The Rice Bowl
33a Cross St
Manchester
M2 1NL
We have now been a couple of times to The Rice Bowl on Cross Street away from Manchester’s chinatown and it is very, very good.
You can walk straight past it so be careful. You go downstairs past a sad looking waterfall and pool and into the restaurant.
The waiters are friendly and helpful without being “in your face”. Drinks are £3 a pint for lager and this edged our bill up quite a lot.
Free prawn crackers with three dips and a free refill after we’d scoffed the lot.
For starters we had mushrooms stuffed with prawns, scallops with ginger and sui mai. All very tasty, My sui mai had minced pork with big chunks of prawn and a delicious smokey chilli oil dip.
Then the duck. The one tonight was crispier than last week and very good for it. The hoi sin sauce is extremely thickand not diluted with vege oil like other places. Fresh cucumber and onion and a pot to steam your pancakes sits on the table.
By now, I was pretty full, damn those prawn crackers. We ordered sweet ‘n’ sour king prawns, sizzling lamb with sweet onions and chicken in almonds with a sweet sauce. Accompanying this is a special fried rice and soft noodles.
We manfully ate nearly all of it and I can confirm that the lamb was exquisite, tender with great spice and lovely onions. The king prawns were large and succulent and the sweet and sour sauce not overpowering. The almond chicken was ‘great finger food’ to quote Mr Richards. The special rice is packed so full of prawns, squid and scallops that it is well worth its £8.95 price tag. Last time it was a little cloying but this time it was light and absolutely delicious.
We drank guinness and lager all night and the bill was £100 for three of us.
You have to try this place. It is well worth the search.
Submitted by Eej.
