New Restaurant: Rio Plano Taqueria!

Happy New Year friends! We had a tough holiday season but are back with a review for a brand new restaurant: Rio Plano Taqueria! The owners of several local establishments (like Big Boiler Brewing) have been teasing this venture for some time. Originally set to open in Spring 2022, they had to push back the date a few times. They're located right on the Flat River on the east side of downtown Lowell, a really fantastic spot for walking the area and watching sunsets. We were able to get in on a Friday night two days after their official opening. Read on to see what we thought!

QUICK LOOK

---

Category: Taco and tequila bar

Overall Satisfaction: 6 out of 10

Price Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Service Type: Dine-in and takeout

Food Selection: Mexican/American fusion

Alcoholic Selection: Small Mexican draft list, Mexican beers, some South American wines, and a large tequila selection

Non-alcoholic Selection: Fountain drinks, some bottled sodas, and both non-alcoholic tequilas and beer

---

We arrived at Rio Plano at 5:45pm on a Friday night, knowing it would be busy. As we entered, we liked the atmosphere right away. The seating and decorations were nice, and the bar looked well-stocked. However, the waiting area was lacking significantly, especially for the amount of people inside. We had to stand directly in front of the doorway for a while while waiting for a host to take our names. After several minutes, someone was able to get us added to the list with a 30-40 minute estimated wait. During this time we chatted with other customers around us, and took in the inviting space around us. We were seated in about 20 minutes with no drink or food menus, but our server was quick to approach us and let us know we would be helped soon.

We got sat near against the wall toward the back of the dining room, right next to the windows. Being far from any doors and buffered by the crowd, Casey wasn't expecting us to feel any drafts or cold air. However, before our server could even come back with our first drink order, Casey had already put his coat back on it was so cold. Our seat near the windows was very drafty, so much so that he kept his coat on during the entire meal!

Caitlin's Meal

While we waited for our table, Casey pointed out the excellent selection of non-alcoholic beverages, so I was excited to try things out. I started out with this craft NA copper lager from Athletic Brewing Co. Casey warned me that this was likely not going to be my style of drink, so I prepared myself. I was pleasantly surprised by this! It had a beautiful, well-balanced flavor that was light and crisp. I would not have known that this is non-alcoholic from the flavor!

I was starting to get cold myself at this point (though I never felt as cold as Casey) and decided I should get wine for my next drink. You know, for safety.

I ordered the Gascon Malbec and received this generous pour. Sadly, it tasted like it had been open for almost too many days and had really lost its pizzazz. This is why you should always buy wine by the bottle at any restaurant, so I don't hold this against Rio Plano by any means.

Casey and I ordered the house-made chips, the house queso dip with chorizo, and a half-order of the elotes. These were excellent, but I will let Casey elaborate more on them. I really did not enjoy this queso though.

The chips were great. A touch greasy, but nothing unexpected, and the perfect amount of salt. The chorizo on top of this queso looked very dried out and old. It didn't even look like chorizo to me at first. The queso itself was pretty disappointing. You know the classic Velvetta and Ro-Tel combo for an easy and delicious queso (this is not a sponsored blog)? Imagine you bought that from Wish. The cheese was an uncomfortable texture, a little slimy and also separating. The chips were the hero of this dish by far. There was another queso on their menu; the queso fundido. I am looking forward to trying that one next time.

Casey and I ordered two tacos each. Pictured from top to bottom, we ordered the pollo verde, el pastor, bruselas, and camarones tacos. I ordered the el pastor (pork) and camarones (shrimp) tacos.

The shrimp taco consisted of several large pieces of fried shrimp, pineapple, a purple cabbage slaw, queso fresco, and a remoulade. I initially noticed how greasy this taco was. The single corn tortilla was dripping with grease when I picked up this taco. I was a little put off by this, but figured it was because my shrimp were fried. Overall, I was a little underwhelmed by this taco. It was tasty and filling, but it had no spice to it. The remoulade was delicious, but too sparse.

Speaking of spice, we probably should have asked if there were sauces available. I noticed other tables had bottles of red and green sauces, but none were ever brought to us. The excitement and busy-ness of the night kept me from trying.

My second taco was the pork taco. This taco contained marinated and roasted pork shoulder, pineapple, onion, queso fresco and cilantro. This taco was also remarkably greasy despite having no fried ingredients. The tortillas may have been flash fried, but if that was the case, they were not dried properly. I was so disappointed with this taco. It had no flavor. I had one or two bites that had pineapple which helped, but overall this taco is a hard pass for me. I gave Casey a bite of the pork and he said it was so flavorless it could have been any white meat.

Overall I was impressed with the drinks and drink selection. Rio has a massive selection of tequilas of all varieties. I suggested to Casey that we come back for tequila tasting sometime as neither of us know much about it. He has never tried mezcal before (of which Rio has 4!), and I think he would enjoy trying that too. I was not very impressed by the food here. The elotes were excellent but I could live happily without the rest. I'll give Rio Plano the benefit of the doubt since this was their first Friday and look forward to trying them again when the craziness settles down.

Casey's Meal

I started off with a bottle of Pacifico, a fairly well-known Mexican beer made by the same brewery as Modelo and Corona, but a touch heavier than them. This was a good way to warm myself up while I was freezing next to the window. I was a little surprised to see it priced slightly above Corona/Modelo pricing, but it wasn't enough to put me off.

My second drink was their reposado margarita with a salted rim. As you can see, the salt job was PRETTY INTENSE. I assumed it was this over-the-top because of how busy they were, so this wasn't a big deal to me. I've never had a reposado tequila before, and I totally loved this margarita! The server informed me they had run out of limes, but that didn't take away from the excellence of this drink. Probably one of the best margs I've had. Smokey and citrusy, without an overpowering tequila flavor, this was my favorite part of the entire meal.

Caitlin's assessment of the chips and queso is exactly how I felt. I would never order that queso again, and I was very unhappy that we had to pay for the chips separately from the queso itself! However, I could tell from this dish that the meal itself would be a filling one, which was a plus. The elote (Mexican street corn) made up for what the queso lacked though. They were seasoned very well, and the cheese/mayo mixture was excellent.

For my entree, I order the pollo verde (green chicken) and bruselas (brussel sprouts) tacos. Like what Caitlin said, these were ludicrously greasy. The grease was so intense that I had a stomachache from these tacos for most of the next day. The chicken was pretty bland; the brussel sprout taco was very tasty though. From our assessment, this one was probably the best taco of the four we ordered. The cheese and crema on this one was very flavorful and came through nicely. The avocado verde in the chicken taco was not flavorful enough for me to really notice it though. After the tacos though, I was pretty full from the meal, which did make me happy with just having two tacos.

Dessert

We ended our meal with an order of churro fries. The Mexican chocolate sauce and powdered sugar were a great addition to these, although the fries themselves felt more like funnel cake than churros. This didn't take away from us enjoying them though! The portion was just about perfect for two people to split after dinner.

Price Debate

We were both unhappy with the price compared to quality at Rio Plano.

Casey felt like the cost (nearly $100 after a good tip) was way more than it should've been. A date night for that price shouldn't have included food so greasy that it made him sick, and the lack of good flavor on a few items was very disappointing.

Caitlin wasn't as shocked by the price as Casey, though agrees it was too high for the quality of the food. Given the high volume of people being served, it's possible that the quality of the food will match this higher price range as the staff becomes more familiar with the menu and the crowds simmer down. Caitlin is willing to give Rio Plano's food another try after a few months, but looks forward to tequila tasting in the near future.

Final Thoughts

We both noted that the staff was either well trained or already experienced service workers. Our server was very attentive by checking in with us frequently about the status of our food and drinks. She also handled our tsunami of questions very well!

Opening weekends are the most difficult time for a restaurant. We are happy to support a new local business and look forward to see them improve with every weekend. But we will need to take a break from their food as both of us were sick the following day from the greasy tacos. The tantalizing cocktails and large selection of tequila is worth mentioning again though. This is the heartbeat of the establishment. Their selection ranges from the standards to some very high-end brands. They even have a small selection of non-alcoholic tequilas for sipping or subbing in your margs and other cocktails. You may catch us there soon doing a sampling! For research purposes, obviously.

Where should the Butlers eat next? Drop us a comment on our social media, and we'll have a new post next month!