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With frosted glass grains scattered across its windows and lampshades fashioned from burlap sacks, this four-location chainlet has transformed its Manhattan and Brooklyn outposts into veritable houses of rice worship. This oft-overlooked side dish is Rice’s raison d’être: ten cuisine-crossing varieties, from snow-white Japanese stuff to a Lebanese version mixed with roasted vermicelli, accompany equally eclectic dishes from jerk chicken wings to vegetarian meatballs. There’s an element of fun at work, and the restaurant’s rice-and-entrée parings produce pleasing contrasts. Crispy Thai beef salad and plump edamame peas are set off by coconut-infused black rice, while Bhutanese red rice cradles creamy chicken curry dense with raisins. Even the desserts–cranberry-dotted Rice Krispie treats and rich kheer (Indian rice pudding)–are models of grain devotion. Carbo denial may have its place, but not here. — Lauren Berger

Thai beef salad with black rice and edamame peas, $10.50; Indian chicken curry with Bhutanese red rice, $12; Lebanese rice, $2.50