Riceworks Sushi & Asian Fusion Steakhouse - Kuna — Restaurant in Kuna

RiceWorks ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I have been a fan of Owner/Operator Phu Tran’s RiceWorks since he first opened his food truck in 2010. Today, the food truck only comes out for special occasions, but he has brick and mortar locations at The Village in Meridian and more recently, Kuna.

On 4/30/21, I visited RiceWorks in Kuna for the first time. This location has a larger menu than the one in Meridian. I ordered Ninja Chicken ($13) - tempura + ninja sauce + veggies. It comes with your choice of crispy tofu ($11), chicken ($13) or shrimp ($15). You get your choice of steamed rice, brown, or fried rice. I chose fried rice. Ninja Is also available gluten-free or vegetarian. This is one of their spicy dishes.

This dish far exceeded all of my expectations! Ninja Chicken is my new favorite Asian fusion dish. Every single element was incredibly fresh, perfectly seasoned and bursting with flavor. The chicken was high-quality white meat, served in a generous portion. I liked that the tempura was very light. I like that in addition to drizzling ninja sauce over the chicken, it is served with a side that you can dip your meat into. The chicken has a slow, building heat. The fried rice had great flavor. There was no need to add additional soy sauce as I often do. The wok fried vegetables were incredibly fresh and flavorful. I could happily eat an entire bowl of them.

Phu Tran recently bought Kyoto in Boise from family friends who are retiring. It’s my understanding that he will be keeping all of the same original recipes. Phu, if you are reading this, I BEG you to consider adding a couple of your most popular RiceWork dishes to the Kyoto menu. Better yet, rotate a couple of menu items through each month. It would be a great way to grow your customer base. I am confident that once people try your wonderful food, they will be more than happy to take the trek out to The Village and/ or Kuna so they can try more of your menu.

Highly...

Take out order: Customer service is excellent for starters. Impression of the food is this....the quantities are huge compared to a lot of other restaurants. The bahn mi is delicious, but I was super disappointed that they don't offer a classic pate style sandwich. The regular (not loaded) dragon fries that come with the sandwich taste like regular fries.....which is great, my kids loved them. The loaded dragon fries are delicious. The general pot stickers are not for me, I don't feel like the sauce is a good match for the filling. The pot stickers with nothing on them or sauce on the side would have been better, especially in a takeout order as sauces make things soggy on the drive home. The street noodles were interesting, my husband and i both really enjoyed the style of noodles but agreed it would have been better with just a variety of vegetables and no meat. Speaking of the meat, we both felt like the meat had been previously frozen and marinated in soy sauce. It was quite dry and didn't taste as it should. In general, everything was very good, but we didn't really like the meat in any of our dishes. We also got some teriyaki chicken for our kids and we all thought that was pretty good...except for the pepper. I've never met a child that loves pepper and I think the dish would be better without it. All of the dishes looked beautiful and it was obvious they were prepared with care. The creator of the dishes really took the time to consider different textures in the food, which I like. The marinades and the sauces need work. The flavor reminded me more of American Asian, which was disappointing. If the meat was fresher and the marinades and sauces had less of a sugar and soy sauce flavor, and more of authentic asian flavor, this place would be amazing. Overall, there's some room for improvement, but it was a good...

I've been to this Rice Works a handful of times and my husband multiple times (he absolutely loves it). I would say my experience has always been satisfying. I went in last night with my mother in law and we came at the same time as a whole wave of people. I was very impressed with the hostess (didn't catch her name) as I watched her take a long and complicated to-go order, seat a steady stream of people, and even bus some tables. We were sat quickly even though we didn't have a reservation. It was a little slow getting our drinks as I saw them sitting up at the bar for a bit- there was even a table near us that seemed extra cranky the drinks weren't getting out fast enough. But on a busy night, I feel like that's to be expected. As far as the food goes they have a great variety, the chicken lettuce wraps are delicious and we decided to try the new steak options. The filet was very tender and a good flavor, however I did mention to the gentleman that brought it out that the kitchen may want to revisit how salty the dishes are. In my opinion full of flavor is good but sodium can always be added if it isn't salty of enough. He was very receptive and said he would mention it which I think is very important in continuing to improve as an establishment. I have yet to try the sushi but I'm excited to- especially for happy hour. Also, I was very pleased that their well vodka is Titos and its a great price point, even without happy hour discounts. I'm sure I'll be back soon- especially...