Rio Grande (Downtown Denver)

1525 Blake St.


The Rio Grande is a chain Tex-mex restaurant, found in a couple different locations in Denver, but this review is specifically about the location at 15th and Blake.

This is definitely a hot spot for the after work happy hour crowd - at 5:00 on any Friday night, you'll find that it's packed with 20- and 30-somethings partaking in the Rio's famous margaritas, which come in two flavors - original and strawberry - and will definitely knock you on your butt. There's a 3 margarita maximum per person, if we remember right.

We've been fans of the margaritas, guacamole, and queso, and because of that, we've been to the downtown Denver, Boulder and Park Meadows locations several times over the years. It's always been a good place to get together with friends, enjoy some drinks and conversation, and be in a relaxed environment. The food has generally been good, but nothing outstanding. We definitely have gone there more for appetizers/snacks and margaritas.

But it will be a long time until we go back to the downtown location. After our last visit a couple weeks ago, we swore off the Rio for at least a year. The service was surly (we felt like we were a nuisance for the server,) the food was mediocre, the restaurant and what we could see of the kitchen were dirty, and there was a not-so pleasant creature scuttering across the floor of the dininr room (an unfortunate incident that was no surprise to management - and for which no apologies or concessions were made.) It's a shame to see this facility end up like this. But there are definitely other options downtown and we'll hit those up instead.