The Rialto Cinema Bar and Grill

Posted on 13. Jul, 2010 by sarahjintexas in Flicks, Fresh Reviews, Theaters

The Rialto

A Real Flicks and Food experience

The Rialto Cinema Bar and Grill, on the NE side at Loop 410 and IH 35 is one of the original dinner and a movie experiences in San Antonio.

Long before the Alamo Drafthouse came to town, the Rialto has been serving pitchers of reasonably priced beer, margaritas, wine and a large dinner menu, all in a dark, comfortable environment.

If you get to the movies early, you can go sit at the bar, or you can head into the cinema and a server will take your order from you. We keep wondering how the Rialto makes any money. The food is not any more expensive than what you’d find in a local restaurant. You can get a huge mug of beer for $10 the first time, and each time you bring it back, they’ll refill it for $5. We guess they make their money on soda. That’s the only expensive thing on the menu.

The best thing about the Rialto is when the movie starts, it actually gets dark inside the cinema. There aren’t any lights underneath the tables, the lights on the walls turn off. If you can’t eat in the dark, you may come out messy, but at least it’s a dark movie experience, which I like. The staff are super stealth. They’re all dressed in black and are very quiet when coming in and out.

We’ve been going to the Rialto for years. It’s close to our house, it’s a super cheap night out for us and we’ve only ever had one disappointing experience, which they fixed. We had gone to see “Australia” and the sound was bad, but when we told them, they gave us free tickets for the next time we came back. It may not be the same yuppy experience that you’ll get at the Alamo Drafthouse, but we like it that way.

For Showtimes and a menu, see the Santikos Rialto Website.

Tags: date night, movie cinema, movie theater, movie theatre, rialto