Bento Pro

It's hard for eateries to survive in the Bay Area with the high costs, hyper critical diners mouthing off online and sheer amount of competition. People following their cooking passions in cloud kitchens can't always control a lot of the experience beyond their kitchens so it's good to remember that sometimes behind each order is an individual hustling to try to keep a dream alive to own their own place someday. Be kind when you can.I'm saying all this because while the ambiance around the San Jose Downtown Food Hall and Bento Pro isn't great, the restaurant's output is relatively good. Instead of picking up food here in person, I'll probably adjust and order delivery in the future. I dropped my coworker off and ran an errand while she went in to order at the kiosks. There is metered parking in front and we saw reviews about free parking close by but didn't search for it. It wasn't the lunch rush so the area was pretty quiet and a lot of eateries were closed. She placed orders for our group at two different eateries in the food hall and the estimated wait times for both were fast and accurate.Back at the office, I got to sample my coworker's braised chicken quarter bento. The chicken was delicious and the bento was stuffed with sides and white rice. One of the sides, a stir fry vermicelli noodle, was really salty to me but my coworker who prefers very heavily seasoned food liked it.My minced pork dry noodles was similarly very salty. It seemed like someone had done a heavy pour of a concentrated sauce but it was a flavorful salty that I could see promise in so I solved the problem by boiling up a pack of plain ramen noodles, mixing it in, and saving half for dinner. The resulting dish was much more pleasant in sodium, still flavorful with all of the toppings and sauce mixed in, and I didn't have to cook for dinner. Noodles weren't soggy by the time we made it to the office and the whole dish was warm and fresh.Some people would probably have given that experience a low score but this is a relatively new eatery. It's quick, generous in portion, has the right flavors and just needs to work out some early unevenness. Everything worked out and I'm looking forward to trying it again via delivery.

If you're looking to get your Taiwanese bento craving fix, this is the place to order from. It's a low key casual spot to get it to go or order from Uber eats DoorDash. I had the fried pork chop over rice and the pork chop was coated with just very thin layer of flour to make it crispy. The bento comes with a drizzle of braised minced pork over rice, egg, braised tofu, spring roll and a side of veggies. Will highly recommend for a quick and easy weekday lunch or dinner. They have some dine in tables available at the San Jose downtown food hall.

Always gets their take out. Loved everything I've tried so far, pork knuckle, braised pork, braised chicken, meatball soup. Side dishes are always fresh