This one has taken me a while to write up as I wasn’t quite sure what I felt about it. After its feature on Jamie Oliver back in 2011, I admittedly had very high expectations for Rice and Things. On arrival, the restaurant was not as expected. The restaurant is split across two levels (I missed the downstairs level on my visit but Twitter wonderfully mended my error 🙂 ) – with an odd entry through a rope entrance as if you are being let into a nightclub. The menu was also rather confusing at first and took us a while to understand how and what to order. On reflection though, the randomness adds to its charm. The food was also very tasty (although I wish I had ordered my friend’s goat curry) and its perfect if you like to try new and different food from around the world.
On further inspection, the standard menu is a pretty simple concept – we were potentially having a bit of a dim moment. Set at £14.50, it includes a soup of the day starter and a main dish of your choice served with rice and peas/white rice/salad. The portions are a good size so value for money. Unfortunately I did not make the wisest choice with the chicken curry – which I found difficult to eat with lots of small bones. The others were more adventurous though with more success. Food envy was a big issue here.
The first dish was Jamaican ackee and saltfish. Admittedly we had to google ackee at the table – a national fruit of Jamaica from an evergreen tree. The texture was almost egg-like and definitely something new to the taste-buds. Really liked the saltfish though.
I would still recommend giving Rice and Things a go – just order more wisely than me. 😉
