Rice Cafe

So I wasn’t really sure how to allocate stars because my experience was so strange. We were in the area and we’re looking for a sushi restaurant, and this place had good reviews so we dropped in. The place looked clean, it was decorated nicely, and they had the little Unilocal sign in the window, so we decided it should be okay.
The service was prompt and friendly. We were given the list of lunch specials which included bento boxes with your choice of chicken or salmon teriyaki, your choice of rice, your choice of a pretty basic roll, and soup for $ 12. Pretty good deal right? I decided to order the salmon, but when I got it there was a big strip of fat straight down the middle making it pretty unappetizing. Everything else looked and tasted fine. My boyfriend got the chicken teriyaki box and enjoyed it. The problem came in when we reached our destination, menards, and both of us were having a bathroom emergency… I don’t know what happened, and honestly I don’t want to know. But I won’t be going back.

I’m cheap as hell so when I found this place like 3 seconds from my house and saw the noodle dishes are around $ 8, I was like yassss. Basic as hell, I got the chicken pad thai. And when it got here… there were these strange blueish greenish spots on a few of the pieces. I wasn’t sure what it was. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt but then I thought of all the people who complain about stuff like, not getting any napkins in their bag, and decided I have a right to be wary about discoloring on the chicken. I’ve also been watching a lot of Kitchen Nightmares so I’m extra paranoid. We called but they didn’t really give any explanation of what it could be. They made me another one and some of these pieces had the same thing too! At that point I was just hungry and picked those out. Hey if I die… oh well.
Besides all that the dish was kind of bland.
Also I didn’t die but I’ll probably try another place where the chicken doesn’t look scary. Or finally become a vegan, who knows.

We walked in around 2pm for a late lunch and were the only folks there. It had been ages since we visited this restaurant and by the looks it was under new management. The kids were super starved so we ordered chicken satay, Tomyom soup and soft shell crab for appetizers. The entrees were chicken padthai and basil chicken with extra bow of rice ($ 2).
Everything was excellent and would have tried sushi but was skeptical because of lack of crowd which is good reason to ponder on the freshness of the fish. A few other people trickled in while we were eating. The décor is minimalistic but quite nice.
Will most certainly go back!

1.5 stars because it was still warm when it arrived. Chicken Pad Thai was bland and had almost no meat. The sweet and sour «chicken» was 90% bread, no sauce and soggy vegetated. There really wasn’t any chicken in the dish. The Beef Pad Thai had three small piece of bland, boiled, unseasoned beef in a large portion of tasteless noodles. The egg rolls were sized to feed a small platoon of ants… Literally they were tiny. What a waste of $ 45. Oh, and $ 5 delivery charge. Nice.

We ordered food from Rice Café and the food actually arrived in 1 hour (most other places take 1.5 hours) and was really good.
We tried the tom kha kai soup, which was a very large filling portion and really tasty! For appetizers, we got the potstickers and for entrée, we tried the panang curry — excellent, the mushroom entrée — good, the curry fried rice — okay.
Overall, our strongest delivery experience for Thai food. They packed the food really well, so nothing leaked. And the delivery person wasn’t grumpy for once.

Good Thai option in the area! I’ve been trying to find a reliable Thai option in the ‘hood and I think I may have found it in Rice Café. My advice is skip the sush, stick with the Thai.
Their crab rangoon is a bit different than what you may be used to as it’s more Thai style. It’s little deep fried dumplings with a thinner crisp on them and you get 5 little guys for $ 5. The filling is delicious and it’s a great starter.
The lime chicken is a dish I’d skip from Rice Café. This may just be my personal preference so take it with a grain of salt. I didn’t think it had much flavor and it was just way overloaded with cilantro — too much so for my liking.
Pad See Ew from Rice Café is one of the best I’ve had in awhile. Chicken was perfect, noodles were perfect and the dish was packed full of tasty flavor.
I also ordered a few veggie maki rolls which were not half bad but weren’t anything too amazing.
Delivery was right on time, you can order through GrubHub, food is good and prices are very reasonable. I’ll be back, Rice Café, oh yesh, I’ll be back.

I ordered pick up through grub hub. I got a text that my order was ready but when I arrived it was not ready and I had to wait. But total time considered it was still fairly quick.
The food was really disappointing. My noodle dish had the absolute grossest tofu I’ve ever had. It was over cooked, looked like it’s been cooked multiple times until it was all shriveled up, and had a bad smell to it. I had to throw it away because it was so bad. Would not recommend.

You come here for the House Special shareable dishes that ranges from $ 10 – 15.
ESCARGOT CURRY ($ 12) — comes with Jasmine rice. Few restaurants serve this dish. To those that do, you can count the number of escargots. Must love escargot that much as you get a bowlful. My favorite. I’m happy. The sauce is a good balance of sweet and spicy.
VENUE — interior décor is disconnected. Decent. Main dining area is clean.
SERVICE — the standard. Quick. Pleasant.

First time here. I ordered the steamed pot stickers and the chicken pad thai to go. Pot stickers were good, the sauce was a wee bit too overpowering. The pad thai was very flavorful, but noodles were overcooked so by the time I got home it was basically mush. But overall everything was good, and it took like 5 min to get my food ready and it was cheap. I’ll be back.

New to town, stopped in at Rice Café during a break in unpacking, and was so glad I chose this spot as my introduction to the neighborhood! The restaurant was empty when we arrived at noon but soon picked up. We ordered the Godzilla roll and the house special Duck Curry. The roll arrived quickly and was absolutely delicious, though pretty pricy for its ingredients. The duck curry came just as we were finishing the roll. It had just the right amount of heat, along with huge chunks of tomato, pineapple, and bell pepper. The duck was tasty, but had a few pieces of bone. Service was very friendly. I look forward to returning!

Nothing special. Not to say it was bad. I just will not order from here again. I did really like the crab rangoon, and the pad see ew was fairly good. The curry rice was bland, and the one sushi roll I ordered was just ok. Everything was subpar.
The reason I am even giving this place 3 stars is because the delivery took over an hour and a half to arrive (We were told it could be up to an hour). The excuse we got when we called to find out about the delay was that there was a car accident and the driver was sitting in traffic, which only made me think that our food was sitting in a car for too long, probably not hot anymore, and the sushi roll is probably getting warm sitting on top of all our food. The girl on the phone didn’t even offer a discount until my boyfriend suggested it because it had been an hour and 20 minutes at the point. She said 5 – 10 more minutes. Did not come for another 15. I must note that we live maybe a mile away or so from the restaurant. I did appreciate the 20% discount though, so thank you.

So far so good. I feel like the sushi is a bit overpriced and the chicken satay wasn’t so great for a Thai place, but it is a mix. the rest of the food I’ve gotten from this place has been good! Very good service!

Our first impression of the restaurant was okay, we didn’t think the restaurant was bustling during dinner time in a very busy area for diners. However, we had a groupon so we were going to use it.
We were first greeted by a friendly manager (possibly the owner) and seated immediately. The waitress was friendly brought over crayon for the kids to draw on the table, because it was covered by paper table cloth which is very smart idea. We got our high school for our toddler so all was well in sitting and ordering food. Rice café has sushi and Thai food. It’s common in Chicago to see Sushi and Thai food at restaurants often times the sushi is just okay at these restaurants. So my expectations were set low.
We notice the waitress gets busy with doing chores at the restaurant, to give us our sushi order. I saw our tray of sushi sitting at the sushi bar for at least 6 minutes. The sushi chef saw that I really wanted our order and brought the sushi to us personally. The sushi chef also paid close attention to our toddler’s reaction to a spicy shrimp tempura roll, and made a special shrimp tempura roll that wasn’t spicy. We were very touched by that gesture. It made us enjoy the dining experience tremendously.
We ordered, «Tell of Tu Tuna, spicy tuna, spicy salmon, and a spider roll.» Oh We also had a shrimp tempura roll. It was all delicious we also ordered «pad see ew with beef.“it was good! I really liked their pad see ew and I’d ordered it again.
Rica café, though the waitress was nice she was inattentive to our needs because she was busy with chores. The Sushi chef was super attentive to us which is why we had a good experience. They are kid friendly giving crayons for the kids to draw. The food is delicious I wouldn’t mind returning her for some Thai food. So I would recommend people to check it out, Rice Café!

Thai and Japanese in the same restaurant? That’s a first for me. Usually it’s Chinese/​Japanese or Korean/​Japanese, but it’s not like anybody has any exclusives on combo cuisines.
Used a Groupon, and was cautiously optimistic that this place would be merely sufficient. To my surprise, it exceeded my expectations in every area. I was leery with the restaurant not being full on a Saturday at dinner, but I was seated right away.
I brought the wife and kids, ordered some Pad See Ew with beef (non-​spicy — they even asked!) along with five different rolls — A Tell of Two Tunas (isn’t it supposed to be Tale?), spicy scallop, spicy salmon, shrimp tempura, and spider.
The kids devoured the Pad See Ew. Crisp broccoli (not overcooked) with noodles that were not cooked to mush. Thank you! All the rolls were fantastic. My little toddler insisted on having one of our rolls, and I gave her a piece of shrimp tempura. It ended up being a bit spicy for her, so she went back to eating her Thai food.
A few minutes later, the sushi chef came to our table with a plate of shrimp tempura without any spicy mayo in it. He made it specifically for my daughter, because he saw that she had an adverse reaction to the spicy roll we gave her. WOW! How attentive and nice of him! It was on the house as well. We did not ask for this, and we were just so happy that we were being tended to like this. It was so special.
Hands down, this is one of the top five sushi places in Chicago for the service alone. The quality of the sushi and the Thai we ordered is on par with some of the best we’ve had in the city. We will certainly be back.

I had the Lunch special and it was Amazing! So much food for such a Good price! And service was pretty Good as well! Def will go back!

Walked into Rice Café on a Thursday night — there was a long line for Peaquod’s next door, but we were able to get a table right away at Rice Café. The restaurant has cute décor (lime green walls and crisp white furniture) and we enjoyed our meal listening to the sweet sounds of 90s boy bands.
We started with the spring roll cut into small pieces — it was tasty but not outstanding. I enjoyed the sauce more than the actual roll.
I ordered the panang curry with brown rice and tofu. The menu says the curry is spicy, and it sure is! The dish is warm and comforting, with a sweetness from the coconut milk to even out the spiciness of the curry.
My friend ordered the pad see ewe since it was a review highlight on Unilocal — the dish was delicious and I would probably order that over the curry if I were to go back.

Decent Thai food. The chicken pot stickers and crab rangoon appetizers were both very good!
I planned to try their sushi and wanted the California roll, but I was disappointed to learn that they use imitation crab. I do not like imitation and won’t eat it, so I didn’t bother. This kind of turned me off to the sushi…
So I moved on to the entrees, and had the Cashew chicken. I only found one or two cashews! It also had pineapples in it, and I don’t like cooked fruit. (But this was my fault. Pineapples were listed on the menu and somehow I missed that.) The chicken itself was also lacking flavor, so I doused it with soy sauce and their hot sauce. I did like the shitake mushrooms and dry hot peppers (I’m a fan!), and the jasmine rice was good also.
My friend had the chicken pad Thai, and there were no complaints there. I tried it, and it was very good.
Probably the highlight of my meal was the fresh fruit. It was really fresh! All in all, it wasn’t a bad experience, and I would like to try again with other dishes.

Unbelievable… they never disappoint us, the food is always fresh, flavorful and homey. The first time me and husband had been here, they had just opened and the first spoon of curry fried rice left me on cloud 9. Since then I have never been to any other Thai place ever. We atleast visit this restaurant twice a month or order delivery on lazy day. I literally bowed to the sushi chef after eating their sushi. succulent, fresh and the rice was so flavorful…
The staff is very polite and personable.
Our all time favorites and can eat every single day
1. Red Curry chicken
2. Curry fried rice
3. Various maki rolls
4. Mochi ice cream (artful presentation)

There was no one else in this restaurant when I went during the prime dining hour. I hope that doesn’t mean they’re not doing well cause the food was great and there’s a ton of variety. It’s sushi and Thai so if you can’t decide which type of Asian food you want, you don’t have to.
I did the duck curry and the seafood salad which were both awesome. Fresh fish, succulent duck, and flavorful curry served as a pretty solid portion. It was way better than I was expecting considering I was the only customer in the joint.
The inside is pretty minimalist so not a ton of atmosphere for a date other than the fact that it’s BYOB. For delivery though I’d definitely put it at the top of my list.

Very decent Thai food. Pad Thai is pretty flavorful. It’s a standard Pad Thai, but you can tell they know what they’re doing.
Pad See Eiw was a little bland, but the beef was delicious.
Delivery was fast and friendly. It’s pretty much everything I wanted. Not too shabby for a random GrubHub dice roll.