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| - Located just north of Gerrard and Yonge, Eki-Bento is a shop that is easy to walk by, given the loads of construction across the street, and its location (in which previously was some kind of noodle place that didn't do well).
I've been pondering going here for at least a week. It's located very close to work, so it would be an easy place to add to my regular routine, but nothing on the menu really stood out to me. Still, on my way back to work during my break, I decided to give it a go.
I ended up going with a Chicken Karage Bento Box, which includes Chicken, steamed/grilled vegetables, rice, salad and a Gyoza. With a drink, it ran me just over $11, par for the course in terms of lunch in the core. As I waited, I checked out the place. Previously, the restaurant here was nothing short of a dump. This place was quite nice, newly renovated, nice area for sitting down and very large windows to let in the light. They have a glass enclosed flat top grill and a bunch of stations to serve at but you have to walk around the corner to get your food. It's cool cause you can watch your food being made but there really wasn't much of that going on since most of it was pre-prepared.
First off, there's quite a bit of food here for the price. The rice portion was huge, there were lots of veggies and quite a good amount of chicken. It was nicely presented and when I got back to work, still rather hot.
The salad was fine, nothing special but a nice addendum to the meal. The rice was fine as well but its rice and that's pretty hard to screw up. The Gyoza was boring, it got super salty partway through, but it was tasty enough I suppose. And then the veg and chicken. They put a bunch of steamed/grilled veg on the bottom and then put the chicken on top and then add two sauces on top of the chicken. The chicken itself? Pretty good, thin batter, crispy and at first the sauce was good. But by the end of it, the sauce was kinda gross. I think this was one of those meals where I was initially impressed, having had low expectations, and then that wore off as I ate. Same thing with the veg, looked good but it was soggy, there was too much liquid with it and it lacked flavor. Besides, all the liquid from the veg got soaked up by the chicken and a lot of the sauce on the chicken sort of dissipated into the liquid-y veg.
Overall, I was disappointed by this place. It looked promising but the mixed reviews really do tell a tale of a place that's right for some and not for others. I doubt I'll be back here; although the prices were good, the entire meal was rather salty, so much so that my tongue feels a tad funny. Not a bad stop if you want cheap okay-ish food, but this one will not make my rotation and I won't be back.
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