BENTO Gainesville Archer — Restaurant in Gainesville

To whom it may concern:

I've been a fan of Bento for a while now, eating there at least twice a month. However, I do have an issue with how your menu is presented. While I am glad that you label vegetarian options, there is still a lot of confusion among what exactly is in your dishes. I have not seen an allergen menu in stores or online anywhere, and this is concerning for me and other customers with specific allergen concerns. Allergens such as peanuts, eggs, and dairy are very common amongst humans, and it is concerning to see no clear indication of whether or not your products use it. . It has also become apparent to me that your employees do not know about the allergens in the dishes, when asked. This could be dangerous for those who have allergies, dietary preferences, or religious dietary specifications. I would be okay if your employees stated that nothing is guaranteed to be allergen-free, and warned people asking about them of this policy. However, multiple employees have told me otherwise. I have been going to a Bento location on Archer Road in Gainesville, FL for about 6 months now, and when I first arrived, I asked the cashier if any of the items on the menu were vegan. She took a moment to check a paper that was posted next to the register (not visible to the customer), and stated that there were about 8 vegan options, all of which I do not remember. I was satisfied with this, and continued to return to this Bento for months. Each time I came in, I would ask the cashier again about the vegan options, as they were not listed and I would forget exactly which ones were vegan. Each time, the cashier would refer to this paper posted on the wall, and list off the options. At first, they stated that the red curry was vegan, and then a few months down the line, the red curry was no longer on the list of vegan options, which was quite confusing to me. I was still assured that many other dishes were vegan. However, when I arrived to the store on Thursday, March 28th 2019, we asked as usual which options were vegan. The cashier did not know, so she asked another employee behind her about it. This employee informed us that none of the menu items were vegan- there were only some vegetarian options. I was very taken aback by this, as I had been dining at this location for months under the impression that I was eating food without ingredients that violated my moral and religious beliefs. Now I am writing to you to confirm whether or not any of your menu items could be considered vegan- free of animal products. I would love to see a posted list that informs customers of this so that we can be certain of which items are animal-free. This was very traumatic to hear that I may have been consuming animal products for months because of the misinformation of your employees and lack of details on the menu. If I had been provided with an allergen menu, I would have been able to decide for myself if the dishes were something I could eat. Please consider making these changes. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Thank...

My husband brought me here for Mother’s Day we attempted to use the Mother’s Day coupon online but was unable to. we contacted the store and informed them that we were unable to use the Mother’s Day coupon as well as unable to make adjustments to the sushi orders. We where told to place the order over the phone and when we came in they would adjust the order using the coupon. When we arrived we where greeted by a nice young lady who attempted to help us she stated that she would have to ask her manager for help as the system wouldn’t allow her to but she was sure it could be done. The manager a younger gentleman about 5’8 with dark brown hair walked up and immediately said no unfortunately we can’t do that I attempted to explain to him that the online system wouldn’t allow us to make changes or use the coupon even though it was above the amount. AHe stated that we could pay full price with them as he has nothing to do with online offers. So we decided to attempt again to just placed the order online.After sitting there for about five minutes he walked up and then exclaimed that he just wanted to let us know that since we placed an order online no adjustments could be made to the order so we could only get the food as it came . I stated to him that we’d pay the difference as the food we originally ordered over the phone was sitting there getting cold and all we wanted to do is use the coupon purchase our food and go he then stated again AND THATS FINE BUT YOU CANT HAVE THAT FOOD THE FOOD YOU GET WONT HAVE ADJUSTMENTS. As your ordering online and online orders only come as they are. At that point we felt as though we weren’t welcome at the restaurant my husband began to get frustrated and stated we just want to enjoy the holiday why are we being harassed about something so Minuscule is beyond us just give us the food however I feel like and we’ll be out of your hair .

It really saddens us as we personally love Bentos food we had been cutting back on eating out but when I got the coupon this morning I knew I could come enjoy one of my local favorites. but I fear that after tonight’s visit I won’t return, we hate to be treated as though we are not wanted or don’t belong the manager was extremely rude and it was very embarrassing to be approached in such a manner in front of several other patrons especially on such a day is Mother’s Day it was our first time being out without the kids and more than six months and we thought that we’d enjoy a nice meal together and unfortunately it ended up being one of the worst nights this year Now this was the kicker after placing another order online a female manager came from the back and stated that she could use the coupon she checked us out and stated maybe the...

Bento, more like Bent-NO. What a disappointment! My friends and I were looking for something to satisfy our Sunday night Asian food cravings when we stumbled upon Bento through a major online delivery website. The prices seemed good and there were many options, so we decided to go for it and got three boba teas and two orders of chicken Pad Thai. Let me tell you, that was a big mistake; we were severely let down by our experience. First, one of the central issues was the delivery service used, which was Two Dollar Delivery; they were slow, and on top of that, they forgot half of our order at the restaurant. We spent a good hour and a half waiting for our food to be delivered and then another half hour for the second half of the order. Granted, this is could be blamed on the delivery company and not the restaurant itself, but the restaurant really should have ensured that the driver actually got all of the food when picking up the order. The poor delivery service was just the beginning, however. The Pad Thai honestly was a poor excuse for Asian food and should have rather been placed somewhere into Italian Fusion, falling short of even some grocery store varieties. The noodles were tepid and tough, resembling linguine noodles and quite possibly actually being linguine noodles, given that their texture did not compare whatsoever to that of the typical rice noodle. They were poorly seasoned, with an unnecessary and almost fake-tasting spice, and incredibly bland. The chicken was unremarkable, dressed similarly to the noodles, and I could count on my hand how many pieces were in the dish. The added veggies were also incredibly sparse in number, with about two bean sprouts and bell pepper slices. There were also no eggs, which is an atrocity and reflects the overall quality of the dish, given the fact that anyone with any common sense who is familiar with Pad Thai knows that there should be egg in it. On to the Boba. We ordered Honey Dew, Taro, and Coconut Milk Tea Smoothies. The Honey Dew and Taro flavors weren't bad, but the Coconut tasted strongly reminiscent of Malibu, which is not a good thing, given the fact that Malibu tastes like a mixture sugar and tanning oil. As for the holistic drink, they skimped on the tapioca pearls, and there were large ice chunks in them, big enough to the point where we had to remove the lid to finish the drinks because the ice couldn't fit through the extra large straws. The drinks were also half melted because of the delivery problems. Overall, I am very displeased. I spent almost forty dollars (delivery fees, tax, etc.) to be let down and unfulfilled. Maybe their sushi is good, but given my bad experience, I will not...