Rice Café doesn’t meet standards.

In a town filled to the brim with Asian cuisine, Rice Café hardly stands out from the crowd.  Everything from its service to its food screams college dive.

Upon entering the small two story walk up that houses the Rice Café my eating companion and I are bombarded by music, giving the illusion that we had just stumbled upon a grungy frat party.  While, the atmosphere might be pleasing to the college demographic they are obviously catering to, it makes it incredibly hard to be heard.

The obscure Spanish-Pop music coupled with the fact that there were clusters of people behind  the counter, who may or may not have been workers, resulted in my companion’s misplaced order. Her Cashew Shrimp dish was turned into Cashew Chicken, not a very good start to a less than stellar meal.

The seating area is on the second floor of the brownstone. In theory, that is pretty cool, but with no signs posted to lead the way no one knew it was up there, leaving most people to crowd the narrow downstairs area. As an added bonus, the tables were sticky and there did not seem to be much in the way of air conditioning.

While my order or Kung Pao Beef was exactly what I got, I wish it wasn’t. My entire dinner was something akin to our school’s stir fry. Actually, our cafeteria food is better, and about a third of the price. The word that comes to mind is bland—even with all of the varied ingredients in my entrée, I could not taste anything other than the spicy brown sauce it was drenched in.

Like the main course, the side dishes had no redeeming qualities. While the Crab Rangoon and Spring Rolls were fine, if a little tasteless, what really disgusted me was their utter failure at making rice.

This was the Rice Café, after all, it should have had spectacular rice. But, no, their fried rice tasted little better than plain, white rice with carrots mixed in.

Overall, Rice Café was an utter disappointment. With over-priced, over-rated food the Rice Café really is not worth a visit.