Rice Story

When I started this blog last week and realized that we were going to have to go back to all the places we have already been so I could get pictures, I was broken hearted, especially about Rice Story (Insert sarcasm here). I think I would have to say that Rice Story is my favorite restaurant . I first ate here with a group of spouses from my husbands unit for a monthly spouses dinner and I knew it was going to be a place that I would eat at frequently.  The kids and I go probably about once a week, and I have taken a lot of friends here and introduced them to the deliciousness that is Rice Story.

It is another restaurant here in New City, behind Jihaeng station. If you come out the back side of Jiheang station and cross the street, you can't miss it. It is on Jihaeng Ro, literally across the street from Dunkin Donuts. It sits between an appliance store on the corner and a little Family Mart. You can drive, but there really is no parking on the street in New City unless you want to take the chance of getting a parking ticket. The few times we have driven, we have parked in the train station lot and walked across.

It's a small place that has about 12 tables, but one wall has a built in bench that is perfect for large groups. 

 My son loves the mural on the wall, he is always trying to stand on the chairs so he can point at the different things in the picture.

The tables all have a little hidden drawer on the side, slide it open and this is where you will find your spoons, chopsticks and napkins. Very clever idea! 

The menu has something for everyone, even the younger kids. The prices are very reasonable for the amount of food you get, did I mention the food is amazing ?! So on to the menu and food...

These two pages have the different kinds of fried rice they make. We have tried several of them like the egg fried rice and the pineapple fried rice and they are both really delicious and have very good flavor. Not just the flavor of soy sauce like you get at some places.

 These couple pages have the different kinds of soups and noodle dishes they serve. My daughters friend has had the Seafood Rice Noodle Soup with the giant mussels in it and said it was really good. Im not a fan of mussels so I havn't tried it. I have tried the Beef Mongolian Fried Noodles and the Hot Beef Rice Noodle Soup though, both are spicy, the soup spicier than the noodles. The soup to me is like Pho. I am a fan of spicy and the soup made my nose run and my eyes water, but it was so delicious I couldn't stop eating it!

 This is my favorite page of the menu, it has all the meat over rice dishes. They kind of remind me of Chinese food from the states. The only thing we have not tried on this page is the Rice Topped with Beef. It is a hard decision to try and pick one, whether it be the pork cutlet, shrimp or chicken over rice, so we usually go with the #8 which is all 3 over rice! Their pork cutlets are huge and fried to a perfect crispiness and then topped with cutlet sauce. It is what my five year old son gets every time we go. I think his favorite is the scoop of plain rice though.

These are their salads and finger foods. We always get the Fried Rolls as well. This time we decided to order one of their wraps and share it. We got the Satay Fried Rice Rolled Tortilla. I was surprised, don't know why since everything I have tried from here has been beyond good, at how tasty it was. It had a sweet flavor, almost like a teriyaki sauce.

We always order extra so we have leftovers to take home, the leftovers never go to waste, we usualy fight over who is going to get them. 

All meals are served with these 3 sides, the orange colored one is a pickled radish with a little bit of the kimchi powder so it has a little bit of kick to it. The green one is pickled radish, cabbage, carrots and pickles, it has a sweet flavor. The broth has a little bit of spice and taste like a chicken broth with a few green onions in it, it is really tasty. 

 This was my lunch today, I ordered the Mongolian Beef over rice. It has a good spice to it and the beef is very tender, the whole dish has a very good flavor.

These are the fried rolls we always get, the long thin ones are like a mini egg roll and the little pouch ones taste like they have a shrimp filling. They are tied closed with a piece of seaweed so the whole thing is edible, they are served with a sweet spicy chili sauce.

 My daughters pick of the day, chicken over rice. The chicken is lightly breaded and fried. There are always large chunks of juicy flavorful chicken in this dish. The whole thing is served with a sauce over the rice, im not really sure what kind of sauce it is and the flavor of it is hard to explain other than to simply say it is delicious. This was our "try something new" dish, and we were both very pleasantly surprised at how good it was. It is the Satay Fried Rice Tortilla Roll.

This is my sons lunch, he impatiently waits for his food to be cooked so he can dig in. I don't think this photo really does the size of this cutlet justice. The cutlet is probably about the same size of a large mans hand. The scoop of rice is about the size of an ice cream scoop if that helps with size visualization. He usually finishes all the rice and about 3/4 of the cutlet. The rest goes into a take home bag for him to eat later.

Other than the food being amazingly delicious, I love this place because it is small and the staff is always very  friendly and attentive. The food is made to order, but you usually have your food within about 5 minutes of ordering. This is a perfect place for lunch with friends or a date night. It is very reasonably priced, for all that we ordered, our bill came to 31,000krw. If you go and enjoy it, make sure you pick up a punch card off the counter, for every meal you buy you get a stamp, when the card is full you get a free meal. Who can turn down a free meal, especially when it taste this delicious.