Cafe Rio Opening in Lake Forest, CA!

This is the best news of the year for Orange County residents.  Cafe Rio just signed a 10-year lease with The Shops at Lake Forest, on El Toro and Rockfield. 

Those who have lived in Utah and subsequently moved out of state have had a chronic hunger for the sweet pork and medium enchilada sauce from Cafe Rio. 

I couldn’t be happier.  Here are links to the websites that I got my information from:

http://www.qsrmagazine.com/articles/news/story.phtml?id=8674

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/stickaforkinit/things-to-look-forward-to/-cafe-rio/

Thanks also to Bryan for the heads up!  No word yet on when it’s actually opening.

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 18th, 2009 at 9:14 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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11 Responses to “Cafe Rio Opening in Lake Forest, CA!”

  1. Eric B. Says: May 18th, 2009 at 9:36 am

    Words seem so inadequate to express my jealousy… so I will let a few blank lines do it for me instead, ”

    “.

    There. Now I feel better. And curse you for bringing up the mention of sweet pork barbacoa served enchilada style (marinated in Coke). Now my dreams will be plagued for months.

    Feeling poet today :)

  2. Jason Says: May 18th, 2009 at 11:00 am

    Even with Cafe Rio, San Diego still is better than OC. I will be visiting more often though.

  3. dana Says: May 18th, 2009 at 12:53 pm

    SWEEEEET!

  4. andy Says: May 19th, 2009 at 11:15 am

    Quit fooling yourself, Eric (S). Cafe Rio has never had sweet pork and it never will. It’s pork barbacoa. Now I’m not a Spanish-speaking man, but something tells me that ‘barbacoa’ means ‘barbecued.’ ‘Sweet’ isn’t in the name or flavor.

    Costa Vida is the only place that has sweet pork.

    references:
    http://www.costavida.net/menu/index.html
    http://www.caferio.com

  5. Eric Says: May 19th, 2009 at 11:23 am

    Costa Vida is nothing but a lower-quality, wannabe-carbon-copy derivative of Cafe Rio.

  6. andy Says: May 19th, 2009 at 1:02 pm

    I’m not disputing that. I fully agree. I’m just saying that Cafe Rio’s pork isn’t advertised as ’sweet’ (because it’s not).

  7. Mark Says: May 20th, 2009 at 8:57 am

    Sweet it is, advertised it is not. They use real Coke in there, which sweetens the taste. Unless, of course, we’re referring to the slang meaning of “sweet”, because Cafe Rio in California is SWEET!

  8. Jason Says: May 21st, 2009 at 9:45 am

    I like Costa Vida. Shorter line, tastes the same, and costs less. Let’s not be snobs.

  9. Eric Says: May 21st, 2009 at 10:08 am

    Costa Vida’s OK. But I will never give in to the idea that it is as good as Cafe Rio.

    I will say that it is a fine substitute for when the Cafe Rio line is 30 minutes long and you have to get to Movies 8 quickly.

  10. Mark Says: May 21st, 2009 at 4:13 pm

    To be honest, I’ve only eaten at Costa Vida a few times. The higher price of Cafe Rio never bothers me, and I usually go during off-peak times, so I don’t have long lines. Also, the Costa Vida in Provo doesn’t have as much parking as Cafe Rio, so it’s so much easier to hit up the Rio.

  11. Beth Says: January 15th, 2010 at 7:09 am

    Cafe Rio, Costa VIda, I’ll take either one! I moved from SLC to Orange County 5 years ago and Cafe Rio is one of the things i miss most!!!! I’ll be driving down to Lake Forest TODAY! So excited!!!!

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