Rice Monster

Rice Monster is a hidden gem located in Millbrae's Social Eatery food hall. They specialize in Cantonese-style claypot rice, also known as bao zai fan, in which the rice is cooked in a clay pot with a variety of toppings to produce a delicious dish completed with scorched rice. As part of Social Eatery, patrons can take a seat within the food hall, place their orders on the provided tablet, and a staff member will bring the food an beverages straight to your table.Claypot rice is a personal favorite of mine, so it's always a special treat when I'm able to find a new restaurant that offers it. Although Rice Monster does have many of the traditional claypot rice flavors/toppings, they also have some unique ones that are lesser seen, such as the cha siu and steamed egg one that I ordered this time around. The claypot rice does take about 20 minutes to prepare, so if you're looking to enjoy this for your meal then I definitely recommend ordering it first so your stomach doesn't have to wait too long to enjoy it. The cha siu and steamed egg clay pot rice was in a single word - delicious. The salty-slightly-sweet cha siu paired well with the mild flavors of the egg, and the salty soy sauce you pour over the rice. I will say the rice could have been a little more scorched to provide the accompanying crunch that you expect from this dish; however, if you're really craving claypot rice and are in the area, then Rice Monster will definitely help satisfy that craving for you. If you're ever in the Millbrae area and want a one-stop shop for all your dining and beverage needs, then Social Eatery is definitely the place to go and be sure to enjoy some delicious hand-pulled noodles from Rice Monster while you're at it!

I've written reviews for Social Eatery and Grapeholic when they first opened, but never Rice Monster. I suddenly was in a mood to come back recently and I decided to get something from Rice Monster because I've been craving stone pot rice. It was not busy when I went during lunch hours on a weekday so there was plenty of parking. The customer service here is pretty bad and the staff member there was very confused whether my party was takeout or dine-in even though we sat down. So we never got water until we flagged the staff down and requested water. Otherwise there is little communication as you scan the QR code at the table and order. When Social Eatery first opened, I'm not gonna lie I was confused how the ordering process dining in worked because the kiosk is right in front of you as you enter and no one really guides you on how their systems works.When it comes to the food, I liked my Grilled Unagi rice that I ordered which costed $18.99. It definitely left me stuffed and I like that they provide sauce on the side so you can adjust it to how much flavor you'd like. A lot of Unagi can be too sweet, but it's not overly sweet in this restaurant. I love the crunchy bits of rice that you can get too. The crunchy texture goes so well with the soft and tender Unagi. The ambiance is comfortable and if you ignore the service experience, I do like the options Social Eatery provides and Rice Monster has served some good rice dishes since opening.

It is super cute inside kind of like a food court where there are variety of options. Super easy to order food through their iPad. The clay pot rice was super tasty and also had great noodles. They also had boba drinks and their fruit teas are delicious. Would definitely go back again.

I was in the area and was looking for something simple to have, that's when I found this place. The place seems like a combination of 3 restaurants! They have a boba shop, a noodle shop and a rice shop. I had a boba and rice from this place. The rice overall was pretty good, other than it was oily than I would wanted. However, they do have a lot of different options of meat. The boba in my option was very average. The resturant itself have pretty comfortable tables. The service was a little slow, but that's because they only had one server, Overall, this place was mid. Would come back for the rice once in a while, but that's about it.

So we got the Lap Mei Clay, Pork Ribs Clay and American Pork Ginseng Soup.Decent place for Bao Zai. We dined in and the place was pretty busy. The rice had crunchiness at the bottom of pot. Not a-lot of meat in the Lap Mei but it was yum. The Pork ribs were soft. Surprisingly the soup was nice and wasn't salty. Overall it's not that much food for Two people, I recommend getting four items.I would come back to try the noodles. Ordering was easy off a tablet. Service was friendly. Parking lot in front

I ordered like 15 minutes ago and when Doordash delivered it it was dry as if reheated under a heat lamp. Egg is not fresh too. Will not order again sorry. I hope they do same quality with dine in customers and delivery customers.

Don't know why this place gets a 4 star rating, it's a 3 from me and no higher.It's actually an eatery that combines a noodle shop, a clay pot rice restaurant and a tea shop together. There are some booth and a couple long tables for communal eating when the booths run out. It can be loud.Although the menu has fun Chinese names for the dishes, the food was disappointing. The half tendon half brisket beef noodle soup has small portions and the briskets are not soft. The bbq pork clay pot rice with egg was the most disappointing. The portion is small compared to the traditional clay pots. The bbq pork cut was too small and not half fat half meat to bring out the flavor and texture. The egg was just dumped in to cook, not pan fried and hence no gooey yolk. The spare ribs and chicken clay pot rice is not with black soy bean sauce. The chicken is soft and the spareribs are not too bony, which is good. The portion is still small. They bring out water almost as soon as we were seated and you order via the tablet. So overall service was minimal. But when asked they do it quickly.

When I was younger, I was known as the "FAN TONG 飯桶" aka Rice Bucket, because I ate SO much rice and I HAD to eat rice for lunch and dinner in order to be full. Obviously, at my old age now, I had to cut out the carbs so it was a treat to be trying out Rice Monster (located inside Social Eatery). .:: FOOD ::.Chicken Feet and Pork Ribs $15.99 (+$1.99 Chinese Sausage add on): chicken feet, sauteed pork ribs, chinese sausage. Comes in a clay pot and a very known canto dish, 煲仔飯. The rice on the bottom crisps up as it sits on the pot . Very simple dish. Wish the pork ribs were more on the salty savory side, it had more sweetness to it, and I wish the chicken feet had more meat to it. .:: Service / Ambiance / Parking ::.Terrible Service. Pretty much self service on everything. You order on your phone through QR code. Wait was super long and unorganized. Located inside Social Eatery, but there's no waitlist, no way to put your name down. You literally just wait at the door in line (very narrow if I may add), until a table opens up. They need to at least let you write your name down. My friend wanted to ask if we could add something on our order and the waiter was so rudely annoyed. He did a big sigh, rolled his eyes and was like no your order is in you cannot add anything. It was SO hard to flag ANYONE down, we just went up and grabbed things ourselves: napkins, to go box, etc. All the waiters literally did was bring food out and thats it. The place has a cute little exterior outside, when I went it was during Halloween week, it was decked out in Halloween decors. The inside had logs / wooden vibes as table. There were ones in high chairs, ones with benches, ones with low tables/ chairs. Parking was scary. The parking lot is SO narrow and small. I feel like its asking for an accident to happen. I would recommend parking on the street, its much more space and safer.

We came here for lunch. It was fully decorated with the Halloween theme. It was not that busy, and we were seated right away. The ordering is using QR code on the table. You also pay right away. You can keep the tap open or close it. They automatically charge 15% granularity fee. We ordered Lap mei, which is clay pot rice with preserved pork and chinese sausage. It takes about 15 to 18 min for the food since the rice is cooked based on order. The second order was beef stew and tendon Biang Biang noofle soup.Both are yummy. The beef and tendon are tender, and noodles are chewy. Sooup is delicious. The claypot is also yummy. One downside is that it is too oily. Service is good. My advice is to come early. When we leave, the restaurant is full and so many people are waiting outside. Parking is limited on the premise, but you can park on the street.

I've been to the "best" clay pot restaurant in Hong Kong (Hing Kee) which was quite frankly, very disappointing.The clay pot I got at Rice Monster was way, way better ... better rice, better pork, better flavor and texture. This is the level of food I expected from Hing Kee.That being said, the ordering experience on the iPad they give you is lousy and cheap. I would have preferred ordering on my phone, which is always a lousy experience too.Restaurant was clean and well lit, and very loud.It the ordering experience was better, I would have given 5 stars ...