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Date: 4/5/2022
AMHERST – One of Amherst’s newest restaurants gives a taste of authenticity from various Asian cuisines in the form of rice bowls, octopus balls and crab rangoon.
Nalinee Ninsri, one of the owners of Ricelicious, has worked in the food industry for around 15 years. Her father owns The Taste Thai Cuisine in downtown Amherst. Now, Ninsri operates her own restaurant less than 300 feet away at 31 Boltwood Walk.
“My chef is my co-partner who used to live in Japan so he learned how to cook Japanese food and one day we said we should do something new in Amherst,” Ninsri said. “We started making rice bowls because we had a Thai restaurant already so we can’t just sell Thai food. We combined all of the Asian food we had tried, and we picked the best ones to make in our own recipe our own way.”
Ninsri has traveled to Japan, Korea and other Asian countries and said she picked the best of the best from each place to let people try in Amherst. She said it is a great location because there are a lot of Asian students but also Americans and other foreigners to introduce her food to.
“Some people have never tried it before and once they’ve tried ours, they keep coming back,” Ninsri said. “We just want to create our own name to make it special. All the sauce is homemade. My aunt also owned the Thai restaurant and I’ve tried a lot of crab rangoon, but I think she has the best recipe, so I asked her for it. We try to bring everything that we think is good.”
The reviews back up her claims so far. Ricelicious has maintained a perfect five-star rating on Yelp and 4.8 stars on Google since its ribbon-cutting ceremony on Feb. 15.
While every formal menu item includes some type of meat, vegetarian options are available upon request. Ninsri said people love substituting meat for every vegetable the restaurant has. If you do eat meat, she recommends the onsen buta or honey lime chicken. All entrees are priced at $9.95 while appetizers range from $5.95 to $6.95. Customers can give this Asian fusion restaurant a try by visiting in person for dine-in, take-out, pickup or placing an order with third-party delivery services. Follow them on Instagram or Facebook at @ricelicious.amherst.