Bento Japanese

Bento is great for a quick, reasonably priced and mostly healthy takeaway meal.
I’ve been going here for a few years now so I’m pretty sure I’ve tried the majority of their menu — every meal has always been served fresh with great flavours. The chicken katsu is always great, but my favourite is their salmon bento.

It is a cold winter night and we need somewhere to eat quick, we have less than 20 mins to go before our Matariki-​night-​observatory-​thing up the road starts! Bento man behind the counter welcomes us warmly and smiles as we fuss quickly… choices, choices choices…“bento boxes are most popular” he says, ok so I’ll go with «that one» I say pointing to the first item on the bento menu — chicken teriyaki, can’t go wrong.
Hubby decides on a hearty warming soup, with miso soup too (go figure). Nice Bento man behind the counter recommends we sit next to the portable heater they have pulled out for the customers, yes we might well do just that, thankyou.
Food was fast, but not unnervingly so, and tasted hot, yummy and fresh. It was also plentiful, something which doesn’t always happen with ordering Japanese meals. I especially loved that cabbage salad, I don’t know what you did to it, but it tasted great! The bento box was a good choice too as you get a variety of little goodies. The miso soup was good, but didn’t have anything other than the miso paste in it, I am a bit of a traditionalist with that gorgeous soup.
Plus, super nice was the tea on the house, I think he said it was made with corn??? Can anyone else confirm???

I won’t lie; Bento doesn’t look too flash from the outside. It’s just up from the busy Royal Oak roundabout, hidden next to the ‘The Chip Shop’. Don’t be fooled by the exterior though, inside the staff are very friendly and the sushi fresh fresh fresh! I would probably go as far to say as some of the freshest I’ve had in Auckland. The Bento boxes are good too. My boyfriend goes for the Fish n Chips next door, and I (being the healthy one) head into Bento. A Bento box is a perfect dinner really; a bit of sashimi, tempura and teriyaki, and that lovely finely chopped Japanese cabbage that they do so well. All topped off with takeaway miso… boom!