Better Bento

Is this place really closed? I’m depressed now.

Read the reviews and wanted to try it out. Finally had a chance to go, got there, people were in there but they were CLOSED! I don’t know if this was permanent or temporary but oh well. Will have to settle with my can of clam chowder!

I came here to grab my lunch. It’s better to call first before coming to pick up, otherwise there will be a lone line waiting. But their food worth it! I ordered a lunch special of really decent price.

Better Bento or the Best Bento?
My team comes here often (like at least once a week) because it’s the best. My favorite thing to get here is the Chicken Katsu Curry. It’s bomb! And so much too. Sometimes, I strategically save half of it for dinner. With two delicious and freshly cooked skewers of chicken katsu, onions in between pieces of chicken, along with a heap of curry sauce and potatoes and carrots and small bits of beef, you won’t be left unsatisfied! And for like less than 10 bucks? It’s a steal for sure.
When I want to change it up, I go to their combination deals for an entrée and side. Their chicken teriyaki is a crowd pleaser. You can also get California rolls for like 49 cents more. Orrrrr you can turn to their Happy Bento and Special Bento.
The Happy Bento comes with 3 different types of rice and other small dishes. It gives you a lot of things to try. But be warned! They run out of the Happy Bento in like seconds! We have arrived around 11:40 before and all the Happy Bentos have been eaten! If it’s too late to get the HB, go for their SB! I like it because of the side of chicken. Also comes with soup and 2 other sides. Both the HB and SB change every day so you never know what you’ll get.
I feel like I know so much about this place. It’s becoming our favorite to go to for lunch. Definitely a recommended place! Gets crowded and is small but that’s okay. :)

This is place is pretty packed at lunch, so much that the wait to get your food is about 15 – 20 minutes. But the food is not very good, it’s almost average and on average you’ll spend about $ 10. So it’s moderately expensive, takes a while and it doesn’t taste all that great. You might as well pick any other local hole in the wall that excels at least in one of those categories.

Better Bento is a small eatery run by Japanese and caters to the business lunch crowd from the surrounding companies.
It offers a variety of lunch combinations at a very reasonable price. Their daily «Happy Bento» which is the special lunch box of the day is generally sold out before noon time.
Price is very reasonable. $ 7.95 for a lunch combo of 1 main and 1 side. The main consists of the usual meats and fish with some costing slightly extra. There’s a variety of sides to choose from. There are also vegetarian options.
We got a chicken teriyaki, side of california roll and multigrain rice which costs a little extra. Salmon teriyaki costs 50 cents more with a side of croquettes and regular white rice.
Complimentary hot tea and ice water. The food was quite good. Visa & Master card accepted.

Quite easy to order here for lunch: [1] Choose a main item from your choice of salmon, saba shioyaki, chicken teriyaki, pork katsu…[2] Choose a side from your choice of potstickers, chicken karaage, chicken teriyaki, california roll.
Their combo comes out to something like $ 8 – 9 and comes with rice and vegetables (though the «vegetables» are just a few pieces of broccoli and carrots).
I usually go with the [1] saba shioyaki and [2] chicken karaage (which is japanese fried chicken), and it never fails.
TIP: Order ahead of time if you can. Between 11:45 and 1, they can get quite busy.
SIDENOTE: They just started a dinner service, which offers practically the same things as their lunch menu does. The difference is that they give you at least double the amount of your entrée (the 1^st item in your combo).

I wanted a quick lunch today since I didn’t feel like cooking and have been meaning to try this place since it’s so close. When I got there, the entire place was PACKED with people — there are a lot of companies nearby so I can see why you would get a lot of business… but this place also flourishes with Japanese people (!), so you can definitely be sure that the food is near authentic!
They ran out of some menu items but that didn’t stop me from getting what I wanted — pork katsu & inari. The service was quick and great — both owners were very polite throughout the entire transaction. The lady even thought I was Japanese and started speaking to me in Japanese… ha ha.
The bento came with rice, veggies (carrot/​celery/​broccoli), pork katsu + inari (that I ordered), and a few pickled veggies. The food was great for what you can get in a bento anywhere & tasted very delicious!
I would definitely come back again and try some of the other dishes they have to offer! Also, today’s their first day of dinner hours — Tues through Friday @ 5:30 — 8:30. Happy hour lasts until 7pm & last order at 8pm!

Love this place. For a quick and easy Japanese lunch, Better Bento is great. The place is a little hole in the wall with a white board menu. They let you know when their trademark bentos are sold out (and believe me they sell out fast).
They have a small patio area to eat but I see most people just take it to go. THe bentos here are very similar to traditional japanese bentos — balanced portions (slightly large for american standards, haha).
They also have good customer service and are fairly quick. If you don’t know what some of the items in a bento are, feel free to ask. The staff is very friendly.

Better Bento? It’s more like, «It’s Just Okay Bento.» I’ve been here 3 times in the last 2 months. I usually get the combos. First two times I got the Chicken Teriyaki with California rolls, and this time I got Chicken Katsu with California rolls. I felt like the first time I came here, the food was better, but I couldn’t tell you what made the difference.
The bento combo comes with:
Your two main dishes
White Rice
Some Vegetables
Slices of apples.
The chicken was not overly fried, which is a good thing. It was tender and juicy, but not all too flavorful. California rolls are small, kind of like the ones you would find a small buffet. Rice is just rice.
The meal itself wasn’t too expensive. 9.95 with a bottle of cold green tea. It’s nice that they have free hot tea and bottles of katsu sauce everywhere so you can drench your meat in it.
Bottom line: Not a pricey place for a mediocre meal. But Gombei (great than) Better Bento.
P. S. There are other stuff here you can get. Ramen, Curry, Bentos with other combinations for your main dishes, etc. I’ve only tried the bentos I’ve listed above. I don’t want to be too critical of the place, so if If you haven’t come here before, I would definitely give it a shot. You might like it. I’ll come back here from time to time.

it is a hole in the wall. I can’t stomach sitting here and eating. but the chicken katsu is yummy, I’m off to get more!

Updated review for one of my used to be favorite lunch spots.
Combo no longer comes with Miso soup. Portions seem to have shrunk. Discouraged from using credit card to pay. Frequent diner cards going to be cancelled soon so you better use em or lose em.
Now for my rant: You may order Ramen to go, they will take your order to go, they will mark your ticket to go, they will give you to go number, but you may not leave with THIER bowl which contains YOUR ramen. When you ask, they will tell you «have run business many years and never ramen to go». In other words YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!
Sorry dropping to 2 stars.

This place is a hole in the wall with good food. The inside dining area is a bit grimy, but I eat here randomly anyways… I’ve pretty much had everything on the menu…
If you come later during the lunch hour you will see «Sorry» taped to items that are sold out.
They recently started serving Ramen again which is a plus.
Also they’re getting rid of the yellow stamp cards.

Literally hole in the wall place. Small portions, decent tasting food, ok prices.

This is one of my favorite lunch places. I work closeby and my co-​workers and I often come here for lunch. Granted that this isn’t your best and most fanciest Japanese restaurant or bento place, but for less than $ 8 you’ll get something that fills you up and is fairly authentic.
For those who have never been here before, there are more than 3 ways you can order, so I’ll list down the 3 most popular ones and let you figure out the rest. The first way is called the «combo». Basically you select one item from Set A and one item from Set B. Think of it as an entrée and an appetizer. For instance, you can get beef sukiyaki and chicken tatsuta age, which is something I normally get. Another popular combo is the chicken katsu and beef sukiyaki.
The second way is what I’ll call the curries. There are 5 to choose from — pork katsu, chicken katsu, chicken tatsuta age, fish (can’t exactly remember what it’s called) and shrimp. I’ll definitely recommend either of the chicken curries. What’s the difference between the two chicken preparations? The chicken katsu is like a deep fried chicken skewer whereas the chicken t-​age is like a Japanese style popcorn chicken or chicken nugget. It has some skin on it that’s fried to perfection. By the way, the curries are non-​vegetarian and has pork meat in it.
The third way I’d normally order is the specials of the day. They have some on display and you can see what they offer. They are usually a buck more expensive, but usually comes with miso soup. Other popular specials include the chirashi and some of the donburis.
The staff is really friendly and always smiling. The only thing I wouldn’t expect is the ambience. I mean, come on, how much can you expect for an $ 8 lunch box? They do provide free green tea if you dine in, but most people order for take-​out. Definitely worth checking out if you’re in the neighborhood.
Enjoy!

One of my favorite lunch spots, to the point I go there four times out of five. Certain dishes are so good I end up gravitating back to them. Try the Chicken Katsu Curry, the Chicken Teriyaki, and Chicken Tatsutaage Curry, which are consistently superb. I’ve tried and enjoyed many other menu options, but these three stand well above the rest (and similar dishes elsewhere).
Don’t expect ambience. The restaurant is a mom & pop shop situated in what looks like a 1980s accountants office (and an unsuccessful one at that). But it is cheap, friendly, and delicious. One of the best hidden gems of the South Bay.

A cute little bento place with great lunch box!
If you work around Sunnyvale area, and want some fast, good yet inexpensive lunch, this is THE place to go!
I got the special bento with beef, potatos, chicken karragge, rice and veggies… great combo and delicous too!:)

You really get what you pay for. If you’re in the mood for a quick, simple, straight up authentic Japanese bento, you’re in the right place.
The owner and the wife are both Japanese and they were very friendly. I had the chicken curry don and it was decent. The portion was pretty filling too.
Given that it is in a small and run downed plaza but I will rather pay the $ 6 for curry rice here than $ 13 + tips in a more formal Japanese restaurant.
Will definitely come back and try their lunch special bento!

This place is not bad. I had the pork katsu curry today. I think they use sushi rice because it was sticky and I liked how it taste when soaked in curry sauce. Yumm! I also like that they put small bits of chicken (in addition to the pork katsu) in the curry sauce as well.
Be warned this place is small. Came around noon and there was already a line that went out the door. We also had to split our group of 12 to 5 and 7 (bew). I think only 3 people work here: cashier, waiter, and chef– so it took them a while to get our orders. They’re quicker if you get your order to go.
One person in our group got the combination special and that looked really good! I tried looking for the rice ball (like the one in the pic on Unilocal) but it wasn’t on the menu? :(But then again they had lotsa items on the menu and maybe I just didn’t see it?

As I recently went to Gombei Bento, it’s hard not to compare them…
— Special bento with sashimi: the best was the sashimi, rest is average
— Salmon teriyaki and Beef sukiyaki — both were over cooked; the salmon was quite dry
If you like Better Bento, you got to go try Gombei Bento!