Rice, the restaurant

[edemuth]

I'm headed there tomorrow night (a friend's choice). Anyone been? Tom gave it a nice review last month, but I'd welcome others' opinions.

[JennyUptown]

I'm curious to hear about your dinner. How'd it go?

I walked past Rice on Sunday afternoon, saw some lunch action going on. It looks cool - now I wanna know how it tastes.

[edemuth]

Sorry Jenny,

We ended up going to Komi instead... now you'll have to go and report back!

[Tweaked]

has anyone been? we're thinking about going for a friend's b-day...

[edsz]

Had lunch there late one Saturday afternoon before Christmas. The restaurant was mostly empty. Unfortunately it was during the staff lunch period so service was a bit slow. I'm not a Thai food expert but each dish had an individual taste. Watch out for the hot stuff. I'd go back.

[JennyUptown]

Had lunch there late one Saturday afternoon before Christmas. The restaurant was mostly empty. Unfortunately it was during the staff lunch period so service was a bit slow. I'm not a Thai food expert but each dish had an individual taste. Watch out for the hot stuff. I'd go back.

What dishes did you try?

Here's a link to Rice's menu

[Malawry]

Tom's review.

[cjsadler]

Went there last night with some friends. I ordered a couple of things off the 'modern' menu (or whatever it was called-- the menu is divided into modern/traditional/healthy). The crab dip was very spicy and interesting. Just lump crab in some sort of vinegar sauce with chili powder on top. Served with lettuce leaves for 'dipping' (you use them to make little lettuce wraps of sorts). For an entree I had the deep-fried squid. The squid was minimally breaded and cooked well (tender), but was overpowered by a lot of bitter, well-browned garlic. A separate plate on the side had a dark-grained sticky rice with coconut and sesame seeds. A nice change from steamed rice, but I didn't think it went very well with the squid. I sampled a few other dishes, including a fruit salad served with a garlic and chili dressing: pineapples, apples and a few other fruits with a vinegar-y, spicy, garlic-y dressing. Oddly enough, this worked really well. The traditional dishes seemed to be better than your standard Thai place, with more flavor and spice and less sugar.

[cjsadler]

Rice has a new carryout-only sister restaurant, Simply Home Cuisine (the owner also owns the Simply Home store on 18th). It's on U Street next to Julia's (the strip where Coppi's and Utopia are).

[oliveDC]

I could not be more excited about having a quality takeout spot opening around the corner. The menu looks great. Do you know if they deliver? I'm wondering if this venture is the reason Rice stopped delivering. Makes sense I guess.

Now if only the Rice owner could buy up all the Yum's carryouts...

[sweetfreak]

Went to Rice for the first time on Friday night. Loved the atmosphere: exposed brick walls, well-spaced tables, cozy and dimly lit.

They do have several menus including a "healthy green" menu and a "green tea" menu where everything has green tea in it.

Prices were very reasonable. I had the shrimp cakes off the green tea menu as an appetizer ($6). Followed by stir-fried chicken with fried lemongrass as an entree ($10-12-ish).

One of my dining companions ordered "green tea pad thai" and the noodles were green. Had never seen that before.

All of the entrees came with a different variety of sticky rice. Mine was dark in color and had black sesame seeds.

Rice seems to be doing very well. All of the tables were full throughout our meal. I would certainly return.