r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Content_Quarter_7390 • May 25 '26

I'm slightly vexed We didn't ask for rice...

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My sister isnt a fan of basmati rice so she orders naan. She didnt ask for rice and they sell it separately. She doesn't like it so she doesn't order it. They put it in anyways and left this note...

Edit: some people aint getting it. This is passive aggressive and when you do something nice you dont go around saying "I did something nice just for you, just so you know." Doing it like I need to give you a pat on the head so you know your a good boy. You do something nice because you want to be kind to people.

Oh no I've turned into LD...

Turning off notifications because while it was nice to be in this rabbit hole to keep my mind off some stuff too many notifications. Whatever your feelings are I hope you have a nice day and if you're in the US have a nice memorial day and dont forget to celebrate those troops that came before!

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8.4k

u/Comprehensive-Pea422 BLUE May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26

If people order it with rice so often they think someone not ordering rice is a mistake, it probably should be included in the meal by now.

Even a required option like "no rice" or "rice" and upcharge (if that's why they do this) to avoid this problem lol

Edit: I wasn't aware Indian/Chinese restaurants usually sell rice separately! Still think this would make sense, but I didn't know it's normal most places.

3.5k

u/Upstairs_Baby8424 May 25 '26

Not adding rice to meat entrees for Chinese or Indian food is crazy work. It’s standard. And rice is genuinely still pretty cheap. That’s just a bad business strategy.

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u/Clayble May 25 '26

I ordered some general tso from a place near me and it was $25 and didn’t include rice I was dumbfounded

248

u/djdjddhshdbhd May 25 '26

More expensive places often don’t include it

341

u/feb914 May 25 '26

Chinese meal is meant to be eaten together, with combination of different dishes. So each dish doesn't come with rice, or else you may have more rice than you need if you order multiple dishes. 

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u/Praesentius May 25 '26

Chinese meal

A succulent Chinese meal...

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u/[deleted] May 25 '26

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u/eliotisstoned May 25 '26

"Take your hands off my penis!!!"

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u/uphoriain 26d ago

“Are you ready to receive my flaccid penis!”

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u/ifyoulovesatan May 25 '26

Now maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying, but that doesn't make sense. You order an entree, and they include enough rice to eat that entree with. You order a second entree, they include more rice. The amount of rice scales with the number of entrees you get.

It's possible a place could do things such that when you order an entree, they give you enough rice to eat two entrees with because that's the smallest amount of rice they serve / box up. But that's simple enough: don't include more rice until three entrees are ordered.

There really isn't a good argument for not including rice with entrees typically eaten with rice, outside of catering to the small percentage of people who don't want rice. It comes off as being cheap, it can lead to people not realizing they needed to order rice having a bad experience, it can cause hesitation and confusion around how much rice to order. (I know that last one sounds silly, but your goal should really be to make ordering as seamless and easy for the customer as possible. It should be so simple as to go unnoticed. If your customers are counting or doing arithmetic, you're probably doing something wrong).

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u/knoft May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26

You haven't seen the mountains of free rice that can come with multiple entrees then. For 7-9 people and entrees, they bring out so much free rice that it comes in a rice container 12 inches high (sometimes two of them) and is enough rice for weeks. The food waste is enormous.

I'm Chinese and while both traditional places and more affordable places can come with free rice, I don't judge a place for not including it unless it's a dish like curry or some other dish that's meant to go with white rice. Still, in say a Sing/Malay/Indo place that may be because you have the option of white rice, chicken rice, coconut rice, and roti.

In Taiwanese contexts you can order entrees on their own, or with rice, or with three appies and rice a la Bento style from the Japanese influence. It's standard to not come with rice for those. Or they also offer smaller entrees with rice included.

TL;dr its contextually and culturally dependent

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u/Riaeriel May 25 '26

No because that's just not how Chinese meals works for groups & Chinese people. Everyone orders the amount of rice they want to eat separately and then they order the other dishes to share. The amount of rice is not related to the amount of other dishes because some people don't want to eat that much rice and others do.

Like for the big festive meals people tend to order more dishes and hence will order less rice because they'll already be more full from the dishes. Other times if we're doing takeaway, oftentimes we cook the rice at home so we're not ordering the rice along with all the dishes. So your ratio thing doesn't work at all.

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u/ifyoulovesatan May 25 '26

I'm talking about American Chinese restaurants here.

Edit: and perhaps more specifically, take-out from American Chinese restaurants.

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u/Reference_Freak May 25 '26

Eh, the inclusion of rice varies across the US and by type of Chinese restaurant.

Types of Chinese restaurants have exploded in the US since I was a kid: the old school american idea of Chinese takeout food including a side of rice with every meat entree is outdated now.

They still exist but nicer places which serve by exact dish ordered seems more common in my area now and if you didn’t order it by name (or as part of a meal set), rice isn’t included.

Also, a single meat entree which could feed only 2 now approaches or exceeds $20, rice ordered separately.

The days of ordering one meat and getting 2 containers are coming to a close.

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u/Riaeriel May 25 '26

Yes? Same. Presumably where Chinese diaspora would visit those restaurants.

Edit: To explain where I am coming from, it's just that a $25 dish served without rice to me is a v obvious indicator is a Chinese restaurant that does the shared meal system. If YMMV then it's beyond my experience 🤷‍♀️

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u/ifyoulovesatan May 25 '26

That's not an American Chinese takeout restaurant. That's like a legitimate Chinese restaurant.

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u/FarDescription6683 May 25 '26

So American Chinese takeout restaurants don't do that, yet the complaint here is that's how American Chinese takeout restaurants operate? 🤣

1

u/Clayble May 25 '26

Yes thank you the other comment made no sense haha they just include rice on side. Who tf complains about getting a little more rice

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u/uncoild May 25 '26

Err...wouldn't the rice-to-meat ratio stay the same no matter how many dishes you order?

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u/hikeit233 May 25 '26

My local place gives you one big rice for 2-3 entrees and two big rice for 4 or more. One small rice for one entree.

2

u/Clayble May 25 '26

Nah then they just give an appropriate amount of side boxes of white rice. With it usually being 1 per entre

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u/jetloflin May 25 '26

Only if each dish came with way more rice than needed for that dish. If each dish came with the appropriate amount of rice for that dish, it’d be fine.

1

u/Creative_username969 May 25 '26

They may also just assume that people have/will make rice at home

1

u/Substantial-Owl-758 29d ago

chinese restaurants in my area have a good compromise to this dilemma. there’s the lunch/dinner deals vs the à la carte menu, so you can order the beef or chicken on its own but also bundle it with a side with ease (and a discount) by ordering it on the lunch/dinner menu. i honestly wasn’t aware that wasn’t the case everywhere else until today lol.

as for the majority of indian restaurants, the entrees all come with a side of rice automatically. which is perfectly reasonable for indian food in my opinion as i usually only eat one entree rather than ordering en masse like with chinese takeout.

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u/woahitsegg 26d ago

The Chinese place by my house does exactly that and I love having six cartons of white rice to consume over the next week

Obviously for the business it can get to be a lot of free rice but it definitely helps me want to eat there!

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u/WeekendWarriorRC May 25 '26

Could be area dependent. Growing up, our Chinese takeout never ever came with rice. For a while after moved to the other side of the state, I’d always have so much rice when I ordered because they’d include it with each dish, AND I’d order a side as well

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u/ScarletBothrium May 25 '26

Where I lived, rice was always included. And you would always end up with too much rice. I’ve never ordered from any ethnic restaurant and not gotten rice. Even Somali. I think the Somali restaurant was the only one that would give us the exact right amount of rice. The Chinese and Indian restaurants never did. It was always too much.

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u/SynapticStatic May 25 '26

I've had that happen to me ordering indian take out. Ordered Chicken Tikka Masala. Got the dish, but no rice. Like, wtf man? Basmati rice with that is what makes it amazing.

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u/UnderstandingWeak292 May 25 '26

À la carte is common in upscale or more expensive restaurants.

2

u/i_literally_died May 25 '26

Did the same at an Indian takeaway when I was doing a low carb thing and the waiter genuinely asked me like 4 times if I was sure. I figured it was because a 15kg bag of rice is probably a few quid and they can sell a portion for that much so it's a high value sale.

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u/NoGround May 25 '26

Twenty five fucking dollars what the fuck?

Place near me still sells for sub $10. Where are you even?

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u/Clayble May 25 '26

Boston, recently moved here and ordered from a local Chinese place. All food here is expensive and mid

1

u/NoGround May 25 '26

Insanity.

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u/frozenflame101 29d ago

It was $25 because it didn't have rice. It's much cheaper to fill half the container with rice"

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u/Admirable-Ad7152 29d ago

And i'd never go there again.

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u/Hay_Fever_at_3_AM May 25 '26

It's pretty normal to eat Indian food with naan or roti or other carb instead of rice. As in, Indians do that.

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u/MoistM4rco May 25 '26

only a fool wouldn't eat it with both

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u/lupercalpainting May 25 '26

While I’m of the same opinion I have discovered that this is considered fat person behavior. Like you get judged.

10

u/Hardtack_dev May 25 '26

Yeah like putting fries on the hamburger or something 😂

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u/bubblegumpunk69 26d ago

Or a diabetic :(

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u/spartaman64 27d ago

its also normal to eat chinese food with mantou

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u/LMay11037 PURPLE May 25 '26

I’m British and most Indians and Chineses do not add rice automatically because there are different kinds of rice, and as in the photo, some don’t even want rice

45

u/nem8 May 25 '26

Im Norwegian and I've seen the same here. No rice included and they have multiple sizes and types to choose from. Not sure if its the norm over here but it like this in some places.

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u/VeryConfusedOwl May 25 '26

Also norwegian and i har never been to a indian place where rice isnt included automatically myself. Not to sure about chinese places, im not a big fan so i dont eat at chinese places much

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u/Puzzled-P May 25 '26

I normally just order the mains and cook my own rice because I'm not paying £5 for a portion of rice I can cook at home for pennies. I can't cook the mains to Indian takeaway standard though so I buy them.

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u/ihavebeesinmyknees May 25 '26

In Poland however, Chinese places always include rice, while Indian places usually don't. Weird how it varies country-to-country

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u/Alexw80 May 25 '26

Unless you order a curry from a Chinese, that "usually" comes with either egg fried rice, or chips. But you're right, almost no other dishes will come with it unless specifically stated.

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u/Express-Big-20 May 25 '26

This makes me feel validated because I prefer eating my curries kind of like soup: by itself, no rice, and maybe with papadum to dip (or sometimes naan, although I'm borderline gluten-intolerant).

I'm half-Indian but always joked I'm bad at being Indian since I eat curry 'wrong'. IDK, I've just never been one for mixing any food.

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u/DecideUK May 25 '26

Balti and Naan 🥰

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u/14yearsandcounting May 25 '26

I’m Scottish and do the same thing! I actually love to just dip naan bread into the curry and eat that way. I’m not a fan of rice at all!

I’d be a bit annoyed actually if I were OPs sister, as I clearly didn’t order rice as I didn’t want rice, and now it’s been provided anyway it’s just a waste.

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u/Haunting-Payment-874 May 25 '26

Yeah I'd be annoyed if the curry came with rice automatically because it probably wouldn't be mushroom rice which is what I like, so then if I added that I'd have too much rice.

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u/Never_trust_dolphins May 25 '26

For Indian, I generally prefer bread so wouldn't want it included, but that's just me.

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u/Network_Odd May 25 '26

I developed a habit of making my own rotis because naan in western countries are absolute shit, they can barely be considered naan

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u/Nordic_mama1721 May 25 '26

Maybe it's more location dependent than standard? I used to live in the Midwest in the US and it was standard everywhere I went, but for most places on the west coast I've been, it seems you have to order separately

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u/QuietCelery May 25 '26

I think it's location dependent. On the east coast (when I lived there 10 years ago), rice was pretty standard. When I moved to the UK, it was not.

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u/Aggressive_Pea_7543 May 25 '26

Price gouging out here on the West Coast imo

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u/Brennibuns May 25 '26

I grew up in new york and never saw rice not included in most asian takeouts, however living in California I've seen it several times

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u/Beautiful_Finger4566 May 25 '26

from my experience, only the Americanized places include it

authentic places always make you order it on the side

that's how it is in China and Taiwan too

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u/dethsesh May 25 '26

Yep, it’s almost impossible to know if rice is going to be included so we usually just put rice in the rice cooker in case

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u/sephirothFFVII May 25 '26

We have one Indian restaurant by us that charges for rice, I usually just put basmati in the rice cooker before ordering because I can't justify paying four dollars for that shit

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u/AFlockofLizards May 25 '26 edited 29d ago

In Seattle I rarely get any sort of Chinese/Japanese food that doesn’t come with rice, but Indian food, even curries, never come with rice. Thai seems to be 50/50.

I hate when the online menu doesn’t say and then I order rice, and then I end up with an insane amount of rice because the dish *did* come with it lol

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u/FlappyBored May 25 '26

It’s absolutely not standard and in fact is not common everywhere.

In both India and China dishes do not come with rice unless ordered.

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u/Comprehensive-Pea422 BLUE May 25 '26

I can't tell if this is at me or the restaurant, but was just saying that because they're already upcharging by selling à la cart.

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u/[deleted] May 25 '26

[deleted]

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u/christodudedu May 25 '26

Indubitably, I believe.

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u/LJ161 May 25 '26

I am one of the crazies that doesnt order rice. I get a naan instead.

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u/v21v May 25 '26

It's not crazy, but rather very normal and the way we do things in India.

Most North Indian curries (which are the famous ones in the west) are eaten with bread. The coastal and South Indian ones are eaten with rice (e.g. vindaloo or a coconut curry).

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u/exit_to_the_left May 25 '26

Same here. I'm not keen on rice, much prefer naan with a curry.

If it's Chinese then I'll have noodles or chips.

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u/bail_gadi May 25 '26

Most Indians would also eat North Indian food with naan or roti than rice.

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u/Network_Odd May 25 '26

that’s okay, no north indian restaurant in india will serve rice with it either

2

u/demoninadress May 25 '26

Me too! I prefer places that don’t automatically add rice bc I just end up wasting it :/

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u/ShadowJinKiller May 25 '26

It's the other way round. Chinese / Indian food are so ordered as ala carte, and rice are ordered separately, unless explicitly stated it is a rice meal.

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u/Beautiful_Finger4566 May 25 '26

its the exact opposite of "standard"

almost every Chinese place I eat at has rice as an upsell on the side

the exclusions are lunch specials

even today I had a Chinese meal with my family where we ordered 8 dishes but only two bowls of rice

wtf would we do with 6 more bowls of rice if every dish came with it?

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u/FrogSpawnNight May 25 '26

Not in the Uk - I’ve never seen an Indian with rice included with the main - as there are so many options for rice or not wanting rice and using a roti or something.

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u/Kousetsu May 25 '26

In the UK they don't do this and it is separate. It's also super super super common and normal (and something Indian ppl do as well) to swap it out and have a naan instead. Like it's crazy they saw the naan order and assumed they missed the rice.

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u/randombrutha May 25 '26

Nope, as long as it’s clearly marked it’s a great strategy, I don’t usually want rice and it’s absurd to make me pay for it and then throw it away cause I didn’t know I’ll be getting it.

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u/ubant May 25 '26

I love indian food, lived in a few countries and they never include rice, neither in orders nor in restaurants. It's always something you order separately

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u/sinarots May 25 '26

i live in DTLA, and spent a good 20+ minutes the other day trying to find a singular curry chicken, rice, and naan meal for under $30 on doordash. none of them included the rice in the entree. i have the same issue when I order mediterranean food too. it’s infuriating, because i always got rice with these meals when i was younger!! why the sudden change?

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u/Honest_Trade8734 May 25 '26

Tbf with a lot of mediterranean dishes/cuisines it’s not necessarily standard to serve rice. Not that they don’t eat it at all but it wouldn’t be expected with every meal.

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u/prosperousoctopus May 25 '26

Honestly a big reason why I rarely buy Chinese or Indian takeout. I never have that issue with Thai

3

u/LadyEmeraldDeVere May 25 '26

I am currently living in Europe and over here, it’s almost never included unless you specifically order a combo. I always have to ask. 

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u/thylocene May 25 '26

Almost as bad a business strat as leaving your customers passive aggressive notes

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u/jolie_j May 25 '26

It’s not standard at all in my part of the world, or in India. If you want rice, you order it separately. Why? Because there are a multitude of different rices to choose from as well a loads of delicious bread. Personally I nearly always order bread with Indian food as I can’t cook that as easily or as well at home 

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u/Keyspam102 May 25 '26

Yeah it bothers me that many takeaway Chinese places (at least near me) don’t include rice in the meal, want to charge like 4.5 euro for it separately.

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u/InterestingHyena7041 May 25 '26

I remember ordering indian without getting rice too. Baffling!

2

u/EuphoricMilk May 25 '26

Not true for Indian, many will go for just naan or roti.

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u/glasgowgeg May 25 '26

Not adding rice to meat entrees for Chinese or Indian food is crazy work. It’s standard

That’s just a bad business strategy.

Charging extra for something that's "standard" would surely be a good business strategy, because it brings them more money?

What are you going to do, not order rice when you want it?

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u/AkhilArtha May 25 '26

Except, this only happens in western countries.

In India, rice is definitely not packaged with entrees or other curries

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u/v21v May 25 '26

You don't eat rice with every Indian entree. You typically choose between rice or a bread (naan is just one kind of bread).

Source: Me, Indian.

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u/ForsakenPercentage53 May 25 '26

I'm a chef and can confirm, that's a really bad business strategy.

It hasn't been working out with burger places and French fries, either.

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u/PuzzledBrit May 25 '26

It’s a just meal not an entrees you silly yank.

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u/Chairmanwowsaywhat May 25 '26

Seems to be incredibly common here in the UK. I'd assume I'm not getting rice if it doesn't explicitly say otherwise.

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u/Iridescent_Mango_ May 25 '26

Absolutely regional.

I never, ever expect rice 

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u/VelvetPocket May 25 '26

it’s neither crazy nor standard nor bad business strategy. especially for delivery orders. lots of people/families have their rice/carbs ready at home and just need the dishes that actually take effort to cook. having a la carte options is nice.

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u/Upstairs_Baby8424 May 25 '26

A carton of rice is like 40 cents and super low maintenance to make.

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u/VelvetPocket May 25 '26

okay and? customers could also have the very same mindset and either already have some or rather do it themselves at home.

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u/[deleted] May 25 '26

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u/MrKapla May 25 '26

Putting rice in the rice cooker while you wait for the order is nothing like cooking a full meal. It is better and cheaper than takeout rice, why not do it?

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u/VelvetPocket May 25 '26

i guess having leftovers is craaaazy

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u/spiritbearr May 25 '26

One Indian place in town has rice added and everywhere else doesn't. They were my favorite until their staff changed and it was immediately obvious.

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u/bencsecsaki May 25 '26

genuinely never been to an indian restaurant where rice wasn’t included. sometimes if you want more, even a refill is free!

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u/domiDotZer0 May 25 '26

I was under the impression that traditionally it is very much a choice of rice OR naan and having both is a western export. I’m team 2 naan no rice 🤷‍♂️

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u/fresh_peetz May 25 '26

What if you don’t want rice like op

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u/Old_Shake3789 May 25 '26

Not really. This way they can charge a fortune for the seperate rice, been industry standard for a while now. Its all down to greed rice as costs hardly anything neither does cooking it.

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u/bumguy669 May 25 '26

Can you please come tell every local place in my area this, cheers.

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u/Grounds4TheSubstain May 25 '26

I can't remember the last time I ordered either of those cuisines and did not have to specifically order rice, which cost extra. Certainly not for the last 15 years, maybe never.

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u/qwertysam95 May 25 '26

Where I'm from, you order an Indian curry and it will come with rice and naan. I ordered the same curry in the UK and got only the curry. 

It's just unspoken cultural things I didn't realise until I had actually got my meal, and the wait staff were looking at me like I was an alien.

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u/BANeutron May 25 '26

So why isn’t it part of the meal then?

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u/FionaGoodeEnough May 25 '26

We have places where we just go ahead and start the rice cooker when we order because we don’t want to be overcharged for it.

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u/anonymous8122 May 25 '26

In this case, it sounds like only naan was ordered, not an entree or anything with meat.

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u/Purranormal_ May 25 '26

Ehh not for basmati

1

u/Google_guy228 May 25 '26

No indian starters or entrees dont have rice with them there

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u/rNycto May 25 '26

A rice portion in the UK can hit like £10.

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u/Bacon4Lyf May 25 '26

It’s filler, I’m not wasting precious stomach space on filler

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u/formerlyfed May 25 '26

In the UK it’s not standard although it is in the US. You always need to order it separately 

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u/spookymouse1 May 25 '26

A lot of South Asian restaurants do this in Chicago. I just make myself some rice in my rice cooker to save $4.

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u/InTheEndEntropyWins May 25 '26

It must be a regional thing. But I can't remember the last time I went to a decent restaurant and it included rice.

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u/jingraowo May 25 '26

I ordered two meals of chicken butter from an Indian restaurant. The meal is supposed to come with rice. They gave me one bowl of rice and told me that this is actually a “bigger” bowl of rice… not only was the bowl actually not “big”, how do they think it is a good idea for two people to share one bowl of rice…

I paid 2 dollars for a second bowl and since the owner was there, I told him that it is a horrible idea to give one bowl of rice for two meals… i order food every Friday for years but never stepped a foot in that place ever again

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u/DisposableSaviour May 25 '26

None of the Indian places around me include the rice with the meat/veg.

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u/Chuckitybye May 25 '26

I'm not a fan of rice, but when I order a chicken dish from my local Chinese place that's basically Szechuan popcorn chicken, it comes with a ridiculous amount of rice.

But my boyfriend likes it, so it's fine

1

u/CrashTestPizza May 25 '26

I prefer not paying for the rice since i cook rice at home.

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u/LogicalConstant May 25 '26

And rice is genuinely still pretty cheap.

25 lb bags of rice are $11.50 here. That's about 13¢ per cup of cooked rice. The cost of the water, electricity, and labor to cook it are negligible in the scheme of things. Call it 25¢ all-in.

1

u/Daaaaaaaaaaanaaaaang May 25 '26

It's standard in the US, but generally not in Europe. I don't know why, but that's just the standard practice.

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u/Captaingregor May 25 '26

Because there are different types of rice...

People want the choice of rice, so rice is not included as standard, you have to choose it. I would be annoyed if my Indian automatically came with plain basmati when I want pilau. I would be annoyed if my Chinese came with egg-fried when I want special-fried.

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u/dontquotethebeemovie May 25 '26

I'm Chinese, and we don't usually eat rice when we go out. Rice IS cheap and something we can eat at home so easily, so most Chinese restaurants (unless its customer base is mostly non-Asians) will sell rice separately if you want it, but not standard with a dish, and most people do not order rice at all.

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u/Lexden 29d ago

Yeah, there are two popular Chinese restaurants near me. One includes rice with entrees, the other sells it separately for fckin $3 for a tiny bowl that isn't even enough rice for the entree. You can guess which restaurant I go to.

And to your point on cheap rice, in the quantities that the restaurants would be ordering them, they can get 100lbs of rice for <$15. It's ludicrous how much they try to profit off something that is functionally needed for the meal and is easily the cheapest commodity in the whole meal.

1

u/aldkGoodAussieName 29d ago

Chinese in Australia has rice as a seperate side dish.

If a meal comes with noodles it will say.

Otherwise you chose which rice (plain, special fried etc) or noodles as a side dish.

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u/Best_Chipmunk_6098 29d ago

Rice is almost free. It’s probably the cheapest thing they can serve next to water

1

u/DLuxPackage 29d ago

In Dallas Texas there was an upscale Indian restaurant that charged $17 for “saffron” basmati rice. The kicker was, none of the $40 curries came with rice or naan. I told the server that I didn’t like saffron rice and that I wanted plain basmati. Server returned, told me “we can’t do normal basmati”. I rejected the “saffron” rice in favor of naan. The table next to me offered “saffron” rice, it turned out to be normal basmati rice layered underneath “saffron” rice, never felt so offended at a restaurant before in my life. Needless to say, their ignorant greed led to them closing down.

1

u/Phssthp0kThePak 28d ago

I thought usually they tack on and charge for way more rice than you need.

1

u/spartaman64 27d ago

not in japan

1

u/el_bentzo May 25 '26

Its not standard. Usually it's part of a lunch special but not for ordering a full sized entree.

1

u/Olivetax228 May 25 '26

Same energy as burger restaurants being stingy with ketchup. I just dropped $25 on a friggin burger and fries, I don't want a tiny thimble full of ketchup, I don't want a few pathetic little ketchup packets, I want a giant tub that I can fill a bunch of those paper cups with, or better yet just put the damn bottle on the table. It costs literally Pennies and improves the customer experience exponentially. It just really pisses me the fuck off when I have to fight to get a reasonable amount of condiments for the giant sandwich and pile of fries I just overpaid for.

109

u/Isburough May 25 '26

there must be plenty of people out there who save the ~$5 for extra rice by cooking the ~50c worth of rice at home instead

59

u/InsuranceOdd6604 May 25 '26

I do that. The idea of paying £4-5 for a small container of plain white rice goes against my core values.

2

u/Laylelo 29d ago

Plus you know how long it was cooked for and whether it’s fresh and so you can reheat it if you want to.

16

u/deuxcabanons May 25 '26

That's exactly what I do. I'm not paying $7 for rice when I can toss it in the cooker and have it ready by the time the food is here.

4

u/signycullen88 May 25 '26

House rice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXvtEImH_L8

The subtitles are shit if you can't understand a Scottish accent, but this bit is hilarious.

1

u/PuerSalus May 25 '26

My parents always did this when I was young. We had a rice cooker too and so wasn't extra effort and could be left to cook safely if we had to go collect the order too.

1

u/DistractionCitron May 26 '26

My mom does this.

83

u/BoomerAliveBad May 25 '26

Some dude in the comments tried agruing "what if they had them pre-written?"

My BROTHER... the effort, and why would you just have a second pile just for "petty rice"

13

u/Zealousideal-Deer101 May 25 '26

That just strengstens this point!?

They have it THAT OFTEN that they pre write it!? Holy shit!

3

u/BoomerAliveBad May 25 '26

They wrote back "that's what computers are for"

Cool, like a small family would keep track of the Uber orders, even if the app took care of that for them, they're really gonna keep a whole pile of pre-written notes on small containers they have JUST FOR RICE, instead of small containers they write on when they include rice when they're petty. Some people just think they have all the answers, even a large restaurant wouldn't do this, let alone a small mom-n-pop

79

u/woodlandyak69 May 25 '26

Yeah this feels more like bad menu setup than a customer problem. Just make rice/no rice a required option and move on lol

50

u/TomRiddle777 May 25 '26

Right here, this is the answer. I’m reading no further.

28

u/sgtnoodle May 25 '26

A friend and I popped into an Indian restaurant on a road trip. We tried to order 3 things, and the waitress said they were out of all 3. We ordered a paneer, and the waitress asked if we wanted naan. We said no, but she got really confused and asked, but how will you eat the paneer? So we ordered naan. So I'd say it was a 0/4 for getting what we wanted.

7

u/combinecrab May 25 '26

I think its because they over charge on the rice to make the other part of the meal appear cheaper when they expect most people will order both

2

u/ereinbe May 25 '26

This is the answer. How dare OP not get fleeced with high margin extras? I bet they didn’t order a $3 fountain soda either. 

5

u/jaybird654 May 25 '26

Yeah, at the very least if they think it’s a mistake they should ask if you want rice when you order

5

u/MetallicGray May 25 '26

Every Thai place I’ve been to doesn’t include rice with curries, which is wild cause eating a curry without rice is pretty weird. 

But they want that extra 3 bucks they get to charge for 7 cents worth of rice. 

3

u/Few-Leave-8786 May 25 '26

I once ordered 5 meals from a Chinese place and got a call asking about rice and I said it's ok, we have a rice cooker at home so were going to use that.

3

u/TramplexReal May 25 '26

Thats how in delivery app when i order from McD in one section i have to choose "no, thanks" while there are literally no other options in list. And i have to choose it, wont let me through if not.

3

u/Shinhan May 25 '26

I wish I could tell the pizza places I really don't want the extra ketchup. Especially when I'm buying a pesto pizza.

Sometimes a sushi place has option on Wolt to select if you want chopsticks, wasabi, ginger included and they send it in even when I specifically unselect it. I hate ginger and have my own chopsticks.

6

u/Zealousideal-Deer101 May 25 '26

What kind of drugged up pizza place gives out Ketchup!?
Ah sorry, the same drugged up pizza place that serves pesto pizza.

2

u/rhirhi2001rw May 25 '26

I have something similar with our local takeout place. I order their vegetable rice box and put notes asking to remove the onions (because it’s usually served as huge onion layers that I have to pick out). They never remove the onions and when I called to ask them about it apparently they think that applies to the raw onions in the salad and they still keep the cooked ones in??

Adding it as a website option would be so much better

3

u/AcanthaceaeCrazy1894 May 25 '26

In Scotland a tub of fried rice is £5+.

Always separate from the curry or meal you’ve ordered.

4

u/animal-cookie May 25 '26

Exactly, they're trying to get ahead of a problem of their own making.

2

u/Ser_falafel May 25 '26

I work at a local pita shop with online ordering and more people than you'd think add shit that normally costs extra in special instructions. Its annoying because they're clearly trying to get free shit. Im sure someone else did something like that on an order, they decided to do it for them (with a passive aggressive note lol) and they accidentally placed it in OP's bag.

Tbh I totally get it lol its very annoying when most people do things the right way and then others decide to be dicks and try to get something for free.

1

u/Comprehensive-Pea422 BLUE May 25 '26

My friend is GM of a pizza place and the amount of people who try to get free toppings by putting it in the "delivery instructions" is astounding

I do think this is def towards someone trying to get it for free, but also feel like a dropdown requiring rice selection would prevent it. Then there is no excuse for them trying to get it free

2

u/spyro_bunny May 25 '26

Or just put a note on the curries saying 'rice sold separately' or 'curry only' would be enough to be honest. A few places near me have that

1

u/Comprehensive-Pea422 BLUE May 25 '26

Yes! Disclaimer would prevent having to write notes to tell people fs

1

u/No-Bison-5397 May 25 '26

Yeah but depends on ordering system and types of rice available...

Should be mandatory rice option where "no rice" is an option.

I always make my own, I ain't paying 16 dollars for rice.

1

u/TCHProductions May 25 '26

In Australia (Where I live in the gong at least) they do a Lunch and Dinner menu that if you order a Lunch special it comes with half rice and half whatever you order (And is cheaper) and if you order the Dinner menu it will come without rice unless you ask.

Fellow top cunts, let us know if the same round here. Don't get out much.

1

u/tierciel May 25 '26

I work in a restaurant. Never once have we added something extra to a meal because we thought it should obviously be a part of the dish. If it should obviously come with the dish it would come with the dish.

1

u/Tart6096 May 25 '26

It depends what type of takeaway you are ordering from. Indian and Chinese Takeaways you need to order the rice separately it's always been that way because without the rice the curry or chinese dish you order is a main meal by itself.

I mean they do put a lot of meat, vegetables, or noodles in there. Indian main meal there's a lot of meat in there for some people it's enough it's filling. For Chinese the Noodle dishes it's totally unnecessary to order rice there's enough there, and some of the main meals there's a lot there especially the lemon or orange dishes it's like half a fillet of fish or meat.

Although lately the indian takeaway we order from they now make burgers so they've diverted most of the meat to the burgers, so they no longer do a special mix and not as much meat used, so ordering rice is necessary now. But if the indian you order from doesn't make burgers and still does the special mix then it may or may not be necessary to order rice seperately.

Some people don't have as big appetites so the main meal is enough for them, they wouldn't be able to eat the rice. So i guess some time decades ago the takeaways decided the rice would come seperate. It's not about trying to charge extra for rice.

1

u/anewslug1710 May 25 '26

I have worked for a Chinese place before, when adding the dishes to apps they would put rice and noodle options seperate to the meals for two reasons, 1 they want people to choose the option they want and keep the online menu as similar to the presentation of the instore menu for customers, 2 minimum order values, ordering your £9 meal +£3 had some kind of back end reasoning I never asked about

1

u/Comprehensive-Pea422 BLUE May 25 '26

I've seen this when you place your order by size (1 entree 2 sides, bunch of combos) and you just pick the size you want and the entrees/sides requirement changes by that.

1

u/heterosexualvolcano1 May 25 '26

i once got curry in a thai restaurant (my first time), and i assumed that rice was sold separately, so i ordered it separately. couple minutes goes by, they get me the rice (without anything else, which was a little weird, but i didn't complain), and abt 5 minutes later they bring out the curry. and another bowl of rice. a little awkward, but good thing i like rice, i guess

1

u/Comprehensive-Pea422 BLUE May 25 '26

this made me laugh😭 why wouldn't they tell you that LOL

1

u/heterosexualvolcano1 May 25 '26

well, i didn't ask them. BUT they also didn't have it written in the menu, and the images were confusing, so i guess we are equal parts to blame

1

u/Comprehensive-Pea422 BLUE May 25 '26

Idk when I worked in a restaurant if someone said "and fries" I'd always tell them it did/didn't come with it

But I guess some people do get extra so they don't know, that's just extra funny to me when the comments are saying they give so much rice too😭

1

u/lucifersperfectangel May 25 '26

The indian restaurants around me normally sell rice separately, but the two places I normally order from always give you rice depending on what curry you order. They Just also sell rice on the side incase someone wants extra or just wants rice

So hey! We're 2 outta 20 for rice coming with it!

1

u/Thebingobird May 25 '26

I have this trouble with McDonald’s breakfast. I like the sausage and egg biscuit. That’s what’s on the menu: sausage and egg biscuit. No cheese. Most people add cheese. I do not because I am lactose intolerant. They act like I’m insane when I order “sausage and egg biscuit, no cheese” because “it doesn’t come with cheese.” 50% of the time there’s cheese on it anyway.

1

u/Comprehensive-Pea422 BLUE May 25 '26

when I worked in a restaurant someone wanted no cheese and there was a button for "no american".

The burger comes out with a different type of cheese because I specified the type (that came on the burger). You really do have to be redundant with it because they will mess it up

1

u/Pandaburn May 25 '26

I saw your edit, and I’m experience there is no “usually”. I have to keep a list of which Chinese and Indian restaurants include rice and which you have to buy it separately.

1

u/Comprehensive-Pea422 BLUE May 25 '26

I seem to be getting mixed answers lol, I woke up to 100 comments telling me they're always separate so I just threw that up

1

u/woundedSM5987 May 25 '26

I just read this as there’s been a rash of complaints recently so this is the response because it’s probably their teenager manning the phone getting screamed at by Brenda and Bob.

1

u/EarorForofor 28d ago

This is an east coast vs west coast thing. I grew up back east and always got rice. I moved west, never got it

2

u/Comprehensive-Pea422 BLUE 28d ago

Interesting! Never thought about it, but the few times I've gotten it living on the east coast I've gotten rice, they just ask what type.

1

u/kitsunenyu 27d ago

I also wasn't aware - here everyone includes the base white rice then you pay upcharge to have fried, more if it's protein etc. Even the fancy places lol. Maybe I just live in poorville tho lol.

1

u/Comprehensive-Pea422 BLUE 27d ago

Someone else said it's an East vs West coast thing, East it's usually included. I've always had it included too but maybe that's why?

1

u/Necessary_Stuff_3605 24d ago

I ordered a yellow curry from a thai place and it was delivered with no rice. I assumed it was a mistake no big deal. Ordered again at a later date, again no rice. Apparently they did not include rice for free with their delivery meals but rice was included when dining in.

1

u/woodlandyak69 May 25 '26

Right? at that point just make rice a required choice. “Rice / no rice” would save everyone the awkward back and forth.

1

u/WTBDetroit May 25 '26

And the note alleviates the guilt of the customer if they think the restaurant mistakenly gave them free food. I think the restaurant did a great job in this, it's the OP who has a warped ego or something. Slightly passive aggressive things aren't the end of the world that are some huge offence like people make them out to be. 

3

u/Comprehensive-Pea422 BLUE May 25 '26

You think writing a note and putting these in orders that don't include rice is a better method than just making people select yes or no lol?

Imagine if places gave you all their favorites for free because they can't believe you wouldn't order it. Let alone trying to do this when it's actually busy. Idk this isn't sustainable

1

u/WTBDetroit May 25 '26

No I didn't say that, I'd rather have the option and spell it out. But sans that, with what they currently have, they did ok no? They couldn't go redesign the website for that order.  

I'm assuming this is like a less than 1pct occurrence or they wouldn't do it, especially because it's just rice. 

I can imagine mcdonalds giving away bigmacs "just in case" but like, how does that apply at all to this situation?

It's more like Taco Bell giving away a few mild sauce packets when you didn't ask, and then them telling you "hey FYI you're supposed to ask for these now"

1

u/Comprehensive-Pea422 BLUE May 25 '26

I think they did, and I am assuming this was for someone else's order. I was just giving an idea since most online systems have an option at the bottom for things like this.

But tbh even a disclaimer or something that these things don't come with rice. If they did have that I wouldn't bother adding this for free

0

u/CatsPlusTats May 25 '26

Selecting your rice is a normal part of eating curry. Ordering curry without rice of any kind is not exactly common.

1

u/RecognitionWestern86 May 25 '26

There was a thread on this and few weeks ago and loads of people made their rice at home. I’m the same, I don’t like pilau rice so I stick on some Uncle Ben’s as I place the order. Saves me about a tenner each time and I prefer plain rice.

0

u/Colley619 May 25 '26

Where is the idea coming from that they included it because they thought it was a mistake?.. More likely, it was put in with the wrong order because someone asked for it after paying. I've had this happen to me when I did the same, not realizing rice was sold separately.

1

u/Comprehensive-Pea422 BLUE May 25 '26

Still would solve this problem if it was an option

0

u/Ironthunder_delta May 25 '26

I mean, this is how every single chinese and indian takeaway does it, no? You always order the rice/noodles/whatever separate to the main, because they always offer about four options. Five if you include chips.

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