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Uncle Orson's Restaurant Guide
Rio Grande Cafe
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his is Kristine's and my favorite Mexican restaurant anywhere. Whenever we're driving anywhere north of Greensboro, we try to route the trip so we pass by Reston VA during mealtime. The chips are so thin you can hardly believe they don't break dipping them in the salsa; and as for the salsa, there's none better. None of that weird thickening stuff that all the commercial brands use. It's watery the way it should be, and amazingly delicious. Then, when you ask for guacamole, you get the next pleasant surprise — absolutely fresh, perfectly seasoned. Most meals come with rice and a little soup cup of beans, which, if you have the sense to pour the beans over the rice, makes a wonderful side dish that for me is often the most satisfying part of the meal. But then, I became a beans-and-rice kind of guy in Brazil....
The fajitas are very good (though you have to ask for cheese), but my favorite dish (an appetizer, but I often order it as my entree) is the pork tamales, a firm and tasty masa with perfect shaved pork stuffing and a spicy meat sauce poured over the top. The menu includes exotica like quail, goat, and frog, but these turn out to be quite good (one giant step above interesting). All their chicken dishes are excellent, with a special nod to the chicken enchilada with the red sauce.
There are disappointments. They actually use (shudder) ground beef, which works in the tacos but fails in the beef enchiladas. Also, the cheese enchiladas are a bit too overstuffed with cheese, at least by contrast with the perfect cheese enchilada they had at the old Casa Maria by Tyson's Corner Mall, now defunct. And one of the highlights of eating at the Rio Grande used to be the sangria-flavored Penafiel imported soft drink. To my sorrow, they stopped carrying it about six months ago. Apparently it's too much trouble to find a supplier.
Why is it that whenever I really love something at a restaurant, that's the one thing they take off the menu? The risolli and file a copacabana at Amazonia Grill, the Penafiel at Rio Grande, the black beans at Casa Maria (before they converted to being another El Torito), the chocolate mousse royale at Baskin-Robbins, the creme brioche at the Vie de France. Will the next thing be dropping the sweet corn cake at Border Grill? The puff pastry salmon at L'Auberge Chez Francois? Do they check to see what I'm ordering and remove it from the menu just to test my loyalty? (This extends to nonfood products. Why is 3M's "Scrunge" never available anywhere? This is the only dishwashing scrubber worth buying, period — but lousy products are everywhere, and the one good one is impossibly hard to find.) I've had splendid restaurants close within weeks of my discovering them. Maybe I should stop going to good restaurants, just so they can stay in business and keep their best items on the menu.
But wait. This is a review of the Rio Grande Cafe in Reston. You'll want to arrive early, because there are no reservations and a permanent crowd and also because you'll want a chance to browse around the Reston Town Center, the nicest of the new pseudo-downtowns (real downtowns have apartments and eccentric shops over the stores so people live there) that are the most positive trend in shopping center design. The theater complex is the most comfortable in northern Virginia, the selection of shops includes my favorite bicycle shop in the area, a very nice ice creamery (but avoid the yogurt shop), an eccentric toy store, and a Brentano's bookstore that's perfect for loitering in before the movie or while you're waiting for a table at the Rio Grande or Paolo's or Bistro Bistro. (There are also Rio Grande Cafes in Bethesda and Arlington, but I've never been to those.)
703-904-0703
Reston Town Center. From Route 7 take Reston Parkway (or Baron Cameron and then turn left on Reston Parkway); from the Dulles toll road, take the Reston Parkway exit and go right (if you're coming from the DC direction). Plenty of parking and there are two covered garages if the weather stinks.