www.riceny.com
Oh my! I've been away too long.
But Rice brought me back. I love this place. I've only been to the Nolita location, although my friend Kristy lives right around the corner from the Fort Greene one (call me!). I was introduced to Rice by Anna, and most recently took my sister Liz to show her one of my favorite corners of New York. It doesn't hurt that I saw Moby the first time I went in...but enough name dropping, let's get down to the food.
I must admit I've only had the vegetarian meatballs, because they are so good I can't fathom trying anything else. The first time I went I ordered the thai black rice with edamame (at an additional charge), although I've since had the meatballs (seasoned tofu balls) with brown rice and still love them. The small size is enough for lunch, unless you are super hungry. I order the sweet rather than spicy sauce (sweet is still a tad spicy), and you get a fun sauce caddy so that you can add spiciness or soy sauce as you wish. I also sampled Liz's black beans and rice--a classic, like she said, although I must say Ryan and my black beans are rather peerless--and Ryan liked his pad thai...even though he was disappointed it didn't come with rice, but R's literacy is another blog topic.
Since we had a visitor (and my mom as absent patron), we decided to turn our humble lunch into a feast. Ryan had an iced Jack's coffee (yum!), and since Liz was fighting a cold, she and I each ordered tea and sampled the variety of honey test tubes (all great, but all just good quality honey at the end of the day). I loved my lavendar mint tea. And if beverages weren't enough, we each had a dessert--Ryan had the molten chocolate cupcake (warm and gooey and absolutely fantastic), and Elizabeth and I had the ice cream sandwiches (you get to pick three of four varieties), which are actually made with gelato. My favorite was an oatmeal cranberry cookie with ginger gelato--que magnifique! (I just had a mild panic attack when skimming their web menu, because it appears as if the ice cream sandwiches have been removed....let's all ask Santa to make sure they reappear if this is true. Seriously.) Strikingly spicy ginger candy also comes with the check, helping remind me that ginger is a favorite of mine (now where did I set that dark & stormy?).
All said, I'm sure I will return to Rice many, many times (the bottomless mimosa brunch, while lacking in actual rice, sounds fantastic), and if you take my advice, you just might spy a vegan electronic music nerd as icing on the....gelato sandwich.
4 petals
ethnic variety, affordable, veg-friendly, fabulous desserts
Photos by me (two top) and Liz (bottom).
