First Bite: Bento & Co

There's a new Japanese restaurant in Quezon City and it offers bento boxes and other favorites at pocket friendly prices. Bento & Co is one of the handful restaurants in the food complex along Lazcano and Mother Ignacia and it was one of my stops during a food crawl with some of my favorite foodies. 

Hello, Bento & Co! 

Specializing on the usual Japanese dishes like teriyaki, tempura, yakiniku, sashimi, ramen and the like, you'd surely be motivated to create your dream bento box. 

To create your own bento, you start with choosing your base from the options below then top it off with your preferred viand from its teriyaki, teppanyaki, tempura, and yakiniku viands.

First Bite: Tori Ichi

I once passed by this new yakitori restaurant on my home one time and took a mental note to visit it soon. But food gods had other plans and made my visit sooner. And sweeter too as it was a sponsored eat up by Epicurean Partners Exchange, Inc. and looloo. We were told to skip lunch as it was bound to be a very festive night for the tummy and it sure was!

Hello, Tori Ichi!

It would be easy to miss this two-story Japanese restaurant located at the corner of 4th Avenue across Kuppa as a huge metal sculpture blocks its facade. But no art can go in between me and my love for Japanese food.

Love at First Bite: Urameshi-Ya

It has been months since I saw J's Urameshi-Ya Instagram post and I can't help dream about unlimited wagyu, oysters and scallops. The best part is that it only costs PHP500 (plus service charge). Thankfully, some loolooers were game to brave the Makati weekday traffic to visit the Little Tokyo's not so hidden gem. Since most are free today, July 4 (which also happens to be a Monday, the surest day that Urameshi-ya has wagyu), we decided to go for it! 

Hello, Urameshi-Ya!

Little Tokyo was a ghost town when we arrived as most restaurants open at 5 pm. While waiting, we enjoyed some ice cream from Dojo which I will review separately. 

It was just 4:30 pm when Che Che of Urameshi-Ya approached our table asking if we're complete as we could already start if we want to. We were pleased as it means that we could eat earlier as I was famished! (I only had SkyFlakes in preparation for this feast!)

Soon, we were given tongs and griller. (We were given two but the other griller was placed on our table after 10 minutes or so.)

A Tummy Samba Day at Sambo Kojin

I was pretty excited when my dad finally agreed to have lunch with me and my sister at Sambo Kojin. I’ve always wanted to dine there as I heard that the food’s pretty good. Finally, I got to go there with my one and only dad (you see, we hardly eat out together so this is one special day for me). :)

As we entered Sambo Kojin (at the second floor of the Kamayan, Dad’s, and Saisaki building along EDSA), we were greeted by the waiters and they assisted us to three different tables (yes, my dad was very particular with where to seat).

Look. Select. Eat.

I was a bit disappointed with the variety. Well, I understand that it was a Korean and Japanese restaurant but I was somehow hoping that there would be more.

This looks pretty sad. :(

Anyway, my first pick was salmon sashimi. My dad asked for the newly sliced cuts and true enough it seemed to be fresher. It was the type that sort of melts in your mouth. Oh love~

The next ones I took were assorted maki and sushi. (I totally forgot to get some ebi sushi. I concentrated too much on salmon.) The makis were your typical makis. The salmon sushi felt a bit old and dry. And the one wrapped in kani was a mouthful (literally) but I liked it. 

My next plate was filled with all things fried or breaded. It was nothing special though. The tempura (from my sister's plate) and the ebi fry were well-cooked. Both were crispy yet the shrimp inside was not dry. The katsudon though was extremely dry and it seemed that it was cooked twice (not exactly how Bon Chon does it) and the meat was very tough.

I also had fish teppan which was yummy. I decided not to eat the green peppers though to give me more space for the other dishes I got. More space for seafood, gyoza and chapchae and another round of salmon sashimi. I loved the chapchae!

My dad took some meat and seafood to grill. I was a bit iffy about grilling though as it is the usual culprit of food poisoning. But my dad kept on giving me and my sister meat and seafood to eat. Oh well. I liked the asparagus wrapped in bacon. It was really good. It didn’t make me feel so guilty since it was somehow “half” healthy.

It was also my first time to eat sea urchin. Since I was a newbie, I was not aware that I had to eat it with soy full of wasabi to prevent food poisoning. Nonetheless, it was very interesting. (I had an upset stomach afterwards but I think it was because of overeating and not the sea urchin.)

We also had some fried rice which was really good. It was the sticky fried rice. (Don’t eat a lot of it though as it is a bit heavy.)

I was pretty excited with the dessert section. I did my very best to ignore it while getting my sashimi. And I was truly surprised when I finally stopped by for my sugar fix.

It was too few. :(

I had no idea where to start because I didn’t find any of the sweets appetizing.

I decided to get one piece of apple on a stick (and dipped it in chocolate), a cupcake, brownie, cookies, and chocolate ice cream. To make it short, I liked the ice cream. No comment on the other desserts.

Yakimix? Check! Sambo Kojin? Check! Next stop… VIKINGS.

Rates:

LUNCH (Mon to Fri) No Left Over Price is P 495 (with left over add P100 only)*Except for Holidays
LUNCH (Sat & Sun) No Left Over Price is P 595 (with left over add P100 only)
DINNER (Mon to Sun) No Left Over Price is P 595 (with left over add P100 only)
For children 4 ft below- No Left Over Price is P 295 (with left over add P100 only)

Sambo Kojin is located at 207 EDSA, Greenhills, Mandaluyong City and Eastwood Citywalk, Quezon City.