EkiBen House (Bento House) — Restaurant in Florida

Friday afternoon, my wife and I tried EkiBen House  right next to Little Caesars Pizza and behind Metro Diner at 19400 Cochran Blvd Unit #2, Port Charlotte. It's kind of tucked away and hard to see, but it is well worth checking out.The first thing we noticed when we walked in is that the place is spotlessly clean.  It's not a large place with only about 10 tables.  The ordering counter is straight to the back and slightly to the right.  They have paper menus at the counter, but you can also look on the wall asn they have their most popular dishes displayed. One thing to note, their menu is extensive and they have several proteins that are prepared about the same way, but displayed differently.  It will take some time for me to understand all this since I am unfamiliar with Japanese foods. As far as I can tell, this is pretty authentic fare.My wife does not like much spice, but ordered the honey chicken with sweet and hot sauce.   She ordered the sauce on the side.  I ordered Beef and Broccoli.  However, I like hot and spicy food and the server suggested some hot chili oil, which was a good call!  BTW, the service was GREAT and the staff was very friendly and helpful when we had questions.  I also ordered the Miso Soup and some fried Gyoza (I've never had that) They also gave us some free apps of a couple of spring rolls and a couple of dumplings of fried milk.  Never had that either, but it is TASTY!  In fact, everything was great.  It was not oily and if anything, if kind of was a little but bland.  My suspicion is that is how Japanese food is, and to spice things up, you would put on their sauces.  They have more than we tried, I just have to get used to what they have. We will be back!  The portion sizes were large and the price was VERY reasonable.  Like us, I know you would like it if you tried it.  It is definitely different from Chinese food, but that is a GOOD THING when you want to try Japanese cuisine. Check them out.  You will be...

Everyone was friendly and the building is absolutely spotless, you could eat on the floor which is a feat considering how many people go in and out each hour. My first time in the Port Charlotte and I was trying to find a local restaurant to try- kept getting chain suggestions except this one which was tucked away. Only a mile away, I went right over and sat and reviewed a paper menu until it was time to order. You order at the counter and you can eat in or take out. Maybe ten minutes before the food was ready and boy was it hot. I got the bulgolgi (I'm Korean) and my friend got the Oyakudon which is literally "parent child rice bowl" in Japanese. It's a direct reference to the contents of the meal being chicken and egg. For some reason his meal had beef instead of chicken. We have no idea why but figured at least beef is the more expensive cut of meat, he came out ahead. The meal was good and the white rice in the donburi was absolutely amazing, some of the fluffiest rice I've had in a restaurant and it was seasoned perfectly. The egg was cooked perfectly, all of it was delightful. My meal was the right level of spicy and the fried rice was truly fried rice, not oil soaked leftover boiled rice, no. Nice fluffy soft rice, fried to perfection with seasoning. Not greasy, not hard little plastic square box of grains. There a boiled egg I didn't expect, I think it might be a soy boiled egg. Jammy and delightful just the right level of boiled and very creamy. Oh the cheese wontons were great too, basically a rangoon without the seafood and a bargain at less than $5. Really happy with thefood and we will be back whenever I'm in town. Going to be very hard to choose from the extensive menu. Oh, they have boba, a very large list of boba options. But they also have ramune, green tea and what looked to be Pepsi products.

All in all, great food. Clean building. Nice...

My boyfriend and I ordered quite a bit of food via DoorDash and it was so good. (~$60)

I lived in Japan for a few years and this place's Kaarage (Japanese style fried chicken) and Japanese style beef croquettes were the closest I've had to authentic tasting in the US!

At places that offer multiple kinds of Asian cuisine, they usually are overly saucy and all taste the same, but we ordered multiple different entrées and were taken on a ride to flavor town.

We ordered a children's Kaarage as we didn't know what the size would be like (we wanted a small) and were surprised to see it came with half a ramen egg, a spring roll, and a small size of lo mein. We also got a free order of what seemed to be fried sweet sticky rice. A nice surprise!

The sushi was a bit room temperature when it arrived, but it was very fresh and the rice was soft and not overly seasoned. Our chicken bao were also delicious.

The Boba did not dissapoint! Taro and milk tea are the superior flavors!

The door dasher got our food to us quickly as well. I think this place may be our new go to spot for dinner and Netflix.

I'm sad to see others saying their food was subpar, this place was really worth the cost of doordashing our food. We'll have to stop in...