Rice Thief

Rice Thief is one of the few Korean raw marinated crab restaurants in New York City. The focus of this restaurant is to provide deeply marinated raw crabs with lots of seasoning in it. To the surprise of many, the raw crab meat is actually a little gooey but quite flavorful. My partner saw this restaurant on Instagram and expressed interest in trying this out, despite me wanting to avoid bringing them here. I’m unsure how they would do with raw crabs and the mess that is to ensue. Nonetheless, this was the catalyst for us to try out this restaurant.

Ambiance & Service

This restaurant actually overtook a pizza place that we previously frequented for takeout. They decorated the place with maple Korean decor. If you order raw foods, the dishes come out pretty quickly. They also give you a bib and gloves to eat with because you will need it. This will be a messy dinner outing if you’re not careful. The service generally is pretty fast if you stick to uncooked foods. We were in and out of the restaurant within an hour.

Food

The banchan was rather simple with broccoli and kimchi. Surprisingly, my partner thought the kimchi was good.

The Wild Red Argentine Shrimp (3 for $18, $35 for 6, 12 for $68) came marinated with the head in tact. The marinade was similar to the soy blue crab. How you eat this is plop off the head and suck out the guts. Then eat the rest of the shrimp. Despite it being raw, the shrimp was actually quite flavorful and a little gooey. You can definitely taste the sweetness of the shrimp. My partner thought the head guts tasted weird, but I thought it tasted normal to me. If you are not used to this, just know that it’s an acquired taste that you build over time.

The Half + Half ($39) came with 2 soy crabs and 2 spicy crabs. The spicy crabs were sweet Korean Flower crabs, which were much more meaty than the blue crabs. The blue crabs definitely tasted mediocre at best, maybe because it’s just simply blue crabs. The spicy Korean crabs were definitely more chunky in meat and easier to pull apart. The sauce also was not super spicy. It’s similar to the pepper paste that you can get at Korean restaurants. With this half and half, they gave a side of rice and a side of seaweed. I can say that dipping the red sauce with the rice and wrapping it around the seaweed was quite delectable. If you can handle just a little bit of heat, I would avoid the blue crabs entirely.

The Rice Thief Bowl ($8) came with masago, wakame, daikon, roasted seaweed, and sesame seed over rice. I had a bite of this, and it was good as expected. Unfortunately, that’s all I had. My partner didn’t like most of the food here, so they resorted to cleaning up this rice bowl which they loved.

The Large Gunsan Premium Crab ($34) came with soy marinated Korean flower crab. The difference between this crab and the spicy one was that the meat in this was much more meaty and sweet. However, it does come at a premium, which may or may not be worth. The crab meat was very easy to get and press out. However looking back, I think the spicy crab was probably my favorite. The crab meat was good, but not at a premium amount. If you are thinking about the blue crabs, I would skip that and opt for this instead.

Final Verdict

Rice Thief is one of those restaurants for those that want to be adventurous and try raw crabs and shrimp. This is fairly common in Asian cuisines, but understandably uncommon in other cuisines. My partner who has never eaten this thing did not enjoy the experience at all, whereas I thought it was pretty decent. It’s definitely not something I crave, but I’m always open to eating this a few times per year. If you’d like to try something that’s common to Asian seafood cultures, then definitely give this a shot. I would stick to ordering less in case if you don’t end up liking it.

Yelp Jabs

Please note that we had traveled from another state, 1.5 hr almost 2 with traffic just to try this spot. My friend repeatedly called a day in advanced to check the reservations but we were given false information over the phone vs in person… Sadly, we left to find another spot with raw marinated crab and what do you know? They called us to tell us our table is ready 30 mins after. Please get your workers straight. This is so frustrating for us to travel a great distance just to be turned down. Truly disappointed.

This New Jersey Elitist made a poor decision in her life to venture across to try this restaurant. I would have thought they would have decent Korean raw marinated crabs available in New Jersey. In addition, reservations for this restaurant were very easy to come by. When in doubt, always try to make reservations to make your life easier. Otherwise you take that risk that you won’t get seated.

The worst service I’ve ever experienced! The restaurant did not inform us that there was a time limit… We’ve never been this rushed at a restaurant before. When we left, we noticed there were so many people waiting outside. If the restaurant has this many customers then they should get rid of walk ins and only allow reservations.

Unfortunately in most popular NYC restaurants, they will try to turn over tables quickly, especially Asian restaurants. They will typically accommodate walk-ins if you can quickly eat. This is why you should try to get a reservation if you can. Some might feel they are treating walk-ins with less respect, but it’s just how it is. Reservations get the priorities, and walk-ins need to capitulate to the schedule.

Revisions

1. Aug 10, 2024 - Initial revision.