LITTLE ROCK — It wasn’t until a couple of months ago that I became aware of Rice House, a Chinese restaurant in southwest Little Rock. A reader sent a postcard recommending it, so I headed out on a recent weekday to pick up a few items to take home.

The restaurant is located in a former Captain D’s building on Base Line Road, and it looks as though they kept the former company’s furnishings and layout. The biggest difference is that they painted the exterior a rusty red with bright yellow trim. It’s a festive look, but not overpowering to the eyes.

Orders are placed at the front counter from the large menu board behind it. Those not familiar with the place can sit on a padded bench and peruse the menu. The friendly folks behind the counter didn’t rush me and were helpful with the couple of questions I asked.

I decided to start with orders of egg drop and hot and sour soup ($1.25 each). The egg drop was nicely seasoned and full of soft egg swirls. The hot and sour was tasty and, thankfully, not too hot.

My son loves wings, so I got an order ($2.99 for six) and asked for the sweet sauce to come on the side. They gladly complied, and gave me a nice amount of the sauce to take home. I ate a fried wing with no sauce and it was crispy and flavorful. My son liked the sauce, so he settled for dipping the wings before eating them.

The crab rangoon ($2.99 for six) are smaller than the ones served at a lot of Chinese places, but the outer shell was thin and crisp, the inside sweet and creamy. I also tried a rather standard, greasy egg roll (99 cents) that may have been the item that suffered most from my trip home over the river.

Since I was feeding several folks, I chose the House Fried Rice ($5.75), a mixture of rice with shrimp, beef and chicken, which also came with an egg roll. The rice was rather blandly seasoned and there were hardly any pieces of chicken or shrimp in the dish. I found one large chunk of chicken and what looked like half a small shrimp in my portion, but there were more slices of tender beef, which almost made up for the lack of other meats.

While scouring the menu board for another choice to round out the meal, my eyes settled on House Lime Beef ($5.95). The combination of beef with white and green onion in lime sauce sounded intriguing. Thankfully, this dish traveled well, and had a nice tangy hint of lime that went great with the tender strips of beef. The menu gives the dish a designation of “Hot & Spicy,” but I didn’t find it to be that way.

The Rice House offers a selection of lunch specials ($5.50) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday that come with rice, soup, egg roll and a drink. They also offer a nightly dinner special for the same price, with choices that change from day to day.

Other dishes are Lo Mein and specialty dishes that include Curry Beef, Orange Chicken, Shrimp with Cashew Nuts, House Chow Mein, and Rice House Half Chicken that’s fried and served with brown sauce and fried rice. Nothing costs over $7.

The Rice House serves a good sweet tea ($1.50), a brand named Gold Peak, which I sipped while I waited for my food. When my food came out of the kitchen, I decided to ask for a refill since I’d drunk about a third of the tea. After handing back my refilled cup, the fellow behind the counter informed me there was a 25-cent charge on refills. I gladly paid it, but had I known that, I’d have drunk more just to make it worth the money.

Rice House Address: 6205 Base Line Road, Little Rock Hours: 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m., daily (drive-through open until 10 p.m.) Cuisine: Chinese Credit cards: AE, D, V, MC Alcoholic beverages: No Wheelchair accessible: Yes Carryout: Yes (501) 565-3233

Weekend, Pages 40 on 10/29/2009