Rice Asian Grill and Sushi Bar

It was Friday and I had just gotten off work. I was looking at 9 days of no punching the time clock.  To somewhat celebrate, I went to lunch with two friends at Rice Asian Grill and Sushi or just Rice. I didn't know what I was walking into but I was optimistic.

As I browse the menu, I noticed it leans heavily towards Thai cuisine and sushi. There was everything from Thai noodles (pad Thai) to larb.  There were also some stir fry that could be labeled as Chinese.

Although our lunch came with appetizers, we decided to order the boom boom shrimp. It is a play on the famous bang bang shrimp from Bonefish. The sauce is very similar. It is a garlic aioli with sriracha sauce or as I like to call it spicy mayonnaise. The difference though the batter on the shrimp is much lighter.  It still have that nice crisp to it though.

I had the drunk man noodles lunch special.  It came with wonton/spring roll/salad and choice of 3 soups.  I had the soup with ginger dressing and the tom gah gai soup.  The salad was simple but refreshing.  I like the soup but I thought it was a bit salty.  

My friends chose the spring rolls and the same soup.  It came with two per order.  They liked it.  One reason is because the vegetables inside are not cooked to a mush.  They tell me, there was still a good bit of crunch.  

Drunk man noodles is wide rice noodles with carrots, green beans, bell peppers and choice of meat in a basil based sauce.  For $8, you can choose between chicken, pork or plain veggies.  For a bit more, you can do beef, shrimp or combination of meats.  I really liked this dish.  It had a good proportion of noodles, veggies and chicken.  There was just enough sauce to cover the noodles but not too much.

 

One of my friends ordered the Pad Cashew for lunch.  It's your choice of meat with onions, carrots, bell pepper, and cashew nuts with what they're calling a Thai sauce.  I was able to snag a piece of the chicken.  There's actually a little bit of a batter on the chicken. I think it helps the sauce stick to the chicken.  It was really good.  It comes with a cup of white rice or fried rice.  The portion size is huge especially when you consider the appetizer that came with the entrees.  My friend took about half of her meal home for dinner.

 

 

My other friend ordered the Thai noodles, which is Pad Thai everywhere else.  If you're not familiar, Pad Thai is rice noodles with meat, egg, scallions and in a sour/sweet/spicy sauce.  There's usually peanuts on top as well but I didn't see any.  My friend liked it although she says there were two type of chicken in the dish.  You see the big chunk of chicken on top but there were smaller pieces that were more flavorful throughout the dish.

I could not resist ordering a Thai tea.  If you never had it,  it's a mixture of black tea, spices, sugar and milk.  I thought it was way too sweet for me. Keep in mind, I have been cutting WAY back on sugar in the last couple of years.  I was able to taste the black tea and spices through the milk which is a good thing. 

While service was prompt, I was hoping she would be a bit more attentive.  We were there for over an hour and half.  Our drinks were never refilled.  Our drinks were actually empty for about the last 15 minutes or so of our meal.  Otherwise, it was a good experience.  I would come back. 

 To check out Rice's website, click here.