Our Mission and Values
Our mission at Rice Garden is simple and straightforward:
To bring freshly prepared, flavorful Asian food to our customers in a timely manner, at a pleasant environment, and for reasonable prices.
This mission is supported by a number of core values that comprise the fabric of our company. Concerning our food, we place the highest value on:
- Freshness – We prepare our food from scratch at the store level using only quality ingredients. Our vegetables, meat and poultry are delivered fresh to each Rice Garden location where our trained chefs prepare it on a continual basis throughout the day.
- Timeliness – Our customers appreciate the speed at which our chefs and restaurant staff prepare and serve our entrees. Whether our food is enjoyed on the premises or taken elsewhere, it is important that we organize our operations and provide fast service so that we consistently deliver great experiences.
- Value– We believe in generous portions at reasonable prices. Achieving this has much to do with maintaining a lean and hard-working operations team, training and motivating our restaurant teams, purchasing quality ingredients from reliable providers, and understanding our business. All this behind-the-scenes work has earned us the loyalty of many regular customers who depend on us for their everyday dining.
- Cleanliness – While we pride ourselves on preparing the best tasting Chinese food, we also place significant importance on the cleanliness of our restaurants and that they provide a pleasant experiences for our customers. All Rice Garden managers are ServSafe certified and adhere to the highest standards of health and safety. We work with top quality equipment and maintain all of our facilities and kitchen tools on a regular basis.
The Rice Garden Story
In 1994 we opened our first Rice Garden restaurant inside an Albertson’s (formerly Lucky) grocery store in Long Beach, California featuring freshly prepared traditional Chinese and Asian cuisine. Like many Asian-Americans, we grew up enjoying authentic Chinese food as prepared by our parents or by chefs at upscale Chinese establishments and it was clear to us that a void existed in the quick-service restaurant (QSR) category for providing fresh, great tasting Chinese cuisine. Based on the impressive sales results at our first location, we knew that we created something special. When customers recognized that they didn’t have to settle for pre-processed and re-heated foods, our reputation spread and we began to grow.
Twelve years and 80+ restaurants later, we at Rice Garden remain passionate about freshness, value and taste. Our restaurants are now found in supermarkets, universities, malls, cafeterias and street locations. Our management team has built an excellent operations model that works on many levels: Customers love our food and continue to frequent our restaurants; our many business partners who “host” Rice Garden locations appreciate our integrity as well as consistent profitability without complications; and the employees of Rice Garden believe in the benefits of preparing and serving delicious home meal replacements.
The Rice Garden Difference
Our host partners often ask us how we serve such generous helpings of fresh food at such reasonable prices. The answer is simple. We focus on our core competencies and implement them really well. We start with top-quality raw ingredients, apply classic Chinese cooking methods that take place on-location, and serve traditional recipes that people recognize and enjoy. At the same time, our kitchen designs make use of quality materials in an artistic manner that maximize space, support our chefs and provide relaxing ambiance for our customers. Our operations are built and managed for maximum efficiencies that comfortably blend in with our host environments. Plus, our kitchens can operate in as small as 500 square-feet of space.
BBQ on The Hour
Two special items from our “prepared fresh” menu are Master Fung’s Barbeque Pork and Teriyaki Chicken that both come out of the roaster every hour on the hour. We are so proud of these fresh entrees that we’ve installed large clocks on our menu boards to inform customers when the next round is due from the roaster. The showmanship of our staff chopping freshly cooked meat is a centerpiece of Rice Garden restaurants and attracts attention to our kitchens.