Rio Rodizio
| Address: | 2185 US-22, Union, NJ 07083, USA |
| Phone: | +1 908-206-0060 |
| Site: | riorodiziounion.com |
| Rating: | 3.2 |
| Working: | 11:30AM–10PM 11:30AM–10PM 11:30AM–10PM 11:30AM–10PM 11:30AM–11PM 12–11PM 12–9PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 5
A
A Private User
This place is a waste of time, money and energy… If you are looking for a good Churrascaria that serves delicious meats Rodizio style, skip it and keep on looking. I went to Rio Rodizio for dinner with my husband and 2 of our family friends. I had previously gone to Texas de Brazil (in Chicago) and expected a similar dining experience. That wasn’t it. We had no alcoholic drinks and ended up paying $180 for dinner… They include a 15% tip, regardless of the number of people in your party. Desserts and drinks are paid separately. I would’ve justified the high price if the meat or at least the service was great. But that wasn’t the case. ALL the meats taste exactly the same. And I mean there is no difference between the diff. cuts whatsoever. They are quite salty (even though I like my food with a decent amount of salt in it.) Also – they don’t have a selection from medium rare to medium well to well done, like they are supposed to. So most of the steak cuts are bloody. There was no filet mignon – regular or wrapped in bacon. And there was no lamb either. The Pao de Queijo (Brazilian cheese bread) was cold, dry and hard. It’s supposed to be exactly the opposite - warm and puffy, with melted cheese bites. The salad bar is extremely disappointing – everything was extremely generic. They had ham, only 2 types of cheese, crackers… fruit, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, etc. The only side they brought to our table was French fries - one order for 4 people. There was a salad for the 4 of us to share as well. It was literally some chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and lettuce thrown together in a plate. Even though we had a reservation, the hostess made us wait for about 10 minutes. She said that “our table is not ready.” I have no idea what that was all about? There were only 2 other groups of people inside. I wouldn’t say that the place was noisy or anything. It’s clean and spacious. But the service wasn’t all that good. I never got a refill on my drink. And the servers were stopping by only on occasion. I barely got 5 cuts of meat. On the other hand, when they do stop, they won’t ask you if you’d like a certain meat, but directly start to cut it and drop it at your plate. I found this to be weird… In any event, I would not recommend the place. People are supposed to go to a Brazilian restaurant of this kind for the experience. And Rio is lacking too many things to recreate it.
FE
Felipe Duarte
Went here for Mothers Day yesterday, 05/10. They of course took the opportunity to raise their prices to $40.00 for Rodizio. As a Brazilian myself, I know good Rodizio, and unfortunately, this is not where youd get it. I dont mind paying more, but with higher prices, better service and better quality is expected. So, there are a few points of complaint; 1st, the salad bar, it was OK, it wasnt limited, however, some of the choices there were clearly pre-packaged and not fresh. The "farinha" for instance, was definitely pre-packaged, and the beans tasted like they came from a can. 2nd, the Rodizio itself, meat was OK, not good, not bad, however, it seems that their preference is either rare or raw even for meat. Also, I feel like they need more meat servers and more of the same meat going around. They shouldnt have just one skewer of each meat, but several. If Im paying to eat meat, then keep the meat coming! Also, some of the meat was cold, which should NEVER be the case for Rodizio. The pineapple at the end of it all, was also cold, and had way too much cinnamon. Im not giving it 1 star because the servers were attentive. However, judging the food alone, I would not come back. Again, if youre going to be priced on the high-end, then give me service and food that matches. I tried Fernandes in Newark, NJ (BTW, recommended if you want actually good food), but they were fully booked, for clear reason, and Rio had openings, apparently also for clear reasons. In closing, if your American, unfamiliar with Rodizio, and definitely not Brazilian, then you might enjoy here for the experience. But anyone who know Rodizio and Brazilian food would agree, that unfortunately this place does not do Rodizio justice.
DO
Don Shaffer
A friend of mine brought me here last Wednesday for lunch. The food was good so I decided to take my wife on Saturday. It was noon and according to them the meat was just being prepared and was not quite ready so we opted for the salad bar buffet. The huge banners outside advertised the salad bar buffet for $12.95. We both had a salad and went back for the meat dishes only to find that nothing was hot but rather just warm. I mentioned it to what seemed to be the manager saying that if they are open for lunch they should get the buffet up to temperature a lot sooner. So I took my wife thinking this would be a nice surprise only to be surprised myself with a sub par meal. Once we were finished the waiter brought over a bill for $65.00. I laughed and told him that something was wrong and that he should correct it and bring it back. The manager came back saying that the special advertised outside was only for weekdays and the weekend price was in fact double that. There was also a 15% gratuity added for two people at a buffet which I thought was just outrageous. So two salad bar buffets with only water, no drinks, coffee, desert, nothing cost me over $65.00! Needless to say, this was my last time there and the recommendations I made after my lunch a few days earlier will soon be retracted. Im pretty confident that with these prices and sub-par food, this place will not survive. I rest assured that they will soon be hanging up a well earned "Out of Business" sign.
A
A Private User
I had never been to this place but ive had rodizio at other location in NWK. I had a deal from Living Social and forgot to mention it when i made my reservation on Vday. When i called back to advise them, the girl was nasty stated it was not a valid day, but it did not say it was not valid on vday, and when requested to spk to the mgr, the girl responded he is busy and cant come to the phone. I asked the girl to take me number and tell the mgr to call me when he was not so busy. When the Nasty & rude mgr finally called back decided to argue with me the whole time, tried to play me like an idiot saying the menu changes on vday.... my voucher from living social was for Rodizio..... apparently they werent serving that on Vday. He continued on saying that he couldnt do anything for me and decided to hang up on me. I also stated to him that he had poor review on Yelp and all he sd was "that ppl opinions" Well ur in customer service sucks and you need to pay attention to customer and potential customers. Im sure that why this place is running continuous deals on grupon and living social bc they have the worst ppl skills ever!
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Ronald Salazar
Salad bar was amazing but what they lack of would be the meat section.. we got our food from the salad bar and had to wait a good 20 minutes for the meats to start coming out and by the time the meats came out we were already on our second plate from the salad bar going on our third and almost missed it. We managed to wait with out empty plates just to get the meats so we wouldnt miss them and the first thing we see come out is chicken wings and garlic bread?? I know i didnt just pay $100 for two people just to get this and then in the next 15 minutes one young carvers that came out in which he was very rude and seems like they didnt care I asked for rare steak and they gave me the most burnt part as well with no flavor and walked away .. they just walk up to you dont even ask if you want it rare, med rare , med, well done and cut a piece in hopes youll just get that. I had to decline the meats cause I wanted them rare or even med rare and as soon as I would let them know I wanted it rare they would already be walking away from my table..like I said salad bar was great but not worth the price at all!
