Rice

We wanted to try somewhere we hadn’t eaten before and wondered past rice on a busy Friday evening. I have eaten here before but years ago when it was either a different (but very similar) restaurant or under different management? Not sure.
Anyway, the décor is fairly standard, quite modern. A bit of a lack of larger tables. Some of the tables have glass tops and what can only be describes as ‘rice art’ in them which adds a nice touch and is fairly unusual.
So, rice do a £13.99 menu where u get to choose three out of nine available dishes. I thought this was a pretty good idea as I am always wanting to try everything on a menu at once and can never make up my mind. So I ordered a salt and pepper chicken with egg fried rice dish, a spicy special fried rice with prawns, chicken etc. Dish and a ‘duck laksa’ dish.
Dishes one and two were good, a nice amount of heat, flood flavours and good portion size. They had plenty of meat and also fresh veg and chillis in, were very colourful and nicely presented. I would order both of these again.
The duck laksa however was absolutely disgusting. It was brown and had clear glass noodles in which I thought was a little. Different. You had three slices of duck which looked grey and Unappealing, and then on top floating around were about 5 small pineapple chunks. The whole dish just didn’t work. It was unlike any laksa I have ever had before and just didn’t even taste like it had any form of coconut in it whatsoever. The glass noodles just made it worse as they are pretty slimy and just looked like tentacles almost within the dish. In a nutshell, it just looked like an unappetising mess.
I would go back, the rice dishes were really good and it did offer something a little different at the Trafford centre, however, I will be staying completely clear of the laksa. Hopefully I will be giving a better review next time !

Service was, overall, very good — could be improved if there was an assigned server rather than being attended to by five different people during the course of our meal (all good though!).
The starters we chose — tempura vegetables and miso soup were very good (miso had fine noodles rather than udon bit the server did offer to change this without prompting).
The mains; Moroccan Lamb — not too bad, but a little over-​cooked (I asked for medium) and chewy. Sauce was also a bit generic and overpowering.
Fish Skewers — quite nice but again an overpowering sauce.
So overall I would go back, but I would stick to the Asian dishes.
Also a little bit overpriced.

Once upon a time not so long ago, one man had a dream. A dream about rice, a dream which stemmed from his love for the delicious cereal grain. A dream so profound it inspired him to embark on a journey which resulted in the formation of one of my favorite eateries in Manchester.
My love for Rice Flame bar and grill and its delightful range of dishes was firmly established way before I featured them in a publication I previously worked for.
This place is nothing but a celebration of the fact that rice is the staple diet of billions all over the globe. Whilst places like Tampopo and Wagamama amongst others celebrate cuisine of a similar persuasion, Rice competes admirably.
The food is of the highest standard as demonstrated by the volume of my check ins. Chicken Katsu curry, Jamaican jerk chicken and the Pad Thai are amongst my favorite foodie ventures which never fail to disappoint. The staff are knowledgeable enough to recommend dishes to those not familiar with the variety on offer, and I’ve always found them to be well receptive of your needs.
It is no wonder thus that I’ve found every branch is well occupied most nights. The success has garnered demand which sees more Franchises popping up slowly but surely all over this lovely Island of ours. The more the merrier I say because Rice is very much here to stay

Don’t you just hate having too much choice, and making the wrong one? Well that’s what happened to me and Mrs Z in the 7^th circle of hell (The Trafford Centre) yesterday.
I must point out that I was only there in the first place because Ange promised me lunch, and she only wanted to go because she had been given some vouchers for John Lewis and needed some make-​up.
At lunch time we wandered around the Orient perusing the menus, and opted to try Rice because they had a good choice on offer.
I went for the Malaysian Chilli Chicken, and Ange for the Thai Chicken Krapao (Much school boy laughter from me). I ordered a bottle of Peroni whilst Ange asked for a glass of cucumber water, the waitress walked off and came back and told Ange that they were out of cucumber, so ange asked for half a pint of Tiger Beer, only to be told that they no loger have beer on tap, only bottles.
My food was nice, not spectacular, just nice, nice rice, nice chicken and a nice amount of spice. Ange on the other hand took a couple of mouthfuls before realising that the dish was supposed to contain chicken and mince, hers was only chicken. When she ordered it the waiter told her it was spicy, only it wasn’t spicy at all. She decided to not bother with the mince but asked a waitress if she could have some chilli sauce, she went off to get some and we didn’t see her again!
Although we both kind of enjoyed the food, at £30 for the two of us it was a bit steep for what we got, a main and a beer each. We left feeling like we should’ve gone elsewhere. Probaby Wokooshi accross the way…
On the way out we were given a loyalty card, but told it can’t be used there, only at the Piccadilly Gardens branch, thanks for that…
Not only that, but we had dragged our posteriors all the way over to the Trafford Centre only to find that John Lewis doesn’t stock the make-​up Ange wanted, just another reason why for food and for shopping you can’t beat the City centre.