Bento Japanese Restaurant

Ok yet another place I was supposed to blog about a long time ago yet never got around to doing it. Bento is a Japanese restaurant located in Launceston city just behind the food hall located next to the Village cinema along brisbane street. It's a small shop that serves relatively cheap Japanese cuisine. Went there for lunch quite a few times when I was in the city. If I remember correctly, they have three types of bento boxes which range from about AUD$7-13. They also serve different types of sushi and sashimi, as well as a variety of side dishes like chawanmushi and agedashi tofu. I've never been there for dinner but there is a dinner ala cart buffet which costs about AUD$18? Should be pretty good for poor and hungry students. Haha.

Above is the teriyaki beef and chicken bento. It is served with some seasoned seaweed and coleslaw. The beef is tender but do note that the sauce is quite salty. I think this applies to most of their beef dishes. Their chicken dishes tend to be pretty good though. Rice is soft, a bit sticky and fluffy, which is good compared to some other places over here.

The next bento was the tempura and tofu bento. The tempura was decent, two pieces of prawns and some vegetables. Guess you can't really go wrong with tempura in terms of taste unless you over-fry it, leave it out for too long or get something thats gone bad. The tofu was supposed to be agedashi tofu, but I think they served the wrong kind of tofu. Kind of looks like the kind of tofu they use in yong tau foo which they stuff fish paste in, which is more firm like tau gua (is there a english term for this?). Also served with rice and coleslaw.

For some reason most asian food is expensive in Tasmania and Japanese food is no exception. A sushi roll normally costs between AUD$1.60-$2.50 in Melbourne and Sydney, but it costs AUD$3.50 at Bento. You can also get sushi boxes which costs AUD$7. Well compared to other Japanese restaurants in Launceston, Bento is something students would definitely frequent more because of the price. It's not the most authentic kind of Japanese food but its still pretty decent. Good for the budget conscious that still want a decent meal.