Today I am happy to show off my all new bento box courtesy of Bentgo!
For most of us who like to eat on the go bento boxes aren’t an all new thing but the Bentgo, made in America, merges both a Western and Japanese style to make a box worth buying!
The Bentgo comes in 4 different colours, purple, blue, green and gray.
Grey was my chosen colour, I was feeling a little gothic!
Each color scheme has the larger compartment in a light hue and the smaller compartment in a darker one.
For me, it really works to stop them looking dull as well as making them completely unisex.
It also means you can eat in public without losing any of your cool status with a super cute design all over your lunch!
So, as I’ve mentioned, the Bentgo comes with two tiers, one small and one large.
Upon experimenting we have found the large tier holds approximately 770ml while the small tier holds about 370ml.
These generous sizes are one of the reasons I described the Bentgo as a merge of both Western and Japanese style.
The box it self is very Japanese in style while the size of each tier makes these favourable for the Western way of eating over the very small sizes of Japanese boxes which in general suit their eating habits and foods.
Each tier stacks snugly on top of each other but doesn’t clip in any way.
Instead Bentgo have employed the good old bento belt.
This belt is good quality and keeps all of the tiers together though the belt is the same color on all versions, gray of course suiting this color scheme best.
Bentgo have been very honest on their packaging and while each tier fits together well, they have mentioned this box is not leak-proof.
This is much the same as most bento boxes with belts so only dry foods please!
The small tier has a permanent divider in the center which has loads of uses but would be more diverse if it was moveable.
The whole thing is really good quality so the divide won’t break any time soon.
If something were to happen to it, though I can’t imagine it, Bentgo offer a two year warranty!
The box comes with a clear care notice and user manual.
It mentions that it’s not recommended to microwave or dish wash the lid, divider or elastic strap and gives a maximum heat for the containers, cutlery and lids.
The containers can reach a very respectable 220oF(104oc) and the cutlery 175oF (80oc) so microwave and dish wash with some common sense for the Bentgo’s long life.
If you are hand washing there is some good news too because the Bentgo has been treated to resist staining and odour retention!
Another reason for saying this is a merge of Japanese and Western styles is that this box comes with a spoon, fork and knife!
I’m afraid though I love this idea and the cutlery are great quality I didn’t find slotting them in worked very well.
The cutlery slot into a plastic layer that goes between top and bottom tier but they don’t clip in securely as they should and seem to *ping* out of their pegs, even when put into the very specific order needed to fit them in.
Apart from that con I really like this box.
If you don’t want to use the smaller divided tier the box can be used with just the large tier and even better, if you use both tiers the small box can fit inside the larger one, so much easier to take home!
All in all the Bentgo is an attractive and universally usable box suitable for both beginners in portable lunch and veterans!