Aloha Bento

Food is amazing, but unlucky every time I visit there is or has been an event and never experienced the full menu. This has been random nights of the week when they're open. What I have ordered has been amazing, but when the updates aren't on Insta or anywhere to know, it's actually made us less likely to visit again.

My office hosted a potluck in downtown Honolulu, so I needed to find a catering option nearby. Aloha Bento was one of my top choices, and I'm so glad it worked out. I love supporting local businesses, especially businesses with quality food and service. I ordered a $36 Hosomaki platter for my team. I called a week in advance to place my order. When I picked up my order, it was quick and easy. You just walk into the Central Pacific Bank downtown lobby and it's right next to the Starbucks. The cashier asked me how many sets of chopsticks I needed. They gave me a shopping bag for the ginger and soy sauce to go along with the sushi I walked back to my office and shared the platter with my office. The platter consisted of takuan, ahi, and salmon hosomaki. The platter was a party hit! It was so fresh and beautifully plated. It was quality sushi at an affordable price.

My first time here. Coworkers and I decided to come here after work for some sushi and beers after a long week at the office. Their sushi, sashimi, and oysters here are awesome! Love the presentation. Fresh, clean, and delicious. Their shoyu is their own (house made) and tastes better than your typical Aloha or Kikoman shoyu. Paying a premium but you're getting the best quality food here. Definitely worth very penny.Service is awesome and great! Attentive and shows that they care for their customers. Restaurant is basically in Central Pacific Building (CPB) where Aloha Beer used to be and shares the dining tables/area with Starbucks. Area is maintained and clean. Parking is also validated by restaurant in CPB.Highly recommended to try this place out during lunch and/or after work. I will definitely wanna come back to take out for lunch for their Chirashi and Nigiri sushi bentos and hopefully their tiramisu. Can preorder online before heading there (previewed website and ordering seems to be a breeze). Or come back here for another pau hana or take a date here (wink).

Desperate for just rice a few months ago I stumbled upon this place. The speciality is sushi and they seem to have a lot of fresh fish. They are so busy but glad they have a kiosk to order the food. The times I have been there seems to be three males doing various tasks from server, chef and every other task there. My first experience I had was interesting..I stood there at the register while the owners, servers, chefs ignored me..then after getting their attention I was asked to use the self service screen on the side to place my order. So initial impression of the service was not the best..I think they could be more helpful and more customer service friendly.However, the food makes up for the less than great service. The rice is perfectly balanced, love the chewy freshness of the seaweed. The inside shiso, cucumber, avocado is so good. Yum.The food there is good. Ambiance is a little sterile. It's like fast food but not. Definitely a place to try! Prices are okay.

Other than the fact that parking will usually be a struggle bus in downtown, I really enjoyed Aloha Bento!One of my girlfriends tasked me with picking up her large order on a random Thursday and aside from the panic of trying to find parking, I was able to located Aloha Bento fairly quickly. They are located inside of the newly renovated CPB in downtown. I felt a little awkward walking past an events area where they were setting up for a conference and loungers in the TidePools area, but got over it as soon as I saw the mini food hall located inside.The first floor is multi-use with desks, a conference room, coffee shop, bar, and lounge. It is NOT meant to be a fine dining atmosphere. Think similar to a college cafeteria. It's bustling and busy. The food was well packed and there was a ton of packaged wasabi and ginger for each individual order. My girlfriend surprised me with a 10 piece bento and Shaka roll. I enjoyed it at home and let me tell you, it was the best take out sushi I've ever had! The 10 piece nigiri was carefully crafted and the Shaka roll was delicious! It was garlicky and a little zesty which paired well with the spicy ahi and hamachi. It's a splurge bento and roll, for sure. But I'm at the point of my life where I no longer want to fill my stomach up with cheap eats just for the sake of being cheap. Life is stressful... Splurge for the sushi and bring your happiness levels up during a chaotic workweek!

If you are in the downtown area, Aloha Bento is a great spot for takeout. Its dine-in dinner service is still working out the kinks.After 4pm you can get a validation for the CPB building and sit within the Tidepools area. When there is live music, the space is loud with music bouncing off all the smooth surfaces. The security guards are at their station on their walkie talkies and the cleaning crew for the building wants to finish cleaning the lobby so they are emptying building trash cans and cleaning the floors around you as you eat.While you order at the counter, they bring the plates out to your table. Be patient, the kitchen gets backed up, and you might have to ask for everything you want including plates and chopsticks, shoyu and wasabi, and water.The food is very good for the price. The sashimi and raw oysters were fresh and sweet. The baked oysters and lobster, served motoyaki style, were tender and juicy.If you want to check out Aloha Bento, I would suggest lunch takeout as they do run out of items by the end of the night. Order online so your food will be ready when you arrive and then go find a comfortable place to eat.

Great quality at a reasonable price.A co-worker was raving about this place and one day we went to downtown for lunch. We parking at the post office metered parking 1 hour max and walked over.I got the Hamachi bowl. Or if you eat at some places they serve you poor man hamachi, which is "kanpachi". lol This was hamachi I'm pretty sure. I wasn't there watching them cut it up...but ya.The bowl comes with sushi rice, green onions, and an awesome shoyu/yuzu jelly that's slightly spicy. It's amazing! They give you shoyu on the side, but you don't need it with the jelly. I was blown away by the bowl. So simple, but very delicious. I just wish there was more of it. Co-workers tried the spicy ahi bowl. They offered me to try it but I didn't. Ordering that is like ordering a teriyaki ribeye. I mean do as you please, but why mask it, you know?I hear they have dinner. I bet its worth a try.

Best omakase set on island!Chef Cosmo is a long time friend and I can assure you anything he creates always turns out delicious. Some might've seen him previously at Kona Kai and Senyu Sushi.I had the 8 piece omakase set and a few pieces of the house roll. My omakase set came with tuna, salmon, hamachi, ika (squid), ikura, scallop, unagi, and the last one I couldn't quite figure out. The quality of seafood is top notch! You can taste the sweetness and freshness of the seafood. I don't normally like squid or scallop, but it was prepared so well that I was left wanting more. Each piece was seasoned to perfection! No extra wasabi or shoyu needed (that's a good indicator of a good sushi chef)I'm already daydreaming about the next time I eat here! Need to go backThanks for reading my reviews! Let me know what I should try next!

I'm sooo glad this place opened because I am desperate for a good pau hana deal close to work. Aloha Bento is located inside CPB and they use the Starbucks tables in the evening.I walked over on a Friday and at 5pm it was surprisingly more empty than I expected. The staff told me you can either just sit at a table to be served, or come up to the counter in the corner and order there before sitting down. They have a selection of beer and sake to go with the fish. I ordered a beer and we got raw oysters, the large sashimi platter, and kampachi carpaccio. I was seriously blown away by the sashimi dishes. The large sashimi was such a good deal for the price and included ahi, chu-toro, salmon, hamachi, ika, and scallop. My absolute favorite was the kampachi carpaccio which had an addictive tangy sauce with a hint of truffle. I tried bites of some handrolls which were yummy too. I'd pass on the oysters next time as they were on the small side and nothing special. Aloha Bento will definitely become a staple for pau hana for me. I'm eager to try their sushi options for lunch too!

COVID has not been kind to downtown, with a sizable number of restaurants closing so it's nice to see new stuff open downtown. Restaurateurs are a brave folk.Anyways, Aloha Bento is replacing Aloha Beer, open for lunch and dinner offering high quality sushi, sashimi, and sake for the downtown office crew. They got hand rolls, cut rolls, omakase, sashimi, all super fresh and very tasty. I got four of the hand rolls, which are comparable to Pitch's but just a bit more expensive, which I blame on the downtown rents. Where's that NYC "The Rent is too DARN HIGH" guy when you need him? Anyways, the fish was buttery and I had no complaints. The rest of my office got the large sashimi plate that came with salmon, Hamachi, saba (mackerel), tune, scallops, squid, and other fresh choices, for about $1 per slice of fish. For the quality, that's a deal. It's recommended to make reservations for dinner if you have a large party as they're located in the Central Pacific Plaza lobby and there aren't that many large tables. Parking as of course a mess, but if you come at night, lots of street parking opens up, lunch time, not so much. One thing I did find weird is that some items are served in takeout containers and others in actual black ceramic plates.