Rice Valley

Food is good but over priced. The décor is average and the servers seem disinterested in what they serve. Changing $ 2.75 for a coke «refill» is unusual and no longer the norm. If you just have to have Americanized chinese and don’t care about price or service, thus will do.

Rice Valley came onto the Newton scene as one of the few places that would deliver and it also offered a fresher, healthier take on Chinese food. It was never outstanding, but it was good enough years ago. Putting aside the fact that the menu has not changed in all those many years, the delivery option has also become unattractive. There is now a 25 minimum for delivery, that on top of the fact that any time you order the estimated delivery time is «45 minutes» which has no relation to fact.
And the food is only so-​so. Grub Hub, here I come.

Awesome casual China food. Great delivery.

I’ve been going to Rice Valley for about 8 or 9 years. It’s a nice restaurant, with good service, very good food, and great Mai Tai’s! Our favorite menu items are the lettuce wraps, boneless pork strips, chicken wings, and veggie fried rice. We’ve had the salt and pepper prawns, which are good, but not like the delicious ones we use to get in Malaysia. General Gao’s is good, as are all the typical dishes. I do prefer to dine in as I always enjoy the food more when it’s on a plate and not out of a container… it’s just not the same. We go to Rice Valley about 1 time evey six week or so.

Our second time recently. The food is outstanding and service/​selection top notch.
Had great PP platter. Everything made in house from scratch ingredients. Hot and Sour Wonton soup is worth drive. How does anybody not already do this?
Entrees were the chicken with mixed vegetables over noodles, BBQ beef and pork fried rice. The Mai Tia drinks were made with fresh fruit and great.
Service great and hope to be back soon.

Pretty standard chinese food (good dumplings, crab rangoons). Very delicious Mai Tais that were under $ 8 a pop. What a good deal! Wine is also very reasonably priced.
The server was very nice and came over frequently. The place is pretty big with a long bar that’s separated from the dining room. This is a good setup because families can dine without hearing the noise from the bar.

Major disappointment… They brought items that I didn’t order, charged for them. Delivered food cold. The drivers could never find the address so had to manage over the phone for nearly ½ hour. Quality of food and service both poor.

I think the food is amazing and it made my taste bud tingle. Good food good taste. Expensive but worth it. Then crab ragoon 100% I recommend this to anyone who wants to eat here. But I would carry at least $ 50 if you’re eating for 2.

Ordered take-​out tonight from rice valley, and was really disappointed with the quality of food. I ordered the general gau’s chicken and crispy sesame chicken, and the bill was ~$ 30 plus a $ 4 delivery fee. Food arrived 75 – 80 minutes after placing the order, and consisted of two containers of cold chicken. $ 34 for two normal-​size take-​out containers of cold, not crispy (actually soggy), heavily breaded and drowning in thick sauce chicken, with no sides other than a fortune cookie.
I hate writing bad reviews, but the food quality was awful and prices are absurdly high for what you get. Wouldn’t recommend, and certainly won’t be back.

Horrible food. Over priced. The picking raviolis were tiny and tasteless. The only thing that was good was my egg drop soup. Sad. Don’t go. You will be disappointed

Veggie lo mein is my typical go-​to dish when I get Chinese food. I ordered from Rice Valley for the first time and instead of the veggie lo mein that I ordered, I just got a bunch of lo mein noodles. Not one veggie in sight. Not a scallion, celery, or bean sprout (what I find are the typical veggie lo mein veggies) in the entire container. Just noodles.
Did I just pay $ 9.50 for a bunch of noodles?
Also the fact that the white rice is $ 1.75 and comes in a small container makes it bit overpriced. Come on, it’s WHITE RICE. It’s cheap. You can give me a big container for $ 1.75 and you’re still making a large profit margin.
The scallion pancakes were the only good part of my meal. They were thick, chewy, and not too greasy. They came with the typical dipping sauce which was also tasty.
My search for a good Chinese take-​out place in Newton continues…

Solidly expensive and terrible. First of all, the food doesn’t come with rice– why on earth does Chinese food come with no rice? You have to pay extra and they don’t let you know ahead of time.
The food is tasteless and best, the scallion pancakes were soggy, the tofu dish was kind of like sloppy joe meat with tofu in it?
On the plus there were lots of vegetables in the chicken dishes. In all — Weak weak weak. Everything was weak.

Though they brought my to-​go food out quickly, the prices were outrageous for the quality of food I received! It was $ 36.50 for 2 entrees and an app – the sesame chicken does not even come with rice, you’d have to pay more to order it separately. The pad Thai doesn’t even resemble Thai food and is ridden with onions – same goes for the crab rangoon. Overall, WAY over priced and food was not good. We won’t be returning!!!

Best Chinese food in the Newton /​Watertown area. Great food on the more expensive side of the food but uses the best ingredients and the chefs take the time to make you love each time you order from them. Delivery sucks they don’t deliver until 5pm so I usually go and pick it up because it will be done in 15 mins at latest.

This was the best Chinese food I’ve had in a very long time. Reasonably priced, great atmosphere, and superb service. I got the scallion pancakes, Shu Mai, and chicken lo mein. They were all fantastic!
The scallion pancakes were thick and flaky… The Shu Mai were divine, juicy and perfectly fried. The lo mien was a little spicier than I expected, but all in all, I had a fantastic meal.
Will definitely be back!

I get the sense that this is a local place where people go to get their favorites, and that’s okay. But the thing is, I’ve been to local places that are local favorites, that still make good food. I’ve even reviewed a few places like that.
The location is nice, the décor is okay. The service was fine. But the food was bad. The crab rangoon barely pretended to have any crab flavor. My sesame chicken was drowned in a really aggressive «orange» sauce, and had a desultory handful of sesame seeds tossed on top. My wife’s crispy angel hair with shrimp was nice and crunchy, but completely bland. Large portions, but extra mediocre is still mediocre, so it’s still overpriced based on overall experience.
This seems like the sort of place that is coasting, food wise, because no one else has entered the neighborhood and offered something better. Just not worth eating there.

Dear Rice valley,
We were two people in for dinner tonight. We ordered one appetizer and two main courses. The waitress asked us if we would like rice with that. We asked what types of rice are available and she said «white, brown, and fried rice».
My son wanted fried rice, I chose white, and we both assumed we were going to get small sides of rice such as with the white rice
When we received a very large main course bowl of pork fried rice, I asked the waitress about whether that was a dinner-​order or a side-​order. She said «pork fried rice only comes in one size, dinner size», desultorily, as if we already should have known that.
If that is in fact the case, she should have told us when it was obvious earlier on that we were just wondering sides, not as a main course.
She should have told us that the white rice comes as a two dollar side order and that the pork fried rice comes as a nine dollar main dish.
She did not volunteer in any way an apology or an explanation for not having told us.
I think that this is wrong and disingenuous. I made mild complaint when she was there about this matter but nothing happened on the bill. My son did not want me to protest during the course of the meal so as not to ruin the meal, but I think that this is a bad policy that you have.
He did not enjoy his sweet and sour pork.

Rice Valley is local to me and a very nice option for Chinese Food. They offer some non MSG and «healthy» fare in addition to the regular stuff more fun to gorge on. The House Fried rice is particularly delicious, the fried chicken is on par with any in this area as well.
The steamed dumpiings, part of my regular Chinese food order among all else I mention here, regardless of where I order from haha, are good, not great. I see a LOT of variability in this item across my area. The egg rolls are kind of strange, the only item I would say is below par to my taste buds. My wife dug the chicken fingers too (her standard order) and is also a huge fan of their scorpion bowls and mai tais as she is expert in this arena.
They usually can get your order together for pickup in 15 – 20 minutes or so, so that is a big plus too. Hooray for Rice Valley and thank you for living near me.

Horrible!!!
I liked this place but it dove in quality. We ordered sesame chicken and there was NO chicken. Just fried breeding. Stay away. 1 star is too generous.

Had been there years ago and had been meaning to get back. Went with my wife and son for a late dinner. Restaurant was sparsely populated at around 9:15pm on a Saturday night (there was a boisterous bar scene in the small bar area.)
I ordered a zombie and got what I generously call a «high ball» glass (it was more like an extended shot glass. It was the smallest Zombie I’d ever seen. What a rip-​off! I also expected some sort of tropical glass for such a drink.) On top of it, the bartender royally messed this up — it was the WORST zombie I’ve ever tasted. The waiter did take it back with no issues and I ordered something else.
Chicken fingers are among the best I’ve had in a while (very hot, tasty and crunchy with moist chicken.) The boneless spare ribs, ordered well-​done, were just OK and a bit dried out even for being ordered well-​done. Chix fried rice was just OK and the five fragrance shrimp was also just so so. (My wife and son liked the meal more than I.)
Service was pretty prompt, but cold. I would not rush back.