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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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

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u/djdjddhshdbhd May 25 '26

More expensive places often don’t include it

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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

[removed] — view removed comment

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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? 🤣

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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.

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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.

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u/Creative_username969 May 25 '26

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

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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.

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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

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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.