Rice Kitchen

• 811 W. Michigan Avenue
• Kalamazoo, MI 49007
• (269) 388-6083
• No Known Website
• Menu

If you read this blog very much, you’ll notice there aren’t many (or any really) posts about restaurants that serve Asian cuisine.  Honestly, it’s mostly because I don’t eat a lot of vegetables and I’m not a big fan of rice, so while I may enjoy the meats from these places, I never feel like I get enough to eat, so I just don’t go.

J came home from work last week and told me one of her co-workers was really talking up a Chinese place.  Not for their traditional Chinese fare mind you, but for their chicken wings.  Hey, I like chicken wings, so why the heck not give it a try.

Rice Kitchen is on Michigan Avenue just before you hit downtown if you’re coming from the west.  It’s in the building at the corner of Michigan and South which it shares with Strength Beyond Fitness.  It’s just a small part of the building doing mostly a carry-out and delivery business around the campuses of WMU and K College.

J’s parents were in town for the holiday weekend and they got up on Saturday morning and took the kids to Old Dog Tavern like we do most Saturday mornings.  They have a great concert for the kids featuring Benjammin’ and Analisa plus there’s some incredible brunch options for the adults.  I was really in a sleep deficit this week so I asked if I could pass and stay in bed.  J had help with the kids from her parents so that was cool with everyone.

I was the only one who needed lunch once they got home because they all had brunch at Old Dog.  I figured this was as good as time as any to order some wings.  

Rice Kitchen does their online ordering through GrubHub.com.  When they opened at noon, I got an order in right away.  The chicken wings are on their appetizer menu and come six to an order.  I got two orders of the Chicken Wings and one order of the Spicy Chicken Wings.

I paid online then headed downtown to pick it up. I found out I live outside the delivery area when I went to order.  Not a big deal.  I needed to stop somewhere and pick up a Pepsi anyway.

The restaurant is very small with only two tables inside a very narrow public space.  There’s an order counter cut out of the wall where it seemed like a guy was on the phone taking orders the whole time I was there.  I gave him my name and he said they were just finishing up the order.  I took a seat at one of the tables and not long after I sat down, a lady came out of the kitchen with a bag full of wings for me.

I started with the regular wings when I got home.  The spicy ones looked like they were going to make a mess, so I started off with the other ones.

I really had no expectations when I ordered these wings.  Like I said, J’s co-worker said she and her fiance order from there all the time.  It’s close to where they live, it’s delicious, and it’s reasonably priced.

The wings were actually quite delicious.  There were very crispy on the outside yet still very tender and juicy underneath the crispy coating.  Most of the flavor came from the deep fried crispy outer coating but it did seem like the wings were soaked in something before frying.  These are the type of wings I could eat a lot of.  They’re not fancy with sauces and such.  Just good, tender, juicy, crispy wings.

The Hot & Spicy Wings started out life as the same crispy wings that I got in the other two bags, but these were heavily coated in what I think is a chili garlic sauce.  They were very delicious, but there was way, way too much of the sauce.  I dumped them out of the take out box container and there was a pool of the sauce in the bottom of the box.  They were very hard to eat due to the amount of sauce.  The flavor was actually really good as some of the crispiness of the wing held up to the thick sauce.

The cost for 18 wings was right around $14.  I have to admit, I was surprised.  The wings from Rice Kitchen aren’t the Buffalo variety that most people picture when the word “wings” is thrown around, but they are a quite delicious, simple chicken wing.  And yes, that was a whole blog post about chicken wings from a Chinese restaurant.

Chicken Wings

Spicy Chicken Wings