Rice Box Village

Houston's 'Chinese takeout bar from the future' unboxes cool new Rice Village outpost

Houston’s favorite Blade Runner-inspired Chinese takeout bar will soon add a fourth location to its roster. The Rice Box is coming to Rice Village.

Slated to open later this fall at the intersection of Times Boulevard and Morningside Drive, the new Rice Box will be the restaurant’s biggest location yet — approximately 60 indoor seats, which is roughly double the size of the River Oaks restaurant that opened in 2019. Plans to open the restaurant have been underway since 2020, but Rice Box owner John Peterson waited until the morning of Thursday, October 13 to announce the new location with a movie poster-inspired social media post.

Rice Box Rice Village movie poster Coming attractions.Courtesy of The Rice Box

“We’ve been looking at Rice Village for a very long time,” Peterson tells CultureMap. “If you’re from Houston, this is the stomping grounds for everybody.”

The Rice Box is one of several new restaurants to open in the area over the past couple years. It will be located across Morningside from Israeli-inspired Hamsa and its sister concept Badolina Bakery, as well as a few steps away from Navy Blue, Aaron Bludorn’s eagerly anticipated new seafood restaurant.

“It’s special to be in ground zero in Rice Village. It’s gone through so many changes,” Peterson says. “Aaron Bludorn is opening right down the street from me. It’s hilarious.”

Formerly an auto repair shop, demolition work revealed the building has a core of structural steel. In keeping with the Rice Box’s futuristic and dystopian design, the restaurant is being built inside the steel beams. Skylights will allow diners to, in Peterson’s words, “look straight through to the sky.” It’s a fitting setting for a restaurant that started as a food truck and was founded by a long time car enthusiast.

‘There’s definitely some volume that’s turned up on the atmospheric details, especially since this will probably be the largest store we’ll ever build,” he adds.

Customers can expect a menu that’s mostly the same as the Heights and River Oaks locations. That means American-style Chinese favorites like General Tso’s (available with chicken, tofu, or cauliflower), Chinese broccoli with beef, fried rice, lo mein, and more. Ingredients and cooking techniques have been refined since the food truck days, but Peterson wants the Rice Box to be true to what it has always been.

“At the end of the day, we’re a Chinese takeout bar,” he says. “I stay in my lane.”

Rice Village will get an upgrade in the beverage department. Peterson says he’ll add one more nitro tea to thee restaurant’s offerings as well as 15 beer taps and a high-end soda dispensary that will serve “a fantastic Coca-Cola Classic.”

“We’re bringing classic American Chinese takeout — a place where you want to get shrimp fried rice or lo mein with an egg roll or General Tso’s chicken for an affordable price,” Peterson says. “We’re that offering. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun for students and people in the Village.”

Photo by Danh Phan

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Family friendly Houston restaurant shutters after less than 6 months

Photo by Quy Tran

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A Houston restaurant group has abruptly pulled the plug on its Garden Oaks location. Jax on the Tracks has closed, owner Gr8 Plate Hospitality announced.

Opened in February, Jax on the Tracks evolved out of The Union Kitchen, Gr8 Plate’s globally-inspired, full service restaurant that had operated in the neighborhood for almost 10 years. At the time, owner Paul Miller thought Garden Oaks diners would appreciate a more family friendly, affordable concept that centered around classic American fare such as burgers, pizzas, and fajitas. Unfortunately, it didn’t catch on quickly enough.

Gr8 Plate provided CultureMap with the following statement:

After careful consideration, Jax on the Tracks on Ella Boulevard has made the difficult decision to close its doors. While the concept was recently introduced to the neighborhood, many challenges ultimately led to the decision to discontinue operations at this location.

We are incredibly grateful to our guests, team members, and the Garden Oaks community for the warm welcome and support. There are currently no plans for another concept in the space.

In a separate conversation, Miller tells CultureMap that the switch from The Union Kitchen to Jax on the Tracks was too abrupt. It created confusion with regulars who missed dishes they’d been ordering for years.

“The people who had never been to the Union Kitchen loved it. They had a great time,” Miller says. “The people who had been to the Union Kitchen and had an expectation for that kind of food — our hummus, steak night, different cuts of fish — were blasting us.”

With revenues flat or declining, Miller says he made the difficult decision to close rather than using revenues from his other locations to keep Jax on the Tracks open in hopes its fortunes improved. Thankfully, the company’s other restaurants — including The Union Kitchen locations in Kingwood, Memorial, and Cypress; Jax Grill locations on Shepherd Dr. and in Bellaire; and Italian restaurant Passerella in Cypress — all remain open.

“It’s a hell of a lot more fun opening restaurants than closing restaurants. I can tell you that for damn sure,” Miller says.