Great food and drinks! Fun staff. The margaritas were delicious and we really liked the corn poppers. They're like chicken nuggets only instead of chicken they have corn inside them. read more

Based on prior reviews, I was hoping for a great experience and great Mexican food. Instead, it was pretty bad..both with the food and service. When my family of four arrived over Labor Day weekend for dinner, we were the third table with customers. The rest of the tables were empty. After a few minutes of waiting with no menus, my husband took two menus off a nearby table. We waited for a total of about 10 minutes before the waitress came by. We put in drink orders (including two margaritas) and an appetizer order for chips and three dips (beans, queso and guacamole). When the appetizer came, the chips were hot and tasted very fresh. The dips weren't great. The queso had a burnt taste, the guacamole was more tomatoes and onions than avocado and the beans were room temperature and not hot. Our meals were delivered by a different person than our waitress. My son ordered a quesadilla, my husband and daughter split a burrito and I had the shrimp tacos. After the appetizer was delivered by the waitress, we didn't see her at our table again until we requested her to come by to ask about the margaritas which we hadn't received yet. She indicated that since she was 19, she couldn't deliver alcoholic drinks to customers and that the bartender had to bring it to us. She indicated that she would check on the drinks for us. I found it interesting since my 18-yo daughter works at a restaurant, also in Missouri, and CAN deliver alcoholic drinks to customers. Maybe it's the restaurant's policy? The quesadillas and burrito were fine. The shrimp tacos were very underwhelming. All three tacos were cold to the touch like they had just pulled the flour tortillas out of the fridge 10 minutes before...not heated at all. The shrimp was room temperature and one of the three tacos had only two small pieces of shrimp inside. The tacos also came with a side of beans and rice. The rice was an extremely small portion, maybe a 1/2 cup (small for a Mexican restaurant) and was also room temperature. The beans were cold like they just came out of the fridge....maybe they were supposed to be that way but I usually don't get cold beans with my Mexican meals. The waitress never came by to clear the appetizer dishes, never asked if we wanted more chips or to even ask us about our meal. Meanwhile, the margaritas never came. At this point, more tables were filled and none of the tables had ANY alcoholic drinks (which seems like a big miss for a restaurant). While we were there, a table of six came in and sat near us. The restaurant staff was extremely attentive and brought out chips and salsa right away while we had to wait longer when it was much less crowded. The waitress was also more attentive to the larger table. I assume it was because they had more people and would possibly generate a bigger tip. I had high hopes for the entire experience only for it to fall far short of my expectations. Maybe they were short staffed for a long weekend, but I will probably go elsewhere next time. read more

OH MY GOD. The worst service I have ever received in a restaurant in my entire life.Where do I start? Party of 7. We wanted to split the check. 3 on one ticket. The rest separate. Waiter had no clue how to do that on his iPad order system. He calls over coworker. They discuss. Pretty sure they know how. They try drink orders. Eventually they bring a few drinks. Then a couple more. Then they disappear & I still don't have my drink. I ask for my drink again and eventually get it. Then it came time to take orders. This should be interesting. We start with my friend's chimichanga. Seems to go OK. On to the next single ticket. Oops! He seems to have lost the first order. He disappears to consult once again with someone on how to use the POS system. He reappears. Next guy orders chicken nachos no lettuce/tomato/sour cream. Waiter asks where on the menu that is. Diner points to a sign advertising the chicken nachos. Not good enough. He needs to know the exact menu category under which the nachos appear. Apparently he's new and has not been trained-at all. Next was the 3 person ticket in our group. First order, no problem. Second order, once again he has no clue how to enter. The real fun starts with the next order: the vegan. She makes it quite clear she can't have any animal products. V:Are the beans made with lard? W:I dunno. They come in a can. V:Can you read the ingredients? W:I guess so. V:Forget it. Is the rice is it cooked in chicken broth? W:Uh. V:OK forget it. I'll have the guacamole salad. Does it have dressing? W: Dressing? V:Yes, dressing. Eventually we clarify with the waiter precisely what dressing IS & he's pretty sure there is no dressing. OK, the vegan will have the guacamole salad. He takes a couple more orders without too much incident beyond having no clue how to actually use the POS system. By this time we have been seated for maybe a half hour. Our final request was refills on chips, salsa & drinks. Waiter disappears and we start taking bets on if/when we will actually get any food. This is not going well. He comes back right away to refill salsa. We ask again for drinks and chips. All of the sudden food starts to arrive! At this point it's only been a minute or 2 since we completed our order. Odd. The trio gets served first. First 2 orders OK except for a possible hair in the nachos. The wife of the guy who ordered nachos SWEARS there was a hair in them. We try to retrieve it & it seems to get lost in the cheese. Guy who ordered the nachos just eats them. Last item of the trio's order is the Vegan guacamole salad. Topped with cheese. Oops. He takes them back. On his way out we ask AGAIN for drinks & chips. Waiter comes back quickly with a guacamole "salad", except it's not a salad. It's just a tiny bowl of guacamole. We ask about the salad and the waiter insists that the microscopic bowl of guacamole is in fact a salad, despite having no lettuce and being 1/4 the size of the first SALAD he delivered. Eventually we get drink refills. At this point it's clear that the kitchen didn't keep our table's orders together. We ask for chips-again. We get a visit from the chef, a helpful kid. We explain the issue and he clears up the other vegan ingredient issues. Now the other food arrives including the chicken nachos. Predictably, the nachos contain sour cream/tomatoes/lettuce. Sent back. Next the helpful chef arrives with a vegan guacamole salad. He asks us if we now have all of our food. Of course, we do not. We are still missing the botched chicken nachos and 2 orders of enchiladas. He clarifies the nacho order and says the enchiladas will be about 10 minutes-which means that portion of our order wasn't started yet. In about 10 minutes we get our enchiladas but the enchiladas do not come with sides of rice & beans. Remember the chips? Eventually we get chips as well. And rice & beans. Remember the chicken nachos? Our waiter didn't. We later get those as well. By the time we all get food 3 of us had already finished their meals. The food was decent-the only thing keeping this review above 1 star. We had other continual problems like the fact nobody ever asked to take the menus off of our table until we were done eating & constant problems getting refills. Processing the checks at the end of the meal was slow and troublesome. The poor waiter couldn't catch a break-even the pen he gave us to sign our bill didn't work. Never did anyone apologize nor did we get a visit from the manager-Did this restaurant have a manager?The only discount offered was the chef offering to take the guacamole salad off the bill. I'm sure the waiter was incapable of doing so. One of us ordered dessert and was not charged but when asked the waiter replied "I guess you're good" vs saying it had been comped in exchange for the bad service. The guy in our party who was last to leave the table did say that the waiter offered him a meek "sorry" as he walked out the door. Sorry indeed. We won't be back. read more

Stopped in for a late lunch after a long morning in the river. The chips were great and warm. Solid salsa and queso. Food came quick, beer was cold, and the margaritas were super icy. Perfect place to stop! read more

Absolutely the worst service ever! My party of 6 sat there 45 minutes with sodas and no one could take our order. We stopped two servers and the bartender.... No one would serve us. Very disappointing. I think the food would be good, if you could ever get it. For real, the waitress refilled our drinks but wouldn't take our order. C'mon folks, that's ridiculous. Save your time and money, go somewhere else! read more

Excellent fresh Mexican food and great wait staff. Beautifully renovated Black River Motel! Definitely a must when visiting the area! read more

Rio Rata - Chicken avacado salad - Mexican Near Me - Lesterville, Missouri

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Had the burger on tortillas instead of bread.to accommodate me was delicious. Thanks for tayloring my meal to fitmy needs.Greatly appreciated read more

Had Dinner there the other night and I was truly impressed. For such a small town they have a pretty amazing Mexican restaurant. I had the Fajita mix and it was perfect. The portions are large and the drinks were awesome. Service was very good and the hospitality was off the charts! I guess what I'm saying is that we will be going back soon. read more

Went in here for dinner. Looked like a nice stop and it wasn't too crowded so we thought we would give it a shot. Ordered Tacos, a burger and nachos and ordered chips and salsa as an appetizer. We sat at the table and waited for the appetizer that didn't come. Finally flagged somebody down and got our appetizer. Waited 45 minutes for the food and it still wasn't there. Went up and asked how long still and their answer was ATLEAST another 30 minutes. We got our money back and left. The guy in front of us did the same thing. While we were waiting at the table for food I was watching to the door where the waitress was coming out of. In 45 minutes I saw her come out and serve food 4 times. I don't know what they were doing in the kitchen but turning out food did not seem to be a priority. I can only think the reason they stay in business is cause there is not many choices in the area. read more

Just stopped in for lunch. Wow! They have really overhauled the building. It looks beautiful. As for the food, everyone in our party ordered chimichangas. They were delicious. The guacamole was the best part of lunch. Great service and just overall a really nice place. Loved it. We'll be back. read more

Went there this last friday night. Arrived at 6:30 PM. The sign said seat yourself so we went to a vacant table without dishes, only to realize it had not been wiped down from a previous customer. When the waitress came, advised her the table needed a wipedown, and she seemed somewhat shocked and surprised we asked for it. She came back much later and finally wiped it down. We got some chips and salsa and drinks and placed our order. No new customers had arrived yet within this window, but then a party of 4 came. They ordered after us, but yet got their food before us. A party of 10 came in, got drinks, and ordered but still no food for us. During this time we asked our waitress twice, is our order coming? She stated sorry its late, but should be coming soon. Well, then she comes out with the food for the party of 10. When she starts to give the first person their food, they state, " I didnt order that" - She then looks over to us, walks over with the plate, and asks " did you have a chimichanga? " I say yes, and then she says " with no beans?" I stand up, say No, and advise her, we are leaving since you cant seem to get this right. By this time it was 7:30 PM, so literally one hour wait for a party of 2 with a very simple dinner order - and they could not get it right in one hour. NOT GOOD AT ALL! read more

Sadly, our waiter was fairly new and had clearly not been trained. The menu and the POS system repeatedly confused him. He had to leave the table to ask questions at least 10 times during our order, and there we're still many problems with the food that arrived. The chef finally came out and tried to straighten out some of the problems. The food for the first few people arrived quick, but others had to wait so long for problems to be handled that the first diners had completed their meals before their food arrived. The food itself was ok, but certainly would not draw me back. Sadly, no manager spoke to us, and there was not even an apology for the problems. read more