Bento Cafe

Had a really lovely meal at Bento Box. Best Sashimi I have ever tasted (35yrs experience). Tempura was not quite crisp enough and the Beef Teriyaki sauce was not quite caramelised enough. Very friendly staff. I enjoyed the meal and I will be back.
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Ian Davies
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Sunday, July 17, 2011

My husband and I were on our way to dinner at another restaurant when we came across this hidden gem. Decided to try it out after we were still hungry following measely portions at out first restaurant of the night. Good, attentive and prompt service. We were sat at our table within 5 mins of arriving (despite it being super busy) and received our food no more than 10 mins after ordering. Pleasant, polite staff.

I had the salmon and seaweed salad along with the bento special of 'golden dragon maki' which was 4 pcs of large maki consisting of seared salmon, tobiko, eel and special sweet mayo (deeeelicious!). My other half had sake sashimi (fresh, generous slices), salmon skin maki and white tiger inside out maki (seabass sashimi, fried ebi, tobiko). The bill came up to £38 which was pretty decent for Japanese fare in London.

We would have had more but it was our second dinner of the night and we were stuffed! Would definitely come back soon...perhaps with our sushi mad friends next time :)
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Fatty Cat - View all reviews by this user
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Friday, July 15, 2011

you are the best.
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steve
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, July 07, 2011

I have been to this restaurant soo many times, and I have always found the staff and food excellent. I would say that I personally prefer the fish and starters rather than the noodle dishes, which although fine, I find less exciting, I would recomment the miso cod, the nasu Dengaky, wich is a delicious aubergine dish and the carpacios are good!

This is a must to visit. I also wish to add that their apple juice is really good quality rather than the awful stuff you get in a lot of restaurants.
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Sheba Weiss - Lijn
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Sunday, October 10, 2010

Had my 1st sushi experience here, loved it. Im not into raw fish but they do cooked fish dishes and also chicken and pork with great sauces. The pumpkin starter is amazing. very reasonable prices, food is cooked in view of customers, very fresh and clean. Always go when i can :)
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Hardy84
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Saturday, September 11, 2010

I used to work locally so went to Bento several times a week for lunch and occasionally for dinner. I also used the delivery service many times and had sushi at home. I’ve tried almost everything on the menu.

Unfortunately this restaurant has gone dramatically downhill in recent times. It’s clear that there has been a high turnover of staff on the sushi bar so there little or no consistency and the quality has fallen off significantly. Twice now I have had sushi served to me with long-grained rice which was clearly unacceptable. The taste and texture was wrong and the rolls fell apart easily. How such a basic error can be made is completely beyond me as cooking the correct rice is so basic and fundamental to sushi preparation.

The staff used to be angry and rude – I always put up with this because of the great food and reasonable prices. A few changes led to a slightly friendlier experience in recent times, but this does not compensate for the failing quality.

Bento Cafe – I used to love thee. But now you cannot make correct sushi rice and you’ve failed to train your new sushi chefs to anywhere near an acceptable standard. Therefore our time together is over. I am taking my loyalty and hard earned cash to AsaKusa down the road in Mornington Crescent where I can expect quality every time.
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Mark Leach
4 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 4
Friday, August 27, 2010

I love you... black cod miso.
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10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, July 13, 2010

As myself and my girlfriend walked in we were greeted by many smiles :)

Once we were sat at our table we ordered a glass of house red each which came to us in no time and again with a smile :)

We then ordered our food and waited 10-15 minutes for it to arrive and be placed elegantly in front of us both.

The food (I personally thought) was gorgeous! Very tasty, very light, well balanced and presented beautifully. Everything was delectable.

The only complaint I would like to point out was . . . when the food for the table next to us was presented, it made me want to try the whole menu, because this also looked stunning!

Myself and my girlfriend both walked out VERY happy people! And we will be paying another visit as soon as we can :)
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Scott
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Friday, March 19, 2010

I always go back to Bento because the food is consistently tasty and well presented but also because for London, you can't find better service. The atmosphere is buzzy and I'm always happy to be inside. I always take friends when they are in from out of town and its always a great spot for date night with my girlfriend. It is very busy almost every single night so I would recommend making a reservation - although the wait is not too long if you just pop in and wait for a table.
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9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Friday, March 12, 2010

Avoid. If you are 12 years old, and out for your first Japanese meal, then maybe this is the place for you. OR if you are 21, out after work, with a load of chums, then you may be able to ignore the fact that this is just another sushi restaurant but with obnoxious staff.

The food is adequate, certainly no worse than a ot of places - and some of it is quite inventive for the UK ( actually, thinking about it, it looks like the owner has spent some time in California as itmes like Volcano rolls come from there) BUT when they tried to charge me £1 extra for some extra spicy mayoniase for a temaki ( Hand Roll) it led to a row along the lines of " exuse me? do you also want to try and charge me for soy sauce or toothpicks?" After telling them I wasnt going to pay it, I simply removed the £4 tip i'd left for service ( on a £30 bill) and walked out leaving the £1 out of their tip.

I will NEVER RETURN.
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wayno - View all reviews by this user
3 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 5
Sunday, February 28, 2010