Review: Might give Bento another go

Different Bento food bowls, boxes and teas. Photo courtesy ubereats.com

It’s hard to find authentic Chinese food in Tallahassee at the caliber that one is accustomed to. After tasting the yellow fried rice from New China, I had to find another approach to my Chinese craving.

A friend persuaded me to try Bento.

Located on West Tennessee Street, Bento is an Asian-inspired kitchen that explores different classic Pan-Asian dishes. The options range from bowls and boxes to teas and rolls.

When you first walk in, it is a spacious area with moderate lighting, tables in the center and a line of booths following the far wall to the right.

Looking at the menu I had to make a hard decision, I was stuck between wanting to try something new or playing it safe. I wanted to try sushi so I took a look at their specialty rolls that intrigued me. But it was served as a 10-piece and I knew I didn’t want more than 4 in case I wouldn’t enjoy them, so I opted to save that venture for another time. There was already a 30-minute wait for sushi.

At first I decided to order the Pao Pao Spicy Cream Chicken, but to my dismay they were out of brown rice for the night.

I ordered the chicken fried rice and krab wontons instead. The service was quite fast and they offered a water cup right when you ordered to compensate for the wait. Even with an ordering mistake they quickly adjusted to my requested changes.

When I got the food it smelled really good but didn’t give too much of a soy sauce aroma like normal fried rice. When I started to eat the rice I noticed small remainders of white rice and that I had more chicken than rice. Eventually, I ran out of rice to pair with the chicken and soon noticed the chicken itself didn’t contain a good amount of seasoning to stand alone.

As I started to eat the Krab Wontons they were a nice golden brown on the outside but with very little crab and more cream cheese than expected.

Overall, my food experience from Bento was average. I wouldn’t mind going back to see what I may have missed out on by playing it safe.