Rivera's Mexican Grill

FORT WORTH: Rivera's Mexican Grill
900 Alta Mere Dr
Fort Worth, TX 76116
817-367-0109
Open Sun-Thur 11-9, F 11-10, Sat 10-10
www.rjriveracatering.com

Update: This joint is CLOSED.

8/11: Rivera's sits directly across the street from Woody Creek Bar-B-Q in Fort Worth in the former location of Cowtown Bar-B-Q. While the small farmer's market is still active, most of the indoor market has been converted into a spacious and well air conditioned restaurant. Table service is the only option, so we sipped some weak iced tea and chomped on warm chips and salsa while perusing the menu. As expected from the name, Tex-Mex takes up most of the menu, but there's a large section of barbecue as well. We opted for the combo plate with brisket, ribs and chicken.



A bevy of sides was the first to arrive. From the canned pinto beans, to ho-hum potato salad and a nice crunchy cole slaw, the sides were not going to prop up this joint. An impressively portioned platter of poor quality meat didn't do much to bolster the sides either. A barbecue joint is not only judged by how well they cook the meat, but how well they store it. On this late afternoon, it was obvious that storing meat was not the Rivera's strong point. Ribs were tender, but a dried fatty layer had formed over the surface of the ribs. They tasted like they'd sat under a heat lamp for quite some time. Strips of white meat chicken were so teeth-squeaking dry that a dunk in the sauce did nothing to improve them. Finally the brisket made me question if this was really a BBQ joint. If this meat was smoked, it was wrapped so tightly as to not let even of whiff of smoke touch the surface. I've had brisket that was poorly smoked, but at least resembled good roast beef, but this wasn't even that good for roast beef. With so much food left, I took a to-go box just to be polite.

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