Fairly new bento place, the Moilili location itself a new building. Finally got around to trying Kokorotei. They’re tag for uniqueness is that they make the bento fresh at time of ordering. Picked up a tonkatsu bento and a aji fry bento (not on regular menu). The size is a reasonable size, not humongous USA size (I’ll rant about this later in a SLC entry) and reasonably priced. The quicker its eaten, the better, esp for fried items. I hit heavy traffic heading home so it wasn’t piping hot fresh, but I can happily report that the bento were excellent. A step above what you’ll find at what passes as “depato”s here. The rice warm and fluffy, not cold, hard and clumped together. The entrees still crisp and not dried out. The katsu had some nice “marbling” going on, it wasn’t a totally lean cut. Doesn’t bother me as I’m not eating it every day, and the portion size was reasonable. The kiriboshi daikon and kinpira were nicely flavored and cooked. The shoga side was nice, a touch different from what you usually get with your sushi. The little piece of ornamental lettuce not wilted. The bed of cabbage the entree was on was soggy, but that was because it seemed to have been dressed with some kind of light vinager mustard dressing. If anything, the bonus little squiggle of spaghetti was the one unremarkable item. I believe the sides vary.
I give them a high rating, I have a hard time giving anything a 4 out of 4 monkey rating as that implies perfection, but this comes aweful close to me. It is among the best bento for the money that I’ve had. I’m sure you can spend more and get better somewhere, but most of the common places you spend about this much or more and get worse. My father actually took an interest and looked at the menu/flyer I brought home and agreed it was good. I’m not sure how it would compare if left to cool though. It’s located two spaces over from the new Teddy’s Bigger Burgers in Moilili, twenty parking spaces in the lot shared with Teddy’s, fairly easy to find street parking in immediate area. I’ll be checking them out again!
0 Responses to “Kokorotei”