Bento Cafe

Japanese Restaurant in Camden
Bento Cafe image
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8 / 10 from 3 reviews
Address
9 Parkway
Camden
London
NW1 7PG
Map
Telephone
020 7482 3990
Cuisine
Japanese
Region
Camden
Nearest Station
Camden Town
0.08 miles
Opening Times
Monday Open 12:00 - Closes 22:30
Tuesday Open 12:00 - Closes 22:30
Wednesday Open 12:00 - Closes 22:30
Thursday Open 12:00 - Closes 22:30
Friday Open 12:00 - Closes 23:00
Saturday Open 12:00 - Closes 23:00
Sunday Open 12:00 - Closes 22:30

Bento Cafe serves traditional Japanese dishes at their licensed restaurant. A takeaway menu is also available.

All In London Review

Bento Café is perennially popular thanks to cheap and cheerful food

Review Image
Food trends come and go, and in a neighbourhood as lively as Camden it’s natural for restaurateurs to try making their mark with the latest cuisines. And so Camden High Street has places specialising in hotdogs and bourbon, Mexican food, Argentinian steaks and pulled pork, among others. Then there are the places that will be perennially popular no matter what’s in fashion, like Bento Café.

It’s loved by workers and locals for its affordable bento boxes and freshly made sushi. Usually priced between £10 and £13, bento boxes are just £7.90 at lunchtime, so unsurprisingly this is a very busy time – be prepared to wait, particularly on Fridays. All boxes come with a salad liberally doused in dressing, two pumpkin fritters, vegetable gyoza, a pot of steamed rice and miso soup; in the case of the salmon teriyaki it’s also generously coated in sauce. The very decent portion sizes make them great value.

Other bento options include tuna, vegetable tempura, pork tonkatsu and mixed sashimi, which brings us on to their raw fish selection. Sushi is hand-rolled in front of customers at the counter; the platters are good value and there’s a pleasing variety that includes cream cheese and salmon maki and clam, eel, yellowtail and sea bream nigiri among others. We like the spider maki with soft shell crab, and the fresh, creamy-tasting salmon sashimi, which at £8.50 for seven pieces is not to be sneered at.

They’re not immune to trends of course, and each table has an advert for their recently introduced lobster roll, a dish that took a starring role in London’s gastronomy this year. We don’t try it however as we’re more than happy with Bento’s cheap and cheerful dishes.

Reviewed by Leila
Published on Dec 17, 2014


User Reviews

luganoa

Nov 4, 2007

Great service, excellent menu and very reasonable prices. Recommended!
Ben Larsen

Feb 9, 2006

The Bento Cafe is fantastic. Plain and simple. Great service, where the staff will go out of their way to accomodate you and make you feel welcome. It's not uncommon to have a chorus of half a dozen people calling goodbyes to you when you roll out the door.

The food is prepared freshly, the sushi right in front of you (if you're in the non-smoking section at least!), and even when busy the food comes quickly. Great options for vegetarians, I can personally recommend the Future Shock (Pepper Salt Tofu) and Golden Tofu.

Reasonably priced, but still great value for money in terms of quality for your pound.
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