Doowee & Rice

I miss Doowee and Rice more than I can possibly express in a Unilocal review. This place was amazing and their chicken bao was delicious. I would always end up getting one even though I told myself every time «this time you’re not getting one, just get the steak and rice and be done with it.» They were too good to pass up.
You can now get some of Doowee’s dishes at Teriyaki House, but they’re just not quite the same. I might use it to tide over the cravings on occasion, but eventually I hope Doowee will open up his own place again. I don’t care where it is. DO YOU HEAR ME, DOOWEE? You are sorely missed! Please open up again soon! I will drive to Arlington. I WILL DRIVE TO DORCHESTER!
Ahem. Sorry. I unraveled a bit for a moment, there. The only excuse I can offer is that it’s six o’clock, and I’m really hungry.

Professionalism would probably have kept this business running. Shame because there was a lot of potential and a good location.

Like Lidya, I have also tried to come to DooWee three times and found it closed, and worryingly, on different days from the ones she mentioned.
The food is good, very saucy and satisfying hearty Asian fusion, if a little salty. The baos that I’ve tried have all exceeded my expectations. That being said, I must recount what happened last time I tried (and failed — no surprise) to go to DooWee. My friend and I went around 8pm on a Wednesday. We tried the door and found it was locked. The hours clearly stated the restaurant was open until 9pm. We saw an employee inside sitting at a table facing us. We managed to catch his attention, but he looked at us impassively and did not move. Eventually we left. Fifteen minutes later we passed by DooWee again and the door had been unlocked and they were serving a customer.
Even now, I can’t comprehend what happened. At this point, I feel like my friends and I must have been secretly blacklisted because there’s no other logical explanation.
Anyways, bottom line is, the food here is pretty decent and is prepared very quickly, making it a convenient place to grab a bite — if you can manage to even get in the door.

Edit: We came again and ordered the eggrolls. They’re better now in my opinion. Not salty like I mentioned above. The new dipping sauce with the eggrolls is better now as well. The salad in the chicken and rice also has a tasty dressing on it. (I didn’t get dressing on the salad my first time there).
My go to dish is the steak and rice, steak bao or pork bao, and egg rolls.
For a snack, hearty fries are great.

Hey, want some salt?
This place had promise, the menu looked great and we went there on a Saturday afternoon we were planning to have our meal as takeout and sit in the park since we have driven past and knew how small it was (there was a table available for those who wondered). We ordered and for a low key afternoon, with a couple people who already had their food at most of the tables, we didn’t think it would take long. There was one cashier and one guy in the back cooking and it took much longer than we expected. The cost is low so that’s one of the good things.
Food:
Vietnamese Eggrolls — the other good thing about our experience, pretty tasty
Chicken and Rice — Chicken and rice and a salty bland sauce that had some salt. Also salt.
Chimichurri Chicken and Rice — The same exact dish as Chicken and Rice with Chimichurri sauce
The two chicken dishes came with rice and some salad with feta and a pita (what?). It was like we had ordered chicken and rice from a generic Greek place. There was hardly any flavor in the main dishes. But there was salt… lots of salt.
Summary — super long wait with hardly anyone ahead of us, bland and salty.

Solid food. Chicken and rice was good, the steak and rice was okay. I would definitely want more meat and less sauce for the steak, or maybe thicker cuts of meat. Both dishes were meaty goodness. The side salad was a bit lacking but the dressing had a nice kick. The crispy chicken bites weren’t that great because the meat was dry, but the sauce was great. I would go again if I was in the area.
The shop in my opinion is a mad tacky hole in the wall that serves up decent food with good hot tea. Props. Watch the smells yo.

Was very excited to have a new Asian restaurant in the neighborhood, the place had decent reviews in Unilocal,but really disappointed after giving it a try. I would avoid in the future:
Food: Not that good. You cannot put star anise on everything and call yourself Asian food. Overly salty in some of the things we had.
We tried to order a couple of things that look good, and they did not have them on their limited menu. This was Saturday at 6:30pm?
Experience: While we waited to put the order in the counter, the person was on the phone for about 8 minutes without acknowledging us. The place is simple which was fine with us but the floors were not clean.

Really three and a half stars. Really want to like this place, as I love the menu concepts. Have eaten here a few times now though and execution has been lacking.: squid salad used cheap iceberg lettuce, the flavor of the beef noodle soup was a little off.
Did really enjoy the chicken hearts though. Hope they keep at it because maybe I just had bad luck the few times I’ve been.

I brought my wife and five foodie friends here last night after reading about this place last fall. We’re split between adventurous and non-​adventurous eaters, and from the menu, it seemed everyone would get what they wanted.
Having read that things can run out here, I sent an email asking if it was possible that some chicken hearts be put aside for us – I offered to pay a deposit — and Duy very nicely responded that he bought extras for us – and didn’t ask for any money up front.
The space is small but clean and comfortable. In addition to the white board menu, there’s a printed menu with pictures. We kind of didn’t need it as we essentially decided to order one of everything.
Here’s the breakdown, but I’ll give you the abridged review: Everything was frickin’ delicious.
Bao Bao:
BBLT (Bacon, braised pork, lettuce tomato): meaty, porky, bacon-​y, addictive.
Ginger apple chick: Sweet, cool, slightly spicy, in a ginger-​y way. Divine.
Char Siu chicken: tasty enough, but we were blown away but the other options.
Braised pork: heaven! with this kind of tangy relish on it of some kind — pickled celery?
Lime Habanero chicken: spicy! our spice heads were digging it.
Chicken and Rice and Braised pork and Rice: Yum. Savory comfort food, perfect for picky eaters or fancy eaters — we all dug in and devoured.
Chicken hearts: the chicken heart fans loved these — a little spicy!
Sweet potato fries with hoisin: Mind blowing — sweet and sweet, but different kinds of sweet. Le yum.
Beef Noodles: … I forget! But the fish sauce lovers were all over this one.
Vietnamese Eggrolls: tasty.
Vietnamese chicken wings (compliments of Duy!): sweet, savory, super crispy, no batter to come between you and the skin/​chicken. Inhaled.
Stuff came out super fast — and the serving sizes were great. The service was wonderful — friendly and cheerful — and thankfully, we all could sit around and moan and groan like starving heathens without making too much of a scene — the vibe is relaxed. Beverly Hills Cop was on the tv, and the place was packed with students.
And the price. The price! All that came to about $ 80!!! That sealed the deal — we agreed this is going to be our go-​to cheap eats place now — you can’t get food this good and this interesting for so cheap! (I am craving those bao bao like nobody’s business this morning!)
So, to sum up: ohemgee delish.

if you are expecting atmosphere– this isnt the place. But oh the food is yummy!
Wwe had the chicken and rise and a beef noodle bowl. Large portions-​cheap price and great taste.
Take a chance and stop by. They are really worth the trip.

Doowee & Rice is nested in Powderhouse Square, right on Broadway and is an assuming little dine in and takeout spot and which left me very impressed after having had a lunch there with my significant other.
We went there on a whim after seeing much praise on Unilocal and after a short drive in the rain, we arrived and waltzed right in. The friendly woman behind the counter greeted us and we placed our orders and paid.
The first thing we noticed however was the menu which wasn’t printed but instead written using a marker pen on a whiteboard. It changes quite frequently according to their website based on what’s the freshest ingredients available. I dig that, especially since they do a bit of fusion in there which gives them enough creativity to create dishes that really pop. It isn’t often that place go to such an extent and despite their modest size and space, they really do shine and I found my meal tasty.
We started by sharing an order of bao bao buns ($ 5), which in our case featured brased, very tender and juicy pork, some sweet sauce, scallions, shallots and a garlicky chili sauce. Quite tasty and we devoured them. Definitely very juicy, I had some of it drip down on my plate. I didn’t find it very fatty though which was a plus.
I then followed that dish with their signature one, a take on Singapore’s ultimate claim to fame: chicken and rice.
Theirs is $ 7 and features some chopped chicken, some rice and some delicious white sauce with a side salad, pita and hot sauce. Never in my life was I able to eat such good food at such an affordable price. The chicken was great and it must have been brined for a while because it was both very tender and very juicy. The rice was a good contrast for it texture-​wise and it all paired very well with that white sauce. The portion was quite generous and I was not able to finish. My dining companion also enjoyer her meal very much and wasn’t able to finish her entrée either. The whole thing cost us under $ 20 and we left both full and very happy.
This place is a great addition to Powderhouse Square and I cannot recommend it highly enough. The food is solid, the service friendly and best of all, it’s affordable. The type of cuisine they offer is versatile and everything is very fresh. They would do really well to open a food truck — the type of dishes they have would be easy to make in it and it would strive. I could seriously eat there frequently, especially for a good, affordable lunch. And while the place is limited in size, and is decorated with restraint, that isn’t what you should focus on. Kudos to their concept, I wish them a lot of success down the road.

My first exposure to DooWee & Rice was the article about Duy Tran and his new little restaurant in the Improper Bostonian. It intrigued me enough that I wondered how I was going to get myself out to Somerville into Jumbo territory to sample this Vietnamese spot.
Months later, I spotted DooWee & Rice on the LivingSocial site, and I was going to be in the area, so it was a no brainer for me to sign up for one of those deals.
DooWee & Rice is the last storefront in a row of businesses on the left side of the street when exiting the Power House Square roundabout. Two hour parking seems to be available on either side of the road, which is quite convenient given that the streets along the way from Tufts were marked Permit Parking Only.
It’s a small restaurant with maybe two 4-​top tables on either side of the door, totaling 4 tables plus the little two seater that I had sat myself at while awaiting my take-​out order. A rather large flat screen entertained me during my not quite 10 minute wait, as did the free wi-​fi for customers — the password is printed on the small whiteboard along with their list of sauces to be had for 50 cents apiece.
I watched as a number of dishes were delivered by the girl at the cash register from the window peeking into the small kitchen in the back, to the two parties dining inhouse. Baos, springrolls, an order of heart-​y fries… they all passed by in turn.
Ah, another time… my order to go was the Braised Pork and Rice $ 8.50, and the Chimichurri Chicken and Rice $ 7.50, with the spicy sauces on the side (the hot sauce and the spicy salad dressing).
When I got my bountiful styrofoam containers home, I discovered white sauce on my chicken, and just white sauce… I called the restaurant, and yes, it seems that they had given me their standard Chicken and Rice $ 7 by accident. The girl at the register remembered me from earlier, and offered me a Chimichurri Chicken and Rice next time. How sweet! I thought that maybe they’d offer me the missed 50 cent chimichurri sauce or a free springroll on my next trip at most.
Both meats and the yellow rice were moist and tasty, and the two orders fed 3 lightweights quite aptly. The spicy sauces included with the entrees were indeed spicy, so I’m awfully glad I had thought to ask for them to served on the side. The only thing was that the small handful of iceberg lettuce didn’t satisfy this girl as a serving of vegetable.
In addition to the chimichurri sauce which has eluded me thus far, I’m curious about the sweet potato fries and the spring rolls I spotted on their menu… Ah, till we meet again…
*** ²⁄₂₀₁₃ ***
Once again my order was to go. This time I was settled with a styrofoam cup of filtered cool water by the fellow at the counter as I waited less than 10 minutes for my two full bags of food for lunch for me and two friends.
Credit card charges were handled by iPad with the little square attachment. Use your finger tip to sign your signature as the touch screen doesn’t really read nail scratchings.
The Vietnamese Eggrolls ($ 1 apiece) were crisp and rather large for springrolls, yet rather thin in relation to traditional fat and fatty deep fried American-​Chinese restaurant eggrolls. On the outside, they visually resemble the ones my mom makes, but I got to say I like hers better. But if you can’t go home (mine) for them, these are pretty good.
Their sweet potato fries ($ 5 for large) were the soft sort, but they were naturally sweet potato sweet and rather interesting with the hoisin/​white sauce provided.
I ordered the large order of 12 chicken wings for $ 8, and they were willing to prepare them in two ways for me — the Plain Salt, and the Vietnamese. The wings were crispy and not overly oily. I found the Vietnamese version a tad spicy, but my friends disagreed and thought the two flavors not particularly discernable.
The portion size of both the Grilled Steak & Rice $ 9 and the Chimichurri Chicken & Rice $ 7.50 were pretty good, and while the rice and chicken were rather moist and tasty, the steak wasn’t as tender and could have done with some salt. My friends thought the sauces were too generously applied, but they liked the flavor of the optional spicy sauce included with the entrees.
The food was pretty good if you’re in the area, but not something to go out of the way for.

Was excited to have something like this open up in the area. As a diner usually on a budget you can’t beat the 7 $ chicken and rice. Plate comes piled with chicken and rice (plenty of both), a small salad with a nice spicy salad dressing, and a piece of pita bread. The chicken was tender and covered in a delicious white sauce that reminded me of a tzatizki sauce. This one packed more garlic flavor. Your breath won’t smell good, but the food sure does taste good. My wife had the vietnamese marinated beef noodles and said it reminded her of a dish her mom used to make (she’s vietnamese). Beef just like the chicken was good quality and tender. The fish sauce was watered down and lacking the flavor you would get in a real vietnamese restaurant. We really enjoyed the eggrolls and the delicious sauce they came with. At 1 $ a piece it’s easy to order exactly how many you want with your meal. I absolutely love that you can just order one instead of an order of 4 or 6 like at most restaurants. The pork baos were the only disappointing food part of the meal. Pork was too dry and lacking a sauce. Comparing these to Chinese pork buns, they just don’t stand up and actually cost more.
If you visit their website you will see how much Doowee cares about serving good food to people. He even writes on his website that if you can’t afford the meal he will serve you the food anyways! How great is that? The service at the counter reflected this mentality, being warm and friendly.

If you like chicken and rice, do not come here. You will be heavily disappointed. All the writers of the previous 4 star ratings of the chicken and rice must be delusional or have never had Halal chicken and rice before.
Details on the chimchurri chicken and rice:
The rice was a bit on the watery side, and it just tasted like regular yellow rice rather than tumeric rice. The white sauce was blatantly too heavy, but it was necessary to balance the blandness of the chicken. I’m glad I got the chimchurri, otherwise the entire dish might have been too flavorless for me.
The braised pork and rice:
Never order this. Unless you’re looking for dry, flavorless pork bits on rice. Otherwise, don’t order this.
Some general problems besides the mediocre chicken and rice and the abysmal white sauce:
1. Ambigious Grubhub policies. Do you deliver or do you not? I was 0.6 miles away, but Grubhub stated they cannot deliver to me because I was outside their 1.5 mile radius.
2. Uncertain policies in general. When I called, they said they only do deliveries up to a mile away. Over the phone, they do not accept credit cards. Only cash.
3. Ergo, I’m still uncertain as to whether or not they take credit cards or just cash in-​store.
4. Questionable customer service. The girl was not particularly helpful or even trying to be helpful on the phone, and they got my 2-​item order incorrectly. Though to give them credit, they did come back to replace the mishap, but they did so unannounced.
…I’m obviously not convinced. Not even tempted to try their delicious baos. I’ll just hold off on chicken and rice and baos until I’m back in New York.
Read the full story:

This is a great place to get unique flavors and well cooked entrees.
Very reasonably priced and you can tell a lot went into what you’re eating.
Items tried =
— Crispy Chicken Hearts: Nice tasting cajun morsels of hearts. If you’re not used to the texture you might not like it, but flavors are great. You should try these chicken hearts at least once.
— Chicken and Rice: Reminds me of the chix n rice in NYC but it’s not the same. Unique on it’s own and chicken was very well cooked.
— Braised Pork and Rice: If you like pork, you should give this a try. Good flavor, and well seasoned. Goes great with the rice.

I consider myself a foodie. From Michelin 3-​star restaurants to hole-​in-​the-​wall joints, I am willing to travel near and far for good food, especially food which reflect the chef’s creativity, passion and soul. On my short trip to Boston last week, I patronized DooWee & Rice 3 times!!!
Growing up in Asia, I am not unfamiliar with the traditional pork bun (bao), and its growing popularity in the U.S. made famous by Momofuku in NYC. DooWee’s Braised Pork Bao Bao presents a modern version of this old-​time Asian favorite comfort food with the most tender, non-​greasy, and not-​overly-​salted braised pork in a perfectly fluffy bun. I have to say I prefer DooWee’s to Momofuku or even the traditional pork bun from my home country!
Heart-​y Fries! DooWee’s version of poutine is pure genius! Again being Asian, I’ve had chicken hearts stewed, braised, grilled… and never quite like their taste or texture. I can’t figure out what spices DooWee uses to marinate his chicken hearts but I am totally blown away by how tasty they are… crispy outside yet tender and moist inside, and the garlicky sauce that goes on the hearts and the fries perfectly marry the flavor and texture of both! This thing is addictive!
Also tried and liked Chicken and Rice, Chimichurri Chicken and Rice, Vietnamese Squid Salad, Vietnamese Marinated Beef Noodles (those beef are super flavorful and delicious, better than any that I have had in my local Vietnamese restaurants), Fresh Not Frozen Wings with Spicy Soy (I could handle a little more spice), and Vegan Pumpkin Soup (tender chunks of pumpkin in a sweet and savory peanut soup).
If only DooWee & Rice could spin off a branch in LA!
p. s. The girls at the cash register were friendly and attentive all three times I was there considering how busy they were.

I was very excited to learn about a new Vietnamese joint. I read about it in the Globe and googled it online and my mouth was watering. So it’s probably my fault for walking in with high expectations, but my first visit had such a poor experience. I walked in with a friend and the host or cashier or whatever she was totally ignored us, and kept chatting up a storm with her valley girl friends. We stood there patiently waiting, and still she completely ignored us. After about 5 minutes, I walked up to her and just said «What do we do?!» And in her rude, «couldn’t-be-bothered» tone said its order and seat yourself. Well, we had no idea, so thanks for finally informing us!
We finally ordered, and the highlight (by far) was the braised pork bao bao. Everything else was mediocre at best and not authentic Vietnamese. I’m fine with food is not authentic, but this was not only NOT authentic, it was not good. The beef vermicelli was lacking flavor and felt like the beef was boiled in water, rather than grilled.
I was pretty disappointed in the food, but was far more disappointed in the service. Only reason why I’d even consider returning it ordering those pork bao baos — TO GO!

Oh, Doo Wee. I have never written a Unilocal review, and I signed up just for this occasion. You give me a roller coaster of food emotions.
You are located across the street from my boyfriend’s house, so when you had your soft-​open we were excited to try everything! We sat down after ordering the crispy chicken hearts, beef bao, and french fries. Everything was served promptly and with a smile, and then we tasted the food. IT. WAS. AMAZING. I could not believe how absolutely delicious and cheap everything was. The chicken hearts were so tender and crispy, the sauce was slightly spicy and addictive, the fries were out of this world, and the bao was meaty, steamy delight. We told all our friends to go and try it for themselves.
Our next visit was the polar opposite. We were greeted with terse attention, barely spoken to by the cashier. It took about 40 minutes to get a small take-​out order, and the food was unrecognizable from the food I had ordered the previous visit. The fries (once hand-​cut and twice fried) were now the frozen «steak fry» variety, somehow dry and soggy at the same time. The bao was overly salted, and cold due to waiting 40 minutes for some reason. My boyfriend didn’t want to give up hope and went a few more times and had the same experience. The friends we sent also had similarly lackluster meals :(
Has the owner/​chef stopped spending time at Doo Wee? Can he come back? I had such high hopes, and would love to have the food I tried the first night again. So sad– this place has such potential.

Order from the regular selections or the days specials.
Out of braised pork for my visit, seared beef bao (buns) consist of med-​rare flank steak slices on fluffy buns ($ 5). Thinly sliced marinated steak arrive topped with crispy shallots, scallions and «Vietnamese chimichurri.» The chimichurri embodies both sweet and pungent with mint, scallions, garlic and fish sauce, a compliment to the soy based marinade. The charred steak lends a crisp crunch to the whole affair.
The «secret» marinated chicken and rice ($ 7) arrives on a bed of seasoned rice with a side salad, pita and is dressed in «great white secret» sauce, a garlic cream of sorts. The chicken is plentiful and moist, flavored by the char of grilling as well as more fish and soy sauce. Chunk after chunk of chopped chicken meld together in the company of seasoned rice and house chili sauce, a toned down yet more complex version of Sriracha, a thick smokiness compliments the grilled chicken well.
A selection of bottled water, juice and soda are available. Quick service, walk in and order, choose your weapon, take a seat and in a short amount of time, your food will arrive. Easy, fast and well worth the trip.

Two words for you: Salt Lick.
I hate to write negative reviews and especially when the place is run by a new and hopeful cook but, alas, I cannot tell a lie.
Food: Unbelievably salty. Everything was unbelievably salty. I’m not sure if he doesn’t taste his sauces but holy moly man, relax with the salt. The chicken bao– it was alright I guess but whatever sauce they put on it had a few too many tablespoons (per order) of, you guessed, it SALT.. The pork bao def has potential, I think because the actual pork was salted a little bit less, just a little bit less than the chicken. The chicken wings– your average crispy chicken wing but the only thing that was edible because it wasn’t overloaded with salt. The egg rolls? Salty (sigh) chimichurri sauce– SALTY. GRRRRRRR.
Décor– Not the most stylish nor hip but that kinda comes with the territory. Not a big deal.
Here’s my two cents for this place:
1. New hours of some time-​2am and deliver. This way it could survive as an after the bar spot for college kids.
2. Use less salt, spruce up the joint a bit, and work on the menu. If food trucks like Mei Mei (swoon) and Bön Me can kick butt then so can someone who has an actual kitchen.
Otherwise this is literally just an unhealthy-​lots of fried –in a Chinese food kinda way Vietnamese spot run by young people. BUT it has potential so please try and get it together! Now that’s the truth.
**Also, I think it’s important to mention that I got sick after eating this. There’s nothing that would get me to try that place again. Avoid.
****Notice the owners response below. Last time I checked Unilocal was created for consumers to voice their opinions. Unfortunately some take advantage of this though you can rest assure that I do not. Hello Unilocal Elite for multiple years! I welcome the owners response however it’s obvious to me, from his extremely defensive attitude, that he is more amateur than I realized. I would bet he hasn’t worked in the business for long, if not ever. Hopefully one day he will learn how to treat customers.