Bento Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar

HORRIBLE service. The food is amazing but expect to wait at least an hour after putting in your order (on a slow day). They never refill drinks and you have to ask for silverware (if you can find a server). We waited an hour for one order of rice-​the restaurant was maybe half full. Don’t get me wrong, we’ll go back because the food is that good. But just prepare to be frustrated when you go.

Bento is Awesome! Their fried rice is amazing and the sauce for the rice makes it soooo good. I hate when i see 3 star review that say «food was awesome but.» Then complain about other things. I gave bento a 5 star review becuase the food is 5 star… However people are right wen they say there is not great parking. If ur looking for japanese this is the place.

We came here for lunch around 1:50pm, not knowing the place closed for lunch at 2. The lady sat us anyway, without any fuss. The sushi was good, but I ordered the squid salad as an appetizer, and was really disappointed. There were a few pitiful pieces of shredded squid, and then a LOT of ginger and iceberg lettuce. Annoying. However, the sushi rolls were very good. I had the Alaskan roll and my boyfriend had the Bento roll. Both were delicious. It was really cheap as well, we ended up only paying $ 20 for the whole meal for both of us. If you’re looking for good sushi at a low price, this is the place to go.

Food is really good and the service is great. PLEASE CLEAN THE BATHROOMS, for the love of god!

Good food and service, just no parking at all. If you are lucky enough to get a park then you will surely like the food. There are only a few choices for the boxes and they range from a mild chicken sauce to a spicy dark beef sauce, all are good. The Fried rice is so good and the same every time I go. Just a helpful suggestion, ask for a extra shrimp sauce (or sexy sauce) and you won’t be sorry you did, best in town by far. The sushi is priced well and is always good, I like the rainbow roll and the crunchy shrimp roll.

I freaking love this place best chicken teriyaki I’ve ever had. I also eat sushi now cause of Bento. I would’ve given 5 stars but the service hasn’t been to great lately also the portions have decreased and the price hasn’t. I still love it and eat it at least once a week.

Dear gods, this is unquestionably the worst sushi I’ve ever eaten. I was excited about the menu at first, because it boasted unusual rolls, but what I ordered was not a party in my mouth. The rolls seemed to be full of mushy, artificially colored, fish-​flavored paste. They were slathered in about four different sauces, probably to disguise the poor quality of the ingredients, and were slimy and chewy. The service also sucked. Our waiter clearly wasn’t interested in making money. He was as apathetic and negligent as they come. Terrible restaurant. It was filthy and unkempt as well. I will never return.

This is an awesome spot on campus at Alabama! I used to come here all the time with friends during undergrad. I was flown into town for an interview and met an old sorority sister of mine for dinner. I had the Bento Chicken and Shrimp entrée. It came with soup and a salad. The best part about the meal is the SHRIMP SAUCE (also known as «sexy sauce»). I poured that sauce all over my rice, veggies, and chicken/​shrimp. It is the most amazing stuff in the world and we don’t have it in AZ. If I could choose, I seriously would want the sauce and rice as my last meal on earth– it’s THAT good! They have great lunch specials too. GO TO BENTO!

Love the sushi, friendly staff, usually crowded but the food is great. one of my favorite places to get sushi in tuscaloosa

This place is small and sometimes the wait is really long, and there aren’t the real hibachi grill tables… BUT their hibachi food, shrimp sauce, and ginger salad dressing are the best in town. The lunch box prices are great and the sushi is pretty good and reasonably priced… I would definitely recommend eating here, especially on a week night when it’s a little less crowded!!!

Bento is by far the best sushi restaurant in Tuscaloosa. Those who say otherwise have probably never traveled beyond the southeast. The food is reasonably priced (sushi) and delicious. My favorite roll is the spicy crunchy salmon. I can’t speak to their non-​sushi menu items, but this is the only restaurant I will go to for sushi in Tuscaloosa. I have been here a couple of times and the wait has never been longer than 10 minutes. The staff is very friendly making for a great dining experience.

Went with my daughter during parents weekend at U of A and it was ho hum. I’m from San Diego where sushi places are super creative over the top. This was not. Rolls were small and rather uncreative. Great campus spot. Students seem to love it but I was not impressed. Small portions.

This place is delicious! I remember waiting for almost 2 hours on a friday night and it was worth it!!! Its so yummy! Expensive and no teppan grill option but its still so good. If you are low on cash try their lunch boxes, they are slightly less pricey. I always asked for more miso soup!

So, I’ve always passed this place during lunch and it always seemed like it had a lot of people going in and out. My friends and I decided to give it a try.
First of all, this place felt like it was ridiculously overpriced for dinner. The lunch menu looked to be more sensible. However, a friend and I shared a combo of the steak and chicken. It came with a soup, edamame, salad and fried rice. For one person I’d say its probably a generous amount. The steak was delicious… the chicken not so much. However was it worth the $ 14 for the combination dinner? Probably not.
Not to mention the service. non-​existent. We sat down, a girl got us our drinks, a different person took our orders, then after we got our food we never saw anyone ever again. My friends and I had to flag down a different waiter to get our checks.
Short to say, the food was alright. But for the price and poor service, I’d save your money and go somewhere else.

Wow this was good, why the low ratings?! Coming here for lunch and ordering the spicy chicken bento for $ 7 may have been enough for me to want to come back but that wasn’t the main reason. Upon arrival the wait was about 5 minutes for a table and was given a typical bento lunch menu.
My chicken came with the option of soup or salad and I chose the soup which was decent but not why I enjoyed coming. The main star of the meal was a orange dipping sauce you normally get at a hibachi restaurant and upon asking what was in it I was quickly shut down for it is their special sauce. The spicy chicken I would have thought to have some kind of Japanese influence on it however it was essentially chicken in a buffalo sauce. The rice it was paired with was alright but was taken to the next level when I poured my remaining sauce all over it. There was also a portion of edamame served with it that had been WAY overcooked. Normally the outside should be a sort of leathery consistency but this had been cooked so much it was all a bunch of mush when you tried to squeeze the edamame out.
This is an alright place to come for a quick bite but don’t plan on coming here with a date due to it being your average college town eatery.

Went with some co workers on a Thursday. Waited for what seemed like forever for our food and it was only so-​so. Definitely not worth the long wait.
What really sealed the deal for me never coming back here again is two of my coworkers spent that night in the bathroom. I don’t feel like playing Russian Roulette with my stomach here.

I went here on my lunch break one day, around 1:40 and was being rushed because I decided to dine in, not knowing they closed at 2. The sushi didn’t taste very good and the service was very unimpressive. I only give them a break because I was that person coming in near closing time. Definitely won’t go back.

Really an ok Japanese style restaurant. Food was good. My hibachi steal was tender and tasty, the fried rice was good and the snow peas was served prepared just right… not overcooked. I agree w/​fellow Unilocaler, the sauce is excellent.
Nothing was exceptional but nothing was totally bad either. My family will not become regulars here but we would go back.

Overrated. If the chirping sorority girls (who think the sushi makes it classy) don’t kill you, the bro-​tastic soundtrack will. DMB and teriyaki do not mix. Go to Benkei instead.