Sticky Rice opened up in Downtown Champaign just a few weeks ago. The Thai-Lao restaurant offers a variety of dishes at about $10-$12 each, with weekday lunch specials starting at $8. I’m glad to see that the restaurant has made use of the large patio.
I ordered some takeout last weekend: pad Thai with tofu ($10) and pepper steak ($10). The food was ready quickly and still really hot by the time I got it home. The pad Thai noodles were nicely cooked, and the pan-fried tofu was a nice size. The beef dish was listed on the menu as spicy, but wasn’t at all. It did have some curry mixed in and had a nice flavor profile.
The restaurant charges an “administrative fee” for credit card charges; for my order is was about $0.90. It’s not a lot of money, but the sign on the entry door is a little off-putting. It seems that, psychologically at least, it might be easier to just charge a little more per dish than to tack on an additional charge at the end of the meal.
I’d go back for lunch with a group of friends willing to share some dishes, though probably with some cash.
Sticky Rice
415 N Neil St
Champaign
M-Sa 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Su noon to 9 p.m.
Photos by Jessica Hammie
