"I came here for lunch. Walk in and am told I need to order via QR code and they hand me a magnet with the code on it and a table number. Interesting but okay. I wanted to try the namesake bento box, and see that it is $14 for the soba noodle version. I select that with a protein (they were out of tofu, the cheapest protein at $4 extra and select beef for $8 dollars extra. It's my day off and I wanted to make sure I got a true bento experience so I order a lemonade, it's $3.50. After tax and tip my order total comes to $32 dollars. For lunch...for one. So aside from the extreme price, I also had to wait 35-40 minutes for cold (I guess pre made? food. They bring out my drink and it's the size of a cocktail in a mason jar. 10-15 minutes later I get the food. Portion size was fine, except I just paid 32 dollars for a scoop of tomatoes, a scoop of sliced mushrooms, a scoop of cucumbers, 2 mushy things that I don't remember what they are, and my soba noodles with beef. Everything was pretty bland tasting and feeling like the most expensive salad I've ever had. I get it- inflation is hard and whatnot but it really felt like I paid delivery app prices for something that should have been max $15. Maybe if I was one of those fancy east side austinites I could afford such a meal and not feel bad about it, but I'm an educator so maybe this is a sign I should just stick to my homemade leftovers."
