On Rice Thai Cuisine

So I called and made reservations for 7 to 9 people 2 days prior. Got to Barkley On Rice and had to wait for them to set up tables. Another person showed up and requested tables for 8. We finally got seated and so did the other group. It took 40 minutes for our table to even get all our drinks and the other group was eating their food already. How do you expect people to come back to your place?? I will not be going back to this place again. Oh and by the way the food was just so so.

My husband and I have frequented both the Samish Way and Barkley locations quite often and have never had a bad experience at either. LOVE this restaurant! Have even taken a friend from Nepal there and he enjoyed it immensely.

I'm from Canada, and every time we drive out to Bellingham to go shopping, we always stop at On Rice for dinner. My kids and I love it....and for us, they put enough rice on our plates =)

The Samish Way location is absolutely wonderful. The food and service are consistently good, and the addition of the $3.99 lunch special is fabulous. However, something is wrong with the Barkley location. Reading the reviews already here, I realize my experience probably was not unique. My husband and I and a friend went about a month after they opened. We waited 45 minutes for a table (as the host said "just 10 more minutes" 4 times). We were finally seated. Our waitress showed up about 15 minutes later to take our order. Our food was cold when it arrived. We saw our waitress putting on her coat and leaving as we were halfway through our cold meal. We tried for 20 minutes to get someones attention to ask for the check. We should have just left at that point, but just didn't feel it was the right thing to do. We finally found someone to ask for the check, at which point we waited another 15 or so minutes for the check to actually arrive. A few weeks ago my husband and I went back for lunch, very tentatively. The service and the food were fine, but it's not a place I plan to frequent.

Don't go to the Barkely Village location. Absolutely terrible. Samish provides consistant, if too sweet food.

My wife and I visit Bellingham every year from Vancouver Island and dining at On Rice is never given a second thought. The food is awesome along with the service.

My wife and I used to live in Bellingham and frequented On Rice (both locations) along with other area Thai restaurants. We always liked our meals at the Barkley Village On Rice and so, upon our recent return for a visit, we looked forward to a dinner there. I opted for the 'Floating Wraps' entree which I've had before. This time the filo wrapped calimari, shrimp, and scallops were severely over-cooked (deep fried. The plate lacked decoration and generally seemed decidely less an offering than before. I was quite disappointed. On the flip side, my wife's soup was fine and the new traditional garb of the wait staff looked great. Greater consistency and imagination in the menu is sorely needed.

My only problem with this place is that they don't give you enough rice when their name is "On rice"! Aside from that, their food is kind of the same as every other place...not that special, they have nice decorations though. I still like Lemongrasses food better, even if they aren't as new.

I have been to every Thai restaurant in Bellingham and the surrounding areas, multiple times.Truthfully, I wouldn't describe any of them as amazing or truly authentic as far as they claim. But, of course some are better than others.Most taste the same because chefs branch out from original restaurants and open their own using similar recipes. As far as quality of ingredients and customer care, On Rice leads the way. The owners are younger and use modern techniques to run and improve their restaurants. All of their cooks are Thai, from Thailand. Whereas, other restaurants such as Lemongrass do not employ any Thais. Finally, diners are always complaining about price. The prices in bellingham do not vary by more than about $1 for the same dish. Still, they are from 7 to 10 dollars, which is very reasonable. Good Thai food takes a lot of preparation and uses only fresh vegetables, the meats are hand sliced, and ingredients are sometimes hard to get.Good Thai cooks are not a dime a dozen. Yet, most Americans do not think twice when they spend $10 dollars for a 1/3lb hamburger with never ending fries. Any high school lunch lady can make that meal. Thanks for letting me share my opinions. Happy dining.

We have just come from dining at On Rice's Barkley Village location. My experiences there in the past have been so inconsistent that I was quite aprehensive to even go back. Against my better judgement I did. I am always impressed with the service at this location and today was in fact astounded at the attitude and effort of our waitress Jessica. We started off quite hungry and decided to partake in their happy hour offerings. My partner loved his Bloody Mary and I agree it was quite good. My drink was fine. The appetizers were generic and very bland. We had the fried mushrooms, fried wontons, and on rice chicken. All came with the same bottled sauce, Mae Ploy? Spelling? The quality of meat was terrible and appetizers were overall very unimpressive. Learned that cheap appetizers really mean poor quality ingredients which then become deep fried in an attempt to make them taste okay. I would in the future only opt to spend more and just get the so-so spring rolls. For our entrees we both ordered pad Thai with chicken, three and four stars. White Rice. This was the worst Pad Thai I have ever had at On Rice. And I eat a lot of their Pad Thai. Three to four times a month atleast. The rice was even less pleasing. The whole meal was overcooked. The Pad Thai lacked flavor and spice. The noodles had been soaked too long and the rice seemed to have been sitting in the steamer for days. Mushy. It was all mushy. Very dissapointing. The waitress felt bad and asked what she could do. I know that On Rice is never too pleased to take food back or offer any other sort of solution so I was not expecting much. Before leaving our waitress said she was going to mention it to the manager on duty to see if anything could be done. She felt bad and came back to say that the manager indeed was going to do nothing about it. Lesson to international restaraunteurs: You are serving Americans. We are used to fantastic customer service policies. If we are served sub-quality food or anything else and have to pay for it we expect the problem to be corrected. Even if you won't remake my food or reduce the bill total atleast acknowledge my complaint. Not only was the food bad but the restaurant policy worse. To put the waitress in the middle like that is nothing short of unprofessional. I would not recommend the Barkley location to anyone. The atmosphere is nice and the service great. But we go to restaurants for the food right? The food missed the mark and it wasn't the first time.

"On Rice" should be called "On a Little Bit of Rice"--they give you enough rice for about one-fourth of your meal. Lemongrass is best.

I have eaten and most of the Thai restaurants in B'ham and find On Rice to be the most consistent. I really enjoy their meals, and I have never experienced them getting my order incorrect (epecially important with the spiciness factor, which Lemongrass consistently screws up). The one thing I had a problem with at On Rice was when I asked for extra brown rice to go with my dinner meal and they told me it would be $1.00 extra. Kind of annoying after paying the dinner prices and not getting nearly enough rice to go with the portion of the rest of the meal. Not too big a deal though.

I eat at all the pad Thai restuarants where ever I travel and so far, on rice defintely is one of the best thai food restaurants on the west coast. The food has a smokey flavor sweet flavor that is absolutely delectable. Although some other thai food restaurants can match the taste of certain dishes, depending on how ketchupy or sweet you like your food, on rice by far has the best pad thai, and pad see ew that will exite all taste buds!!!!!

On Rice serves Thai with subtle and complex flavors. Even their sweet dishes do not overwhelm you with sugar as is so common. Busara is arguably as good, and both make you wonder how Lemon Grass can stay in business. On Rice would be ideal if they didn't have trouble getting take-out orders straight. Frequently we get the wrong meat or tofu in our curry, so you have to double-check them. The standoffish owner (I assume) does warm up once you are a regular

This is by far the best Thai restaurant in Bellingham. Great food, good atmosphere and excellent prices.

On Rice is absolutely my favorite Thai restuarant ever. It is better than Busara and Lemongrass (#2 pick). You must try it, you will love it. I eat there all of the time. There's my $0.02 :)

This is a newer restaurant in Bellingham. The Samish way location is ~equal to Busara in most ways, but the new one just north of Barkley is bigger, better, and more expensive. The new On Rice is probably the fanciest Thai food in bellingham. Food quality is average, but plate and chair quality is top notch! The new location also has a bar.

Love it ! Cannot wait for them to move closer to us by heath techna. Great !

Of 3 Thai restaurants we have dined at in Bellingham, we rate this one as the very best for quality of food and service