be seated and they wisely sat us at a rounded booth with a very high back. My three-year-old did not stay seated, he stood and peeked over the back of the booth quite a bit, but behind us - where he was looking was into the kitchen bar area - he was watching the cooks make fresh tortillas and whatnot - he was not bugging other patrons and he was not in any way able to do anything except peek over the high back of the booth - just a little shorter than him, so that really all you would see form the other side was probably from his nose up. It was not enough to distract anyone... and I was so glad for that. Both my kids and my husband and I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the food. It is not your traditional Tex Mex - For instance my daughter ordered Tacos and the tacos had brisket instead of ground beef... she gave it two thumbs up - rare for her, very rare. For my son we ordered chicken quesadillas and wow! So good, he dug in and ate like I rarely see him do. My husband ordered Smoked Brisket and that brisket was beyond amazing... I mean it was super! I ordered the Crab Empanadas... yummy! So the food was amazing!

The cost for us all four to dine and then have some left-overs was more than we normally spend, but not by much. For our family, we would go there for an occasional treat... would be a great place to go on a date or to have a business lunch. There is no children's menu; I suspect they do not often have children dining there. The waiter was great at making sure the food we ordered for the children was kid friendly, i.e. no sour cream or extra sauces or toppings. Oh, and the presentation of the food was beautiful. I mean really nice looking... it felt like we should have been paying much more for our meals than we did.

So, I recommend this place for sure... maybe not so much for a family outing, though it turned out nice for us. For sure business lunch, nice date, to go have a few drinks... yes, for sure this is a place I would suggest to my friends and family.