Rice House of Kebab and Wrap

We dined at Rice House early on Saturday evening, largely because of the stellar reviews from Google+. I think the Unilocal reviews trending toward 3 stars are much more accurate. I’m from the States but had some outstanding kabobs living in the Washington DC area. I just wasn’t that impressed with Rice House.
Based on past reviews, steered toward the kabobs and wraps. I thought the minced lamb kabob (koobideh) was good but not transcendent. Chicken kabob was okay, a little dry and quite a strong lemon taste. We enjoyed the Naan which is much more like a fired flat bread than the doughy Naan at some Indian restaurants. We were surprised no additional Naan came with the meal, something I’d recommend you include as a side if you dine. The hummus and falafel were clearly hand-​made and again, both were good but not great.
One other note: the interior of the restaurant gets hot from the oven for the Naan. This could be nice in the winter but drove us onto the noisy high street during the summer. Not an issue for take away.

I would not suggest this place to anyone purely for the fact that the owner is a mean and awful dictator to her employees. My boyfriend and I came in for lunch and the kind and soft spoken waitress had this terrified demeanor once the owner comes storming in. The entire atmosphere changed. All I heard was the owner speak back to her with aggravation and unnecessary rudeness as she was explains that she could no longer work here. The poor waitress kept on sincerely apologizing to this monster. Then, she proceeded to demand the girl call her friends to replace her! What the hell?! I hate supporting dictating witches like this, but food has been ordered. The food is good. And as I’m writing this review, she’s still yelling at the poor girl, 10min later, and then softens her tone as I leer at her.

I define Rice as the moment in my life I have tasted the real wonder that a perfectly selected and cooked kebab can be. The mince kebab is literally the most delicious kebab I have ever tried in my life. I have also loved the KORESH FESENJAN (WALNUT AND POMEGRANATE STEW). The menu describes it as sauteed pieces of chicken breast slowly cooked in a sweet and sour sauce of fresh ground walnut and pomegranate purée. The chicken breast is delicious as well slowly cooked. It tastes different and in a good way. I just suggest you do not even try the Doogh drink, since it is too exotic for my taste. It is a Persian youghurt drink that tastes saltier than anything you can possibly imagine.
This is the kind of restaurant you need to visit at least once in your lifetime, and you are probably going to be returning there regularly. Another interesting detail is that Rice is one of the cheapest restaurants in the surrounding area.

It was a huge disappointment when we ordered a grill dish which came with a pathetic amount of meat — a small strip of chicken & FEW pieces of lamb of little finger size.
The grill dish was a total rip off which was exactly the same as the chicken wrap which was £5. We literally paid £5.50 for 3 – 4 little pieces of lamb. The price we paid was totally not worth it.
To the owner who did not bother with our complaint at all, I would give 0 out of 5 for this place.

It’s been a while since I stopped here, and I was hoping things would have improved.
Service is great, the young lady that served us was sweet and attentive. Food was generally okay, Ashe Reshte soup was a bit bland, but generally okay, and the chicken wrap that I had wasn’t actually a wrap, just chicken inside a folded bread with salad. Chicken was nicely cooked and tasty. As for desert, the bastani ice cream, that’s worth looking forward to after any Persian meal, had ice frozen edges where it seemed to have been melted and refrozen previously.
Unfortunately for Rice, there’s another Persian Restaurant (Faanoos) just opposite that’s cheaper and tastier. Sorry Rice, I’ve definitely experienced better.

Wow wow wow, simply decorated with food out of this world. Kebabs as they should be. No Donna’s here. A weekly treat for me belly.

Excellent lamb kebabs, mixed grill and mixed rice and meat dishes. The portions are huge though so we always end up skipping dessert. The staff are very helpful with selecting untried dishes and they are very friendly.
I just read the post above about Ochre and disagree. The food at Ochre was some terrible mishmash of middle Eastern and asan food which is probably why it went under.
RICE is as good as any of the Iranian restaurants on Edgware Road. I would recommend this place to anyone.

I’ve been a fan of Persian food for many years, and used to eat it a couple times a month back in the States. However, after going vegetarian more than a year ago, I’ve not been nearly so often. In fact, since moving to London 6 months ago, I’ve not tried a Persian restaurant at all. I finally decided to try the Persian restaurant right around the corner, even though it didn’t even show up on Unilocal (I had to add it).
First of all, the Ash-​e-​Reshteh soup is terrific, and it’s vegetarian! I almost always ordered this soup when I used to frequent Persian restaurants in California, though they were often topped with a meat sauce. I was happy to see the version at Rice is vegetarian by default.
There are a couple vegetarian options on the mains menu, mostly grilled veggies in a wrap on on a plate with rice. There are also a number of appetizers and sides. We decided on the Sini platter (replacing the salad-​e-​olivieh with Koo Koo Sabsi). The Mirza Ghasemi was probably the best dish on the plate, but the Houmous was quite good as well (just the way I make it myself). The Koo Koo Sabsi was like nothing I’ve had before. I would describe it as the Ash-​e-​Reshteh in quiche form.
The naan is baked to order in the oven at the back of the restaurant. It was fun watching the cook flatten out the dough and slap it on to the side of the oven. We also had the vegetarian kebab wrap. It’s basically grilled veggies, tomato, lettuce, onions and some herbs wrapped in a piping hot naan. The chili and garlic sauces are perfect condiments. Next time I think we’ll try the falafel.
For a drink, I ordered a pot of Persian tea. This is a light tea with an infusion of cardimum. It went well with the meal, but probably even better as an after dinner tea. We followed dinner with Paloodeh, a lemon and mint sorbet with starch noodles inside.
I’m sure I’ll be visiting Rice again.

As a lunch spot, Rice is great value for money. First, the food, although simple, is very well prepared, and is simply delicious. A great feature is they serve their food with hot, fresh bread, cooked in a special oven. Their kebabs are the best I’ve had in London, and they also offer a wide variety of other traditional Iranian rice dishes (such as my favorite: Zereshk Polo). Highly recommended!

Befuddlingly named Rice — the home of kebabs and wraps, this Iranian restaurant is nothing special in every respect. I found the menu to be a little overpriced, especially when compared to the Ochre Lounge just down the road, and the food wasn’t as nice, or as fresh. While there’s nothing wrong with it, there are better examples of the same thing in the area for both eating in and takeaway.