Red Rice

Red Rice - 193 Brunswick St, Fitzroy

I wanted to choose a restaurant for a birthday dinner with friends that would have a nice atmosphere and be fairly cheap, but not be all rushed out the door as soon as we'd finished eating. Red Rice does have a great atmosphere, it's decorated very ornately and even has a miniature fish pond surrounded by ferns through one of the windows.

The food we ate was lovely... we got all vegetarian food and shared it between us. We started with spring rolls and rice paper rolls. The spring rolls were heaps better than most veg spring rolls are, and the rice paper rolls were satisfying but maybe not the most spectacular.

For mains we had the grilled eggplant dish, the tofu stack, and the vegie curry. These were all lovely. The eggplant was soft and not too oily, with a little side of pickled carrots for balance. The tofu stack and the vegie curry were similar, the tofu in the stack was crispy and surrounded by a curried sauteed vegies. The vegie curry dish was for me the best dish, the coconut sauce was great - a little bit sweet & sour - like a Thai red curry but not as in your face.

The rice is the most memorable dish - I figured it was Red as in the kind of pinky rice you can get at healthy restaurants (such as Lentil as Anything). But no, it's BRIGHT red, coloured with some kind of plant extract and cooked in garlic and chicken stock. It really is exceptionally red.
The staff were all lovely, and it definitely fulfilled all my requirements!

Cost - Starters - $6 - $8, Mains - $15 - $20

Vegie friendly - 6/10. Not a huge selection, but good food.

Overall - 7/10