Cafe Rio Mexican Grill, or Cafe Rio, is a fast-casual Mexican restaurant that uses a cafeteria-style food preparation process. It serves entrees such as tacos, burritos, taco salads, quesadillas, and enchiladas. It’s also noteworthy that it serves both lime pie and flan for dessert and it has horchata as well as traditional soft drinks. This restaurant serves several entrees that aren’t available at other fast-casual Mexican restaurants in my area, although you can order them at traditional casual-dining restaurants.
This is a popular restaurant chain in the Mountain West and it now has lots of locations in the Los Angeles area as well. Its restaurants typically do not have drive-thru lanes but they do have enough room inside to seat groups of diners and some of them have outdoor dining areas. Like other fast-casual restaurants, Cafe Rio is likely to have higher prices than quick-serve Mexican restaurants. Anyway, here are the payment methods you can use at Cafe Rio.
Does Cafe Rio Accept Major Credit Cards?
Cafe Rio accepts Mastercard, American Express, Visa, and Discover cards. It accepts both debit cards and credit cards.
Does Cafe Rio Accept Mobile Payment Methods?
Cafe Rio accepts Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and other contactless payment methods at its restaurants. I confirmed this information by using Apple Maps to look up the profiles of its restaurants in my area.
Cafe Rio also has rewards apps for the iPhone and Android phones that support pickup and delivery orders, although they might not support mobile wallets. It’s noteworthy that this restaurant also has its own delivery vehicles, unlike many other Mexican restaurants that rely on third-party delivery services.
Does Cafe Rio Accept International Payment Methods?
Since Cafe Rio accepts Discover cards, it’s likely that it can also accept JCB, UnionPay, and RuPay cards by processing them through the Discover network. It’s likely that this restaurant can customize many of its entrees to make them vegetarian or vegan.
Does Cafe Rio Accept EBT?
Cafe Rio doesn’t accept EBT at its Southern California restaurants. I looked up the Restaurant Meals program lists for Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, and San Diego counties and I didn’t see this restaurant on those lists. Restaurants can only accept this form of payment if they sign up for the Restaurant Meals program individually.
If you’re looking for alternatives, El Pollo Loco and Del Taco accept this payment option at many of their Southern California locations. Quick-service burger restaurants frequently accept EBT in Southern California as well and some of them have Mexican entrees on their menus.
Does Cafe Rio Have Its Own Payment Methods?
Cafe Rio sells branded gift cards and its apps accept gift cards as a payment option.
What’s Another Useful Fact About Cafe Rio?
Cafe Rio also serves Mexican Coke, which is sweetened with cane sugar instead of corn syrup. Many people prefer the taste of this beverage to the US version and it’s also popular at some of the supermarkets in my area.
What Are Alternatives to Cafe Rio That Accept Apple Pay?
Rubio’s is a seafood restaurant that’s best known for its fish tacos. Cafe Rio has a few seafood entrees as well but it’s not as specialized as Rubio’s.
Chipotle is the most prominent Mexican fast-casual restaurant. It’s also a health-food restaurant that is very selective about the ingredients it uses to prepare its food.
Sharky’s serves a variety of entrees and I’d say that it has more vegetarian and vegan options than other Mexican fast-casual restaurants.
Del Taco operates quick-service restaurants that often have 24-hour drive-thru lanes and unlike many of its competitors it also serves french fries.
Baja Fresh is a Mexican fast-casual restaurant that was launched long before many of its competitors and it introduced some of the concepts that are popular in this category.
Chili’s is a casual-dining Tex-Mex restaurant that also has enough space to seat groups of diners. It also offers other amenities like TVs that display sports games and tablets with mobile games.