By my count I’ve been to over 140 Mexican restaurants and food trucks in the Wichita area. I get asked a lot if it gets old. Let me tell you, if it hasn’t gotten old after 100 then it probably won’t. I love Mexican food so each time I find a new Mexican restaurant I’ve never been to, it’s high on my list to try. Our latest stop took us out to Rio Grill & Cantina. It’s located inside the former Las Palmas that I was getting ready to write a bad review on just before they closed. Having been to the previous restaurant, it still gave me good perspective on this newly owned and operation Mexican option in Andover.
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119 W Central Ave
Andover, KS 67002
316-636-7278
Monday – Thursday: 11am – 9pm
Friday – Saturday: 11am – 10pm
Sunday: 11am – 8:30pm
Cash/Card Accepted
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What I love about Rio Grill & Cantina is they totally gutted out the old restaurant and put in a sleek looking Mexican restaurant. It’s really refine and has an “upscale” look when compared to other restaurants of it’s kind; long gone are the extremely colorful decor and cheap looking seating. The biggest thing we noticed was how clean the place was. It’s been a while since they opened and it was nice to say the restaurant still being maintained and taken care of.
But all that is aesthetics and the number one thing in a restaurant is the food. The chips came with mild sauce and an optional hotter salsa. Nothing overly spectacular here; it was your basic chips and salsa that we plowed through still. What was even better was the guacamole. Our only complaint about the guacamole was that we ordered the top-shelf guacamole which was made fresh at your table. There must have been a miscommunication as they brought us regular guacamole dip which was still good in its own right. But the kids at our table probably would have loved watching the guacamole being made; maybe another time.
For dinner, we ordered the enchiladas bang bang, quesadillas and the shrimp ceviche. Of the three dishes, the shrimp ceviche was the big winner for everyone who tried it. Luckily it was the one I went with. The bowl was a decent size portion, had a nice level of acidity to it, tasted fresh and had a great flavor profile. Not one ingredient stuck out over the other to overpower it.
The enchiladas bang bang were fantastic as well. Sometimes it can be a pain to get a kid to try a new restaurant and fortunately one of the kids really loved the enchilada but more so the rice. The least like dish was the quesadillas which just fell a bit flat and didn’t offer much to make it a memorable meal. Honestly, it ended up tasting much better the next day as leftovers heated in the microwave.
We had no problems with the service, our guy was great. Add in timely served dishes, a very clean establishment and more hits than misses for our meals, and you have yourself a fine Mexican option in Andover.
Here’s their menu:
Happy Dining,
Eddy
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