Bento box at Umi Sushi Express (Metrotown)

Umi Sushi Express is "famous" for their end-of-the-day $2 sushi box deals, but my friend insists they are best for their cheap bento boxes.

Around $7.49 will get you a beef or beef short rib bento box that includes:

A few slices of sweet potato tempura
One long prawn tempura
Four pieces of sushi with what looks like avocado and imitation crab meat
Token salad of shredded lettuce tossed in maybe soy sauce
About 1 bowl of rice
A variable amount of meat

$9.99 for the teriyaki Unagi bento box (freshwater eel).

It does NOT look like the picture. Picture shows a lot more meat than you are likely to get, and apparently this can vary highly from day to day. Today, my friend's beef bento box had more mushrooms and onions than pale shreds of beef.

My unami was thinly sliced and pasted over the copious amount of rice. Lots of sauce helped me to eat the excess rice.

Strangely, the prawn in the prawn tempura was tasteless. I carefully isolated the prawn from the batter, and yup, it was tasteless.

Everything in the box is thoroughly mediocre. Especially disappointing was how the portion of the main item (beef or unagi) did not look like the ad copy.

At basically $10, do NOT get the unagi bento box. At $7-$8, the other bento boxes are more acceptably priced for mediocre food with a very filling accompanying amount of rice. That's your budget lunch or dinner right there.

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