Tables for One: Rice
I’m not a huge fan of Nolita, which I regard as basically a high-priced junky mall, but if you have to be there, and find yourself hungering for curry on rice at a non-peak hour (like after 2pm) you can duck into Rice, on Mott Street. The teeny-tiny high tables inset in the wall and barstool chairs are where you want to sit if you’re going solo. There’s not really enough room for two anyway, unless you’re on a hipster date, like the couple in front of me the other day. These dates are amusing to watch, so if you don’t have your New Yorker or your Chandler with you, you’ll still have the kind of cynical yet tender diversion you seek while passing the time waiting for your curry.
I used to avoid noisy, intimidatingly crowded, annoying Rice till I figured out that the off-hours are actually quite pleasant. When I was there a few days ago, there were hipsters, quite a lot of Chinese people in a large party, a Middle Eastern couple, and me. Not an uninteresting, cozy mix. You get a choice of rices, and everything is good, nothing is too spicy or weird, so the only real experimenting is with the rice. The black thai rice looks like a pile of bugs, I’ll admit it. But once you start mixing it in with your curry, and actually tasting it, you forget that impression while listening to your tongue saying things like, “hey!... hmmm?... More!”
Next door on there’s a Rice to go annex, where in a pinch you can sit and eat from your take-out container. It’s the same food, minus the dim summy items. For some reason they think those don’t travel well.
Caveat: they only take cash and checks, so if you’re broke and depending on your credit card you’re outta luck. But as it’s not a long, slow dining experience and really just a pit-stop, you can get a pretty good meal for $10 (tax and 20% tip included) by ordering a small size bowl of curry on rice, and nothing else. It’s only small by American food portion standards.
Rice: 227 Mott street (btw. Prince & Spring). Also, in DUMBO (81 Washington St.) and Lexington Ave (at 28th street).