Okay wait. I gotta laugh…I looked up their Kokoro-Tei‘s website for this blog and couldn’t help but laugh at one of their pictures. It’s nothing bad, but if you know this place – when you walk in, their display cases are empty. It’s usually because they make your bento to order so it’s all fresh. I just found it funny that one of their main pictures includes a full display case. Maybe it’s just me. How are you folks doing? I’m participating in a conference today and tomorrow. Today was a bit rough – 12 hours. While I am exhausted, I feel like I’ve gained so much today. Tomorrow is gonna be a hard day, they will be challenging us quite a bit but this is what I signed up for and I am looking forward to it. Nervously looking forward to it.

Ho…today was so shame. I didn’t eat breakfast and they provided a breakfast of fresh fruit and doughnuts. I didn’t feel like doughnuts so I only ate a few pieces of fruit. My stomach was freaking growling all morning. One of them was SO loud that I had to apologize to my neighbor, I felt so bad! It’s shame too but what can I do? I can’t control it. Well I can. I will tomorrow by eating breakfast before the start – I’m not a big fan of continental breakfasts.

Anyway! Sorry for the tangent. We got some lunch at Kokoro-Tei last week and I wanted to share pictures with you! Their prices are incredibly reasonable and I feel like their bentos are super Japanese. I don’t know how that sounds to you, but let me share the pictures and explain.

Nori Sake Bento – $5.00

$5 bucks! It comes with a nice piece of salmon, a deep fried filet of fish and then a tempura style fish cake! Tell me that doesn’t look delicious! And I love the entire sheet of nori on the rice.

Hamburger Steak Bento – $6.50 (I think!)

My coworker enjoyed this bento a lot. She thought the hamburger was very flavorful.

I couldn’t decide on a bento so I ordered their omurice and wanted to try the ala carte order of Rib Eye Steak. Here is my steak, I asked for medium rare. What are your thoughts looking at this picture?

That’s not medium rare, Jenny. Yes, I agree. This was definitely well done. Over done. But luckily for them, it’s rib eye so the meat was still tender. The garlic sauce is one of about 3 choices, it was SALTY. Do not just pour it over the steak if you order this. A small dip is plenty.

Omurice – $5.50

Doesn’t that look amazing? It tasted crazy good. My food took 20 minutes – I was getting a bit frustrated as I watched as everyone who came in after me get their orders. I finally stepped up to the counter and asked what the hold up was. The cashier apologized to me and told me he made a mistake of taking my omurice order when he wasn’t supposed to so I think the kitchen was working hard to make this dish! I’m not sure why they didn’t just tell me it was a mistake, I could have ordered something different. But boy, was this worth the wait. I thought the demi glace would be too salty but it wasn’t at all. What a great dish. I think they run out of this dish early so order early!

I really enjoyed their food and would like to come back. $5.00 for that seafood bento was an incredible deal, I don’t see how they make a profit! Do you see what I mean about their bentos being super Japanese? Their bentos feel and taste authentic to what I think Japan would serve up, other bento shops have assimilated their meals to cater to Hawaii tastes more I think.