BENTO Jacksonville Town Center — Restaurant in Jacksonville

Blue Bento is located along the outlying strip mall of the St. John's Town Center, in the strip which also houses Ulta near Best Buy and Babies R Us. I have been coming to Bento since I was in nursing school in 2010, and I have been obsessed with it ever since. My non-sushi go-tos are Bulgogi Beef, Shrimp Pad Thai, and the Spicy Tuna Don Sashimi Bowl. If you dine in Mon-Fri, from 4-6p, sushi rolls are Buy 2 Get 1 Free. And my clan is all for that! Each entrée/bowl/sushi roll is now served with a side of complimentary sauce, which I think is awesome as we used to pay for. This location can get crazy busy at lunch, and they do have a to-go option. I'm not convinced the to-go portions are are large as the dine-in though.

Inside, there is a line of booths and multiple tables. They also have limited seating their sushi bar as well as some tables outside. There is a small selection of beer/wine all stored in a fridge by the register. You choose your soda option at the Coca Cola Freestyle Machine. And don't be tempted to use your water cup for soda; they've got signs allllll over that if you get caught (and I'm sure you will), they'll charge you. They do have TVs above the sushi bar and air sports, news, and even the Food Channel. I hear they have Trivia Night but I've not been - that started after I moved away from the area.

You go up to order and then pick a seat, placing your "number" on the edge of your table and they will bring your food to you when it's ready. While you don't have a designated server, they generally do a good job at roaming the restaurant cleaning tables and checking on customers.

Jade Roll, 8 piece, $9 - This has now become my favorite. It's topped with large pieces of avocado and a heaping of krab on top. (marinated tuna, broiled eel, avocado, krab* delite, masago, eel sauce, scallions)

Dynamite #2, 10 piece, $10 - This used to be my favorite but was bumped by the Jade more so because it lacked consistent flavor. For a while, it was how I always remembered it and then each visit was hit or miss if it would taste correct. As it stands now, it is my daughter's favorite. It's got a hint of sweetness to its flavor, and I love to double dip - first in my wasabi/ginger/soy sauce concoction then into shrimp sauce. (krab* delite, shrimp, avocado, cucumbers, masago, spicy sauce, tempura fried, eel sauce)

Flamethrower, 8 pieces, $11 - It comes out literally on fire! But wrapped up in a foil packet. This is another one where the taste isn't always consistent and neither is the cooking of it. Sometimes it has a hint of crispiness to it, yet this time our rolls were cold despite being delivered "on fire". (spicy tuna, asparagus, tempura shrimp, shrimp, spicy mayo, eel sauce, sweet wasabi - flame uses liquor)

Surf 'n Turf, 8 pieces, $10 - my hubs always gets this, maybe because we knows we'll stay away from it. I've tried a piece of his a time of two, but I've never been enthralled with it or interested enough to keep eating it. (krab*, tempura shrimp, eel, masago, seared sirloin beef, eel sauce, spicy mayo)

This is my favorite place to get sushi! And I have tried several places around town such as Hani Yori, Crazy Sushi, Sakura, etc, etc. But these have...

Overpriced, underwhelming, not going to come back and not going to recommend. I would like to start this off with an explanation of how this restaurant works for those who have never been. Mainly, because it is a reason which contributed to losing a star. This is a place where you pick where you sit, get our own drinks, your own utensils, menus, and have to pay for sauce. Similar to a fast food restaurant. You only go to talk to the employee at the counter when you are ordering. Now personally I don’t think this relieves those employees of common customer service. There were three employees that my party saw and two we talked too. The two we spoke with both had attitudes and rude tones. We got about $85 worth of food and they expected a tip. As someone who has worked in the food industry, these girls did nothing to deserve a tip. Even if they had been nicer with answering the questions we asked later they still were putting in little to no work more than a fast food employee and if I can’t tip a McDonald’s worker I’m not tipping here. My second and third star were both lost with the food. One of my party members got a stir fry and white rice bowl that was 1/4 stir fry and 3/4 rice. That was 13 dollars. My party member wished he could have had fried rice but it’s an additional $4.5 for fried rice. That’s ridiculous. Another party member and I got miso soup. Priced fine at $4 but it was quite a bit more salty than a typical miso. We often frequent establishments with miso and try them the soup. There’s was super salty I don’t know why. My other party member felt as though the seaweed was especially fishy as well. We got three rolls 2 of their $16 rolls. They really weren’t anything special I would honestly consider them overpriced. And I got a bento box with red curry tofu. $16. And I got 8 green beans. I wish I would have taken a picture. If you look at others reviews you’ll see the minuscule amount of green beans they give you. It’s sad cause the garlic green beans were actually very good! But the noodles you get taste like they’ve been sitting for two hours. The salad was salad. My coconut curry was good nice taste good veggies. It’s one downfall is that the tofu is fried. It’s not mentioned anywhere in the menu that the tofu is fried. I don’t like fried tofu… I wouldn’t have gotten tofu had I known it were fried. Overall, wasn’t...

I ordered through postmates for delivery one night. I love this place and I love eating here but the past few times that I have ordered there, the food had either been wrong or items that I had paid for were not included in the bag upon delivery. I ordered my food and had paid for extra sauces because I was ordering for some picky eaters who won't eat the food without it. After I placed my order online, I called the store and spoke to a nice employee to ensure that those sauces were included in the bag. I was assured they would be. It took 45 minutes for my food to arrive and the extra sauces that I paid for were not in the bag. When I called the store, I spoke with another nice employee who apologized and offered to send the sauces with another postmates driver. However, being that we had already waited 45 minutes to get the first order, I did not want our raw fish to continue to sit there while we waited on the rest of our order. Therefore, I decided to come to the store but I asked that our order be remade so that the food did not continue to sit. The manager, Bethany was incredibly unhelpful or apologetic. When I arrived at the store, Bethany decided to make a snide comment to me asking if I knew that sushi was supposed to be served cold. I'm not an idiot, I understand the way that sushi works. She treated me like I was stupid and then acted like I was the biggest inconvenience to her even though I was the one trying to make it easier by driving to the establishment in the first place. I proceeded to wait another twenty minutes on the food because she told me that she couldn't make my order a rush order. So, I waited patiently and then she handed me the bag of food with the sauces. I left and drove all the way back home only to find that she had then given me the wrong order. Again. When I called back to talk to her, she informed me that she realized that she had given me the wrong order after I had walked out of the store. She had my number but decided not to call me and I had to call her. She seemed amused on the phone when I called to ask her what to do about the situation. Absolutely awful service from her and I will not be going back to...