El Rio Verde Restaurant Review

By Miguel Flores

If you seek an experience outside of your normal alimentary comfort zone, try El Rio Verde.The building is located near downtown in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Trenton Ave, this local restaurant has a variety of Mexican food and drinks to order from.

The restaurant is tricky to find without a GPS since you do have to go down a few side streets to get to the building. The restaurant itself isn’t big and resembles a small diner you would normally find on a Main Street.

It’s a self-seating restaurant, so I chose where to sit and my menu was brought to me. The server also brought some chips and salsa, and took my order. I ordered a classic Horchata, a Latinx drink that is usually made with rice, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. Their drinks also included fountain drinks, bottled soda and beer for people who would like a little more than a soda with their meals.

After scouring their full menu. I went with one of my favorite Mexican dishes for my entrèe, the wet burrito. It is a large wrapped flour tortilla filled with your choice of meat, beans, rice, and lettuce. Covered in red salsa as well as jack and cheddar cheese, it can be topped off with guacamole and sour cream too. The texture of the burrito was moist with the combination of the cheeses and salsa, but the rice and beans tasted undercooked . The salsa added more flavor and wasn’t overly spicy.

Rio Verde is the restaurant when you’re looking for a quick bite to eat, and appreciable service. The food wasn’t memorable, but wasn’t awful. The server was always checking on me to make sure everything was still good with my meal. My drink was always filled and I got to have more chips and salsa after I finished my first basket. I then received my check, and I just had to walk to the front to pay and was well on my way.

The overall experience of El Rio Verde was satisfying. The staff efficiency and work ethic great. Albeit the food was predictable, but still superior than many other Mexican restaurants I have had.