Rice, rice, baby.
Courtesy: Rice Mediterranean Kitchen
Miami can keep the drive. Fort Lauderdale already has the saffron-marinated chicken, family-recipe sumac sauce and Persian cooking that have kept Rice Mediterranean Kitchen going since 2005.
At 401 E. Las Olas Blvd., Suite 115, the family-owned restaurant serves as the predominantly Miami-Dade brand’s Broward foothold. And CEO Jafar Shabani tells Browardist that additional Broward locations are on his wish list.
“We are on the lookout for expansion in Broward for sure,” he says. “We’re looking for the right locations.”
The Las Olas restaurant opened in January 2023, Shabani recalls, following requests from customers who lived in Broward but knew Rice through their workday lunches in Brickell and downtown Miami. Las Olas offered access to office workers and residents from across the county, making it a logical place to introduce the brand.
Today, the Fort Lauderdale restaurant is open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., with pickup, delivery and catering available.
Its backstory begins on Miami Beach, where Shabani struggled to find the everyday cooking he knew from home. Born in Iran, he spent several years in Toronto before settling in Miami nearly three decades ago. Saffron, sumac, basmati rice and grilled kebabs were familiar table staples; finding them in a convenient, reasonably priced meal proved harder.
So, his family created the restaurant they wanted.
Rice opened its first location in 2005 and is continuing its belated 20th-anniversary celebration. Its 10th restaurant, which opened in Coconut Grove’s CocoWalk in April, introduces a barista-led Counter Culture coffee program and expanded desserts, offering a glimpse at how the concept can evolve.
Behind the growth are four brothers, all actively involved in running the company. Every restaurant is company-owned, and many recipes trace back to their mother’s home cooking. Shabani estimates the business employs roughly 100 people, including longtime cooks and chefs whose tenure stretches 15 to 20 years.
“We’re not in a race to open multiple locations,” he says.
For a first visit to Las Olas, take the boss’s order. Shabani’s go-to is the Chicken Joojeh Platter: saffron-marinated chicken with basmati rice, saffron rice on top and a Greek salad. Kebabs undergo 24 to 48 hours of marinating, he says, before hitting the grill on metal skewers. His other regular order is a custom bowl with braised beef, greens, black lentils, brown rice, hummus, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers and olives.
Then comes the sauce.
Rice’s house-made sumac dressing uses yogurt made in-house and a family recipe. Customers pour it over rice, proteins and salads, and Shabani sees that first taste as an introduction to a spice central to his upbringing.
“Our sumac sauce, which is our house dressing, is a very good gateway of people introduction to the sumac spice,” he says.
As for where Rice might land next in Broward, there’s no announced address or opening date. Shabani says the Las Olas response has encouraged the search, with location selection and consistent food quality guiding the next move.
