JBento Settled Down at Mt Pleasant
“We supposed to be closed for about 3 months only, but there was a delay with the construction work and handover. So we waited for 6 months instead.”
The premise has an underground decoration strongly dominated by greys and gold accents. When we were there, they were playing a 1954 Louis Armstrong Plays WC Handy LP that was connected to a very cool looking transparent speaker on the wall.
Before opening up a permanent outlet at Queens Rd (Mt Pleasant), JBento used to be part of the pop-up restaurant at 1 Leonard St (Victoria Park). I remembered when they set up the alfresco for people to dine there as well as the whole wall that was decorated with JBento cardboard boxes. I like how JBento uses recyclable packaging that could easily be stacked after we were finished with our meals.
It wasn't a surprise when loyal customers went back to visit JBento after they found out about the new premise that opened about 3 weeks ago. I've been there twice with two different people and they loved the menu at JBento, in particular the Miso Butter Scotch Fillet and Teriyaki Salmon Fillet. It wasn't the unhealthiest meal, but on two occasions the scotch fillet was very tender and perfect when eaten together with the miso butter. We had the salmon fillet for takeaway and ate it after about 2 hours or so when it was cold, but it was still fresh and tasty. The karaage chicken was a bit different with what was served at other Japanese restaurants, but it was nice and not too salty.
We ordered some sorbets after our dinner: yuzu (green packaging), mandarin (orange packaging) and grapefruit (yellow packaging) sorbet. I wasn't too sure about the last one, but due to the bitter taste I think it was grapefruit. Hot matcha is available freely but since it was very hot, it's better to get hot matcha while you're waiting for your meals and let it cool down. The food was always served quite quickly, which was really good especially for people who waited for their take-aways.
I'm a fan of JBento and I will definitely be back to try other things.
