Cafe Rio vs Costa Vida

Today's post is all about food, and for those of you who have experienced one or both of these restaurants, you know how good they are. I have always been a HUGE fan of Cafe Rio. The first time I went to a Cafe Rio was on Spring Break when I was a sophomore in college. My roommates and I were in St. George and we had 3 nights to eat out. Since there were 3 of us, we each chose an eatery for a night and on Whitney's night she chose Cafe Rio. When I walked into that place, HOLY CRAP it intimidated me. There was a huge line, which moved surprisingly quickly and when I got to the front, the person serving spoke really fast and with a somewhat thick accent. "BlackOrPintoBeans?HotMediumOrMildSauce?EnchiladaStyle?CheeseOnTop?" AHHH! I kept asking Whitney, "What did they say? What do I want? I can't understand him!" Luckily, she helped me through it and I have been an loyal customer ever since. Plus, it's not near as intimidating anymore.

The story on Costa Vida is a little bit of a mystery to me. Word on the street? One of the workers from Cafe Rio got mad at them and stole their recipes and started his own joint. Who knows if it's true, but the pork is suspiciously similar. But, to me, I don't really care what the truth is because it's pretty much the best pork in the world. It's got a sweet taste to it and there's really no doing it justice by trying to describe it so I'll just stop. Today was my first experience at Costa Vida and I was thoroughly impressed. The food was almost exactly the same and the price was about $1 cheaper. I was able to get a burrito and a drink for $5.90 and of course I had trade so it was free to me. And what made it even better was that I gave them $10 in trade certificates and so they gave me cash back. Woohoo, $4.10! Man, I am really makin the big bucks with this job. jk =) Oh yes, I need to mention that I can never eat a whole burrito in one meal (at either location) so I took half back to my hotel for dinner.

My verdict on the two? I like them both! I do think that the fresh homemade tortillas are a little better at Cafe Rio and their pork really is the original so it kinda stands out, but Costa Vida does a very good job at duplicating. They each have their pros and slight cons, but pretty much, they're sixes to me. (I never knew that little phrase before I met Adam so now I feel good that I was able to correctly use it!)