Chicken Teriyaki Bento & Gyūdon at Tamon Tea, Berkeley USA

Chicken Teriyaki Bento (鶏照り焼き弁当): Teriyaki Chicken, Japanese-style Spaghetti, marinated tomatoes and veggies, rice $6-7

Tamon Tea's bento box is differently daily. It is usually out of stock if you visit after lunch time as well. Their marinated eggplants and tomatoes are surprisingly very good despite the ordinary appearance. For the Gyūdon, the thin beef slices are a little bit dry, but the flavor is excellent. It serves with lots of rice and 7-spice chili pepper and black sesame.

Salmon and Hamachi Bento at Kirala 2, Berkeley USA

Hamachi (Yellow Tail) Bento: Grilled Hamachi, Tamago, veggies cooked with dashi broth, rice $10

Salmon Bento: Grilled Salmon, Tamago, veggies cooked with dashi broth, rice $10

Kirala 2 is located inside "Epicurious Garden." It can be easily found on the right-hand side once you enter the building. Although it is a small space for Kirala, there are constantly at least 3-4 sushi chefs who's making sushi all the time. I once met a Japanese girl while waiting in line and she said their bento is very close to the ones in Toyko, which is where she was from. Their bento box usually includes protein (either grilled fish, chicken, or deep-fried tonkotsu) and large variety of Japanese veggies cooked with fish stock.

Bento, Taiyaki, Takoyaki, Onigiri Rice Ball, and Mitarashi Mochi at Tamon Tea, Berkeley USA

Bento Box $6-7
Upper Left:
cherry blossom denbu (Ground Seasoned Codfish)
chopped egg
marinated ground beef
all those ingredients above over rice

Upper Right:
cucumber and picked daikon (Japanese radish)broccoli, cauliflower, and carrot
Bottom Right:
eggplant with miso sauce (super yummy!)
tomatoes
spaghetti

Mitarashi Dango, Rice cake with sweet sauce $1.95

I really like this little hidden gem in Berkeley. It gives me all the tasty Japanese snacks I want. I came to this place pretty often, and tried out many of their snacks. (Check out my previous post to see what other snacks I've tried.)