Orlando Food Blog 002: Bento Cafe !

To our great delight, the people who created Bento Blue and Red of Gainesville, Fl, have decided to bring to Orlando their successful pan-Asian fusion restaurant concepts. In the area of South Orange Avenue tucked between Pine and Church Streets, Bento Cafe quietly awaits, tucked beneath the legs of the brand-spanking new Plaza building. Ideally located for those urban dwellers who crave Asian cuisine.

As I have found, it is often a chore of winding around and getting lost, to finally find parking in the tightly packed streets of downtown Orlando. Luckily, when you dine in at Bento Cafe’s you get a 1 hr parking validation in the Plaza’s parking garage. Inside, you will find their decor to be a modern blue and technologic gray, the inside of the restaurant a giganto glass-windowed hip and trendy sushi fishbowl.

At the Bento Cafe restaurant, you can either order at the counter or sit down for full service. We decide to sit down. The waitress is attentive and takes our order. We order the spicy creamy chicken noodle bowl ($6.95) and the Chirashi sushi bowl ($10.50) with a taro boba tea drink ($2.75).

Life is quick in the downtown city. So is Bento Cafe Restaurant’s food on its way to the table. Our main dishes arrived and they were both good. The taro boba tea arrives to our first. The tea drink is smooth down the palate. The taro milk tea flavor is deliciously sweet. The tapioca pearls pop up the straw and are quickly chewed into oblivion (my stomach).

The main dishes arrive soon after. The Korean spicy chicken is creamy, warm, and tenderly fried to perfection. The noodles are moist and flavorful and arrive in a large bowl. The Chirashi (meaning scattered sushi in Japanese) bowl comes with sushi rice, fresh and tasty pieces of salmon, tuna, white tuna, shrimp, and a side of seaweed salad, ginger, and wasabi. I devour the pieces of sashimi, licking the last pieces of sushi rice from the bowl. It is like sushi rolls but without the roll and in a bowl.

Overall, considering the relatively cheap prices for the great value of the tasty meal, I would come back again to Bento for a night out on the town or a casual lunch or for any occassion actually. Other tasty options include the teriyaki chicken noodle bowl, the spicy seafood noodle soup, and the chicken katsu bento box.

What is a Bento Box?
Bento is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine.Bento boxes have internal dividers, and sometimes several stacked layers, so different kinds of food sit in their own little compartments.At Bentos, their boxes come with the main dish, a side of rice, cold noodles, green beans, small salad, and a tiny finger cake for desert.

Website:
http://www.bentocafesushi.com/

Bento Cafe is at 151 S. Orange Ave., Orlando, Florida . The hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday and Friday, noon to 11 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 9:30 p.m. Sunday. Beer and wine are available, and credit cards are accepted. phone number is 407-999-8989