A Restaurant Called Rice
Rice Manhattan
227 Mott Street
212-226-5775
Rice Brooklyn
81 Washington Street
718-222-9880
Note: We initially posted our schpeel on Rice back in February, but after a much appreciated heads up from a reader regarding some unreported soy sauce, we pulled the piece and started stalking Rice management to clear things up. We do our very best at passing on accurate information, but the fact is that we're ALL eating at our own risk, even after asking all the right questions. Anyway, the whole fiasco has a really great ending. After a lot of correspondence with the cool people at Rice, they've agreed to create a GF menu, available upon request! We want to thank the management at Rice. Especially Emily, who put in a lot of time and effort researching at celiac.com, cross-referencing ingredients from their menu and repeatedly emailing her findings to us for verification. Now, back to the original blog ...
The owners of Rice had a concept to open a restaurant that blended dishes from some of the rice nations, like Mexico, Vietnam, and Thailand. The name of the place alone is just so inviting. Let's start with the complimentary Rice Chips that they plunk down as you take your seat. Talk about addictive ... they're paper thin, a little greasy, and sprinkled with a bit of chili powder. You just wish you could buy a giant bag of these!
There's a good selection of GF friendly main courses which come with your choice of rice: Japanese, Basmati, Brown, Thai Black, Bhutanese Red, or blends of rice with peas, edamame, beans, and spices. Yum! Now, the GF menu is brand new, so we all have to be patient with the staff at Rice ... even encouraging! If they see a noticeable increase in requests for the GF menu, they might even create a GF brunch menu and who knows, might be inspired to design new creations with us celiacs in mind!
Adding to the Far Eastern culinary contents of our bellies, we ordered a pot of tea called Gen Ma Chai (Japanese Green with roasted rice grains). This unique tea had such a comforting, earthy, nutty flavor. It was served with our choice of honey which made us honey/tea-snobs very happy indeed! Kelly and I ate at the D.U.M.B.O. location, which is a great neighborhood to check out. It has become the "next big thing" in the world of NY neighborhoods. Kelly and I both had lived there back when it was a big nothing! It was fun to see all the changes and share old D.U.M.B.O. war stories, including the very spot where over 10 years ago I was held up at gun point. I think there's now a florist and chocolatier on that corner, isn't that funny? Anyway, get the gang together and plan a meal at Rice. It's fabulous, and the GF menu adds that sense of relief that we all cherish.
Rice Chips! ("Um, can we order another 20 bowls of these please?")
Green/Toasted Rice Tea with honey selection ... who could ask for anything more?
