Rice Paper

Great restaurant and excellent atmosphere! Large portions at a very fair price. I have been several times and the food and service were outstanding!

Just had a great lunch! Food was fresh, nicely spiced, beautifully presented, with lots of fresh veggies. We like our food spicy hot — 2 – 3 on a 5 pt. scale — and our dishes didn’t disappoint: green curry with shrimp and brown rice and red mango curry with chicken and rice noodles.
Rice Paper is tucked into a small plaza next to a UPS store. It’s small but decorated in a very simple and inviting way. No clutter. The owner was very solicitous, and checked in with us to make sure we liked our food and offering to adjust the «spiciness» if it wasn’t quite right. Not necessary — we loved it just the way it was — but the offer was sincere and appreciated. We will be back soon!

Hooray, we finally have good Thai food in the Fairlawn area! We love to dine at this cozy, attractive place, but also like to use the take out option. Yum! My personal favorites include Crazy Noodle (choose from fire level 1 – 7, I usually go with a 6 for a spicy flavor) and Tom Kar Gai soup, which is a mild soup full of coconut/​lime flavor. Service is good and prices are fair. Try them!

Really great family-​run Thai place in Fairlawn.
Friendly and efficient service. Attractive décor.
We really have enjoyed the mango and avocado curries.

Great Food, Friendly Staff, Nice and Quiet.

I love to support local small businesses that are not large chains. Montrose has many of the larger chains but that is evolving. Rice Paper is a much appreciated Thai culinary option tucked in by UPS and Jimmy John’s off Medina Road. A sign on the entrance door informed patrons that their liquor license is coming soon.
We thoroughly enjoyed a quiet Tuesday lunch. The décor is classy, upscale, and clean. The menu has lots of options that begs patrons to return to experience more. Service was great with helpful suggestions and explanations.
We started with the golden bag and spring rolls. Yummy appetizers. Our main course dishes were pad thai and avocado curry (#2 hotness). Beautiful artistic presentation on the plates and delish flavors. Everything was fresh and abundant. The pad thai had subtle tastes with fresh lime to add zest. I appreciated that the crushed nuts were deftly placed on the side of the plate to either include or avoid.
We will be back soon to savor other appetizers, noodles, rices, curries, and soups for a leisurely dinner. Bravo Rice Paper.

Best Thai in this area for sure. Restaurant feels clean. Staff were attentive and kind. Food was delicious and hot. The prices were appropriate. They do not use MSG, which is a plus. They offer most meals with vegetarian options. Restaurant is small and nicely decorated.

I eat here regularly. I love their tom kar gai soup, and regularly get their curries. I got their Ginger Ginger dish once as well; it was very good, but not as ginger-​y as I was hoping for so I won’t get it again.
I love the variety of veggies they include in their curries, and the spice level is just right. If you love hot-​hot spicy though, you’ll want to ask them to kick it up for you.
And their pork isn’t just dead pieces of super-​chewy meat like is common at other Thai places!
Definitely the best Thai place in the Fairlawn area. It’s becoming a lunchtime regular for me at work.

This review was based on consumption of a takeout order, so there may be some inherent biases.
I got Pad Thai Country style largely because it was errantly listed as spicy, my wife got Panang curried shrimp.
The heft of the bag accurately telegraphed skimpy portions.
The food was good, there was just nowhere near enough of the stuff compared to dine-​in photos on Unilocal… a word to the wise!

Good food.
Had Pad Thai, Mango Curry, and Golden Bag.
All very good. No complaints!

Thai food in Montrose? Yes please!
I am currently living in a take-​out desert, despite the fact that I live a mere minutes from Fairlawn, there are few places for decent take-​out, and none that deliver.
Enter Rice Paper. After noticing this new addition next to Jimmy John’s at a strip mall in Montrose, I was eager to check it out. I ended up making an order over the phone to pick up. The restaurant quoted me 10 – 15 minutes until it was ready to pick up (even though it really took closer to 20 minutes). The price point is fair, especially given the generous portion sizes. Many other Thai restaurants have disappointed me with meager portion sizes, but this place did not disappoint. I ordered a variety of dishes to try a bit of everything, including the Golden Bags and Seaweed Salad appetizers, Basil Chicken, Mango Fried Rice and Country Style Pad Thai. After reading others reviews, I was surprised that the woman taking my order didn’t ask me how spicy I wanted it, and I forgot to mention that I like the dishes to be spicy. After trying the dishes, I found they weren’t spicy at all. Despite this however, I still found all the dishes to be quite flavorful and was pleasantly surprised at the quality considering the modest location. The golden bags were definitely a highlight, but the seaweed salad was nothing special (probably purchased ready made from a bag). All the other dishes were great though, and I definitely see myself coming back here often, if only because of the lack of nearby options.

Wonderful environment, the staff and owner were present and attentive. The food was good, nice mix of spices in the soup, pad thai noodles, etc. I could tell they cook the meat and veggies then add the soup base (probably made earlier in bulk) because while the chicken and vegetables were hot, the soup liquid wasn’t. Thai owners. Reasonable prices. We will go back!

In the chaotic, unorganized, hectic hellhole known as Montrose, you won’t find many good food options other than corporate chains. This lowers the bar substantially for any independently-​owned venture brave enough to come into the area. A small business owner who comes into Montrose deserves two free stars right out of the gate, just for *not* being Taco Bell or Steak and Shake.
Rice Paper is a badly-​needed Asian entry into this sad «scene.» To try it, though, you’ll first have to find the place, and good luck: even though you may see the restaurant from the road, in Montrose’s maze of adjacent nondescript 70’s and 80’s shopping plazas, finding the turn-​in will cost you a few gray hairs. Just for the record, by the way, what on earth were the architects of suburban sprawl ever thinking when they «designed» these godforsaken areas?
Rice Paper has been beautifully refurbished and redesigned on the inside. The ambiance is sleek and elegant, a nice contrast from the strip mall purgatory you’ve just waded through to get there. Service is quick and friendly, and the few times I’ve been there, the place has had a nice buzz of customers coming in and out. A good sign.
I’d like to be effusive about the food, in the spirit of helping the local business get off to a roaring start. It’s very solid, overall. However, having eaten lots and lots of thai food over the course of my life, there are a few things I’ll point out for the aficionados out there who might be interested in the finer details, based on what I’ve ordered. Noodle dishes, my favorite part of Thai cuisine, receive a passing grade, but not with honors. I suspect that the Pad Thai sauce is the generic (or version thereof) bottled «Thai Chili Sauce» that many Asian places use these days instead of making their own. The dish, however, is well-​balanced, and will satisfy a craving. The «Crazy Noodles,» made with wide rice noodles a la Pad-​See-​Ew, similarly wield a tame, generic sweet sauce, but are saved by an abundance of nicely seared vegetables and thai basil. Appetizer-​wise, he hyped «Golden Pillows» were a neat concept: minced meat and spices packed into phyllo dough-​ish wrapper, then bundled up like a little money pouch and fried. A new riff on the won ton, if you will. While the texture hit the mark, the filling, however, seemed bland and unbalanced in favor of meat. I found myself wondering if the pillow-​maker might spruce up the filling with more garlic, or ginger, or shallot, cilantro, etc. Thai ground meat dishes such as the larb salads burst with things like chilis, lemongrass, mint, cilantro — why not infuse some of these elements into the otherwise-​interesting pillows?

So good… try it mmkay?
I keep wanting to try different things but I can’t get past the Pad Thai and the Siam rolls. I ordered the Pad Thai at a 3 spice level and it was pretty hot, which I love. The owner and her sister are both sweet hearts; you can tell they care a lot about their food and business.
The only downside is they don’t have their liquor license and you can’t BYOB. That’s obviously not their fault but I miss having a glass of wine with my meal.
Oh and the fried banana rolls for dessert were amazing!
The place is tiny so it does fill up fast but they do accept reservations.

I really love this place. The dining area is nicely done and inviting. The staff was really friendly and the prices were very reasonable.
Stopped in when we were shopping in the area. I got the Drunken noodles and was informed that they have a heat scale that went from 1 to 7. I found that a little bizarre considering most places do 1 – 3 or 1 – 5. but hey I am all for originality. So I ordered it at level 3 thinking it would be somewhere at the lower end of the scale. Well I was very much mistaken. The skin is still reforming on the inside of my mouth from making that mistake. I cannot even imagine what 7 would have been like. I have no issue eating spicy hot food, but I will never order it that hot again. Even being that hot, the food was amazing. Very fresh and well cooked. It just tasted fresh.
I highly recommend this gem. Not exactly the best location, but those who find it, will love it.

Overall: Came in search for authentic Thai food based on positive Unilocal reviews, got generic, sweet Americanized Asian food. This is probably acceptable to most in the area given the overwhelmingly positive reviews, so don’t be deterred by my review.
Food: Based on previous reviews I ordered the Golden Bags appetizer. It was only average; it could have used more veggies and spices and was quite oily due to the excess wrapper material. It did have decent flavor though. It was served with a very sweet chili sauce.
I then had the Tom Kha Gai soup, which was easily the worst dish of the night. It tasted like a bowl of pure coconut milk (ick) with no discernable kaffir lime, lemongrass, chili pepper, or galangal flavor. I picked out the meat and couldn’t finish the broth.
The Hot Beef with Mixed Vegetables was also a disappointment. While the sauce had decent flavor (sweet and spicy and some sour from the pineapple) and I liked the cut of beef (brisket), the vegetables were bland (another reviewer said they were just dropped on hot water?) and there may have been 7 slices of beef total – a ripoff for a $ 14 plate. I also got it with a Level 5 out of 7 spicy and it wasn’t that spicy (didn’t have to take a sip of water the entire meal). Jasmine rice was also not fragrant.
The best dish of the night was the Pad Thai Country Style, which thankfully had a decent portion of protein and some semblance of a complex flavor (there was some sour notes). The tofu was also nicely fried, which is how I like my tofu. But, the noodles were quite heavy due to the amount of oil and sauce that it was soaked in. Pad Thai should be a light, refreshing dish.
Atmosphere: Very swanky and clean with beautiful décor and lighting. Ironically, that was the first red flag about the quality of the food when I sat down. In my experience with non-​American/​European restaurants, there is an inverse relationship between décor and the quality of the food.
Service: They were very nice and friendly, and kept the water filled.

I need people in Akron to start using Unilocal.I need them to support local businesses.
I need them to try this place because it’s delicious and we needed a place like this in the area.
Going with a friend who eats vegetarian, we both tried different dishes that were both awesome. The dishes were full of flavor, made with fresh ingredients. The staff is attentive and sweet. They want to make a business and we need to eat here!

My pal Matt and i decided to try Rice Paper for lunch today and it was pretty darned good.
it’s a small spot in a small strip but they pack in a lot of tables and it doesn’t feel crowded. it’s really pretty inside too.
i had the Pad Thai Country Style which was supposed to be spicier than the standard Pad Thai. it wasn’t spicy at all but was really good. it also had tofu which i actually liked in this.
i’d also ordered the Golden Bag (s) appetizer thinking Matt would eat one or two but he did not and i ate all 4. they were delicious — sorta like gyoza but deep fried in a tofu wrap/​skin. greasy but tasty.
Matt had the Rice Paper Fried Rice and if he wants you to know how it was, he can create his own Unilocal!account, but it looked good.

For the area this is probably your best bet for Thai food! And I am certainly happy to see some decent Thai in the area after having so many mediocre places and wondering if anyone in the area truly knows what Thai food is… just because you mix curry, some coconut, and random meats… don’t mean you are legit!
However, this place meets my standards :)
I’ve came in a few times now to try out the many items. Great service all around, very friendly people! The menu has a decent selection of dishes. Curries are pretty standard, nothing is really popping out for me here, basically a lot of it is base then mixed with whatever. But I’m not mad at that, because it is decent curry and for the area that is a tall order!!!
Finding anything non Steak and Potatoes is a tall order, but luckily the planets are aligning and someone has given up his young in a sacrifice to the foodie gods; and Akron is baring fruit like the snow that typically falls in February… its happening.
But back to the place named of Rice Paper!
They did fall short for me on the Thai Ice Tea & Coffee, it was powdered based. Meh, not my style, I like the freshly brewed black tea personally as well as the freshly grounded coffee :P
Their «Golden Bag» is really good, I actually enjoyed that the most and likely could go back over and over for it. I donno, I’m a sucker for dumpling, be that fried or not! It was tasty indeed.
I would recommend this place to anyone who is looking for… drums… please…
«THAI»
…Because it is that! And while it might fall short in some areas for me personally, this is me being picky having had the pleasure of eating at some world class Thai joints, as well as having many traditional Thai cooked meals from Friends and Family whom are from Thailand!
Its a great place with good food. Will return, often…

Great new spot in Fairlawn/​Montrose! Opened two days ago and we popped in for lunch yesterday. We were questioning if they had dine-​in service as we were waking up, but we entered to find the dining room is well designed and looks amazing! The staff was patient, explained the menu and talked about the restaurant a bit which was really nice, but the food was the star! We had the Golden Bag appetizers and Siam Rolls — both a must-​try (but the Golden Bags were amazing!). I had the Crazy Noodle and my colleague had Basil Chicken — both were top notch! Lunch prices are perfect with entrees around $ 8 and our entire meal was $ 30 (2 appetizers and 2 entrees).
So good I went back for dinner with my family to try more!