Spice and Rice is Nice!

"Buywithme.com" is a newer version of Groupon - a site that highlights a different coupon each day, often for restaurants, including this place I've been wanting to try out in Inman Square, Spice and Rice. I was so happy to see it on the site because it gave me a reason to definitely get there and thankfully I have lots of friends that enjoy Asian food of all kinds, which I truly appreciate given I could eat Asian every night!

Spice and Rice
1172 Cambridge St, Inman Square
Cambridge
A good 15 minute walk from Harvard Square, the walk to Inman Square is worth it for this restaurant, even if you can find a dozen Asian restaurants a bit closer to the Square. The decor inside is really creative and modern - very colorful. Definitely good for a group with large booths available. The prices were comparable to other Asian restaurants in the Cambridge area and we were all very happy with the dishes we chose. With a mixture of Thai, Korean and Japanese you can make a lot of mouths happy here. The menu is quite extensive - which is why it took us so long to decide what to get. They have the usual sushi rolls, pad thai, bi bim bap and lots of new dishes too. They also deliver, which is convenient to those in the area.

With lots of soups to choose from we each decided on a different soup to start out the meal on a hot note. Starting with the red bowl going clockwise, we tried the Miso Soup ($2.50),  Vegetable Tofu Soup ($3.50), Tom Kar Soup ($3.50) and finally, Tom Yum Soup with Shrimp ($3.50). We all really enjoyed our soups - but my friend who got the coconut soup (Tom Kar) seemed particularly pleased with her first coconut soup experience. I think I would order that next time, though my vegetable one was really fresh and flavorful. They also had a section titled "Noodle Soup," with heartier, larger bowls of soup that sounded delicious for a main meal with everything from udon to soba.

Two of the ladies decided on sushi in the end - if I remember correctly, a couple of the rolls included: salmon avocado and tuna, salmon and cucumber. I've recently been turned on to a sweet potato maki that I'd be interested in trying next time.

After much thought my friend decided on the Noodle Curry dish, described as "Egg noodles, chicken and vegetables in a mild yellow curry." It came with this crunchy noodle on top which made the dish seem massive, but once you took that off it was more manageable. As you may know by now, I'm not a big spice fanatic and so the 1 pepper spice level listed next to this dish scared me off, but I tried it and it wasn't so bad. I don't think I could've eaten a lot of it - but my friend was happy with the spice level and flavor!

After asking whether I could make 2 other dishes more mild than usual the server returned to our dish simply to say mild isn't possible - message from the chef. I finally chose the Crispy Chicken Pad Thai, not realizing that the chicken would be panko fried, which was a bit too much for my liking. It was a large portion too. The vegetables were cooked well - not too much, still nice and crunchy. The noodles were good too - though there was a bit too much sauce. In the end, not a dish I would order again. I would try the regular pad thai next time.

I would definitely go back here, and would consider ordering take out next time I'm in the mood for Asian at home, especially because Inman Square isn't exactly close to my apartment. The more I explore Inman the more I like it. There's so many restaurants there - in fact, I recently bought another buywithme coupon for a new mediterranean/turkish restaurant called Bosphorous right next door to Spice and Rice, so keep your eyes out for that review too! If you have the chance, definitely take a stroll over to Inman and explore all the restaurants they can offer, including my new go-to - Spice and Rice!