Too bad these Taste features aren’t longer than they are. If they were, we could have told you a lot more about Rito’s Restaurant. And you could have seen more pictures of the food that it offers. Because when we asked owner Rito Fuentes to prepare a dish to photography for this story, he prepared a virtual banquet of food, carefully displayed with place settings, floral arrangements, wine on the table, the whole nine yards. Like nothing we’ve ever seen before.
And that’s not too bad a description for Rito’s. Not that any one thing about the restaurant is so unusual. It serves a variety of classic American food, at good prices. You know, eggs, pancakes and sausage at breakfast (served all day), burgers and sandwiches at lunch, pork chops and chicken fried steak in the evenings. That type of thing, maybe not as easy to find as it once was, but certainly not a rarity.
It’s more the whole package that intrigued us. Located in a strip center at
With its large, open rooms, Rito’s does a healthy business with private parties, such as wedding receptions and family reunions. A variety of menus are available for these events, including plated luncheons or dinners (with choices such as chicken cordon bleu and filet mignon), hors d’oeuvre receptions or buffets (themed or classic).
The restaurant also has a gift shop, full of dolls, home décor, and again, too many things to list. Rito says he doesn’t really make any money from the shop, but he offers it as something different for his clients, 90 percent of whom are senior citizens. (No wonder: Seniors receive special pricing on several already reasonably priced menu items.)
And getting back to the food, from among the many choices offered us, here are two dishes we thought were especially good: fried catfish (all you can eat on Friday nights for just $6.95) and a Florentine omelet.
