BENTO Orlando Dr. Phillips — Restaurant in Dr. Phillips

I left the theme parks and swung by BENTO in Orlando/Dr. Phillips. It was such a great decision! We ordered the following 3 rolls: Mount Fuji, Crunch, and Red Dragon. Mount Fuji was my favorite. It had krab, shrimp tempura, scallion and eel. It had a fresh taste to it. My wife’s favorite was the Red Dragon which had a decent amount of tuna plus shrimp tempura, krab, avocado, cream cheese and a little bit of spicy Mayo. The Crunch roll was good, but it was our least favorite of the three. Although the guy at the cash register said it is their most popular roll. It was fried and had tuna, krab, cream cheese, avocado, spicy Mayo, and eel sauce. It didn’t have the same flare as the other rolls.

We came around 5:30 and they were doing happy hour during that time so the Mount Fuji was free. We also ordered a rice bowl with Pao Pao chicken. We upgraded the rice to the fried rice and it was definitely worth the upgrade. And the Pao Pao chicken was incredible. Hot, fresh and perfectly fried. It had a slight kick to it but not spicy. The guy described it as a slightly spicy orange chicken. We got all the veggies with it and those were amazing. Especially the bell peppers.

We were able to get some sauce with each of our entrees. We got the white sauce, spicy Mayo, and poke soy. All were great additions. We put the white sauce on our fried rice and dipped our sushi in the poke soy.

My wife got a milk tea with boba and she said it was pretty good and on par with most milk teas she has tried.

The atmosphere was lively. It was clean and sanitary. There wasn’t any trash on the ground and they cleaned off tables quickly.

Service was good. You order at the front and then sit down and they bring your food out to you. They were doing a lot of to go orders and they were well staffed. It took us about 15 minutes to get our order after placed.

We will definitely be back. Next time we want to try one of the make your...

What to say about BENTO Dr. Phillips?

Well, I certainly like the food and am a regular. Out favorite items are the delicious boba teas with the tapioca pearls. The are so popular that they are always running out of said tapioca pearls and you have to settle for the popping boba or the fruit jellies. Oh, and there is a day of the week in which it's 2x1 boba teas, so we enjoy for the price of 1. Additionally, they use the punch card system to accrue purchased teas and get a free one after buying the 10th one.

Our food favourites are the Pad Thai and the Thai Pineapple Fried rice with shrimp and brown rice. Yes, brown rice, and yes, at no extra cost because it is fair that we get to choose what food options we put into our bodies without being penalized for something different from the norm.

We are in between a 3 and a 4 star rating but considering how long we have been frequenting this restaurant, it even hurts to give something so low. BENTO recently went through a restructuring of its front of house operations model, so now it is strictly order at the register and seat/serve yourself. Don't get me wrong, they already had that going on every day towards the last 2 to 3 hours of the evening, but now it is ALL the time. This causes the phone lines to get saturated when ordering for pick up, and now the line to order is pretty long compared to how it was before because everyone is doing the same thing, putting in orders quicker because they are standing in line and you took away the courtship of waiting tables. Additionally, I feel terrible about the staff, as many of our favorite servers and supervisors left. Remember that many young people pay their way through college with tipped positions.

Bring back the seasonal/surprise items to shift things up and create up sale opportunities.

Please, remember to check on the tapioca pearls ahead of time so you're not running low or...

My opinion is based on price, food quality as well as customer service. Customer service was poor as staff ignored me and served other more aggressive customers who felt they did not need to wait in line. Employees seen me and my party and looked over us even after I attempted to get their attention. Food quality was average. Portions on some items were small and in my opinion over priced. I know the area can ask a higher dollar amount but not all customers live in that area and in my opinion it appears if you don't appear to belong or live in that area then you will probably be over looked. Overall food is over priced, portions are small and food is average and I would not brag about food quality. I have had better bento from a food truck. I would suggest looking elsewhere unless only place nearby and if so I would ask myself do you really want to spend 50$ on three items actual with the preset tip automatically charged into the bill it was almost $60. The upsetting thing is to even have the tip removed which trust me I wanted to it appears they would have to void and ring the order up again which any attempt at this an immediate attitude begins as well as an attempt to make one feel awkward for making such a request. I was confused as to what I was tipping for. Their lack of patience or unwillingness to answer any questions about the menu or the request for me to order online when I am standing right in front of them and even after telling them I didn't have my phone on me. I honestly think they wanted me to go get it. This to me deserved no tip at all. Will not ever return. Even if I was starving and it was the only place open. Honestly I really want my $60 back badly. Total...