The reason I have chosen this route, after many hours of research and number crunching, is because Riverside offer a very competitive professional package, and it works out cheaper for me to do it this way even when you take flights, visa, etc into account.I could do the whole course at home but it would cost me somewhere in the region of 80K-90K euro.
Secondly, Riverside do have a very good reputation for training and customer service.I have spoken to several students in the past and all were very happy with their experience.My wife (yes I know...old man!!) did her training here in Ireland and actually regrets it as she felt the instrument training was not up to scratch.As a result she struggled in her type rating.
Riverside train you to JAA standards while in the States and even use the same aircraft as in the UK so conversion should not be too daunting!