Rice Kingdom brings its popular samosas, Middle Eastern dishes to Tallahassee’s southside

Rice Kingdom, an authentic Middle Eastern restaurant born from overwhelming support of its products on shelves at a local grocery store, opened its storefront at 4727 Crawfordville Road almost two months ago.

Before establishing its first brick-and-mortar location, Rice Kingdom’s samosas were a growing hit at Apna Agora International Grocery store on Mahan Drive.

Served fresh every day in a glass case near the grocery’s registers, samosas, which combine a protein of chicken, lamb, or beef with a variety of spices cushioned in a deep-fried pastry, were served to shoppers. This nostalgic venture carried on a Middle East childhood tradition of picking up warm samosas at the end of their grocery shopping to sample on the way back home.

After growing in popularity with just a single samosa recipe, two Florida State University students, Saif Gilani, 22, and Aaid Algahtani, 31, decided it was time to expand into a fast-casual restaurant, with their popular samosas attracting people to their own door.

This included familiar faces from the Mahan Drive location.

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“People would come here (to Rice Kingdom) just because they know it’s the same lady cooking samosas,’’ Gilani said of the dishes prepared by Aaid’s wife, Rawabi, whose popular recipes passed down from her mother in Saudi Arabia have become the prized dish at the restaurant.

Between Gilani looking to put his commercial entrepreneurship degree into practice and Alghatani helping his wife pursue her dreams of owning a restaurant, the restaurant has served as a happy medium for all parties involved.

Outside of samosas, other Pakistani and Saudi Arabian cuisines include their personalized shawarmas — tortilla, seasoned chicken breast, homemade garlic sauce and pickles — and chicken shawaya — roasted chicken on a saffron rice — prepared fresh on their six days of operation. Prices range from $6.99 to $18.99.

The restaurant was originally tailored to those in the Muslim and Arabic communities with special Ramadan menus and catering options to fill the “lack of” authentic halal restaurants, which prepare foods in accordance to Islamic law.

But, as Gilani describes people from “every walk of life” have grown to enjoy the menu.

“They would be like ‘what is it? what is this type of food?’ and ask me a bunch of questions,” Gilani said of curious customers from the nearby Crossway Coin Laundry. “I would be like 'here, take these,'” Gilani said, describing how he would serve samples of samosas.

“They come back and order like 10 samosas,” Gilani said of the popular item, available for five for $4.99.

This has been a successful selling point at the far Southside location as they try to make their name and dishes known to the rest of Tallahassee. The bare interior walls are deliberate to keep the focus on the product.

“We want people to just judge what the food is and how it tastes,” Gilani said, emphasizing they want their food to “speak for itself,” and not have guests distracted by any other judgment factors including decorations.

With this method the partners believe they have created a space for everyone to enjoy their food, learn more about Middle Eastern cuisine, and establish organic connections with curious capital city foodies.

One customer commented in a Google review: “The food was delicious! The restaurant is clean and cozy. The atmosphere was nice. The gentleman who took our order and delivered our food was knowledgeable and kind. We ordered the beef samosa and chicken shawarma. Both were amazing!"

Rice Kingdom operates from 4-8:30 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and from noon to 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday next to Kronik Smoke Shop and Starlight Crystals.

As the restaurant grows, their plan is to have their samosas and other authentic Saudi Arabian and Pakistani cuisine in supermarkets.

Democrat writer Kyla Sanford can be reached at ksanford@gannett.com. 

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Rice Kingdom brings samosas, Middle Eastern food to south Tallahassee