Obento-Ya

When I was attending the U, I lived just down the street from this place. This place did not exist in 2006. Indeed, most of the nice, tasty restaurants that have popped up here did not exist. Are the college kids being pushed out of this neighborhood? Legit question, because it is in walking distance of East Bank, and the price point here is not at all college-​kid appropriate.
Anyway, my spleen venting aside (be thankful you weren’t my dinner companions while we were here), this is a really nice place! It’s tiny and cramped because it’s a Minneapolis restaurant in a residential neighborhood. I dunno what you were expecting other than sitting on top of your neighbors.
I was starving and, y’know, really upset about my trashy college neighborhood that had no redeemable qualities becoming a nice area, so luckily our food came pretty quickly after we ordered. There’s a good sake list, and you can get the classic Japanese beers for a fair price.
I ordered the double spicy tuna roll, which came on the same plate as my cousin’s summer roll. I don’t know if they thought we were dating (awwwwwkkkward) or if they just have a slow dishwasher, but it was definitely weird to me. I’m not against collective eating, but usually, in America, I get my order on my own plate as a standard practice.
I decided the double spicy tuna roll, while really delicious, did not fill me up and was not warm enough for the cold night. My cousin and I went splitsies on a bowl of the House Ramen, which they happily served to us in separate bowls. Based on other reviews, it might be possible to just get a half order of the ramen, which is fantastic. The House Ramen was stupid good. Oh man. I’m glad I didn’t have a full portion because I would have just eaten it all regardless of how my stomach felt, and I would have had to have been carried out. The pork! The pork, the pork, the pork. I want it forever.
I’d come back for that ramen. Yes, very much so.
Also, the workers there also don’t know what the business across the street really is, but they do have some fascinating theories. See if you can figure it out!

We had the seaweed salad, a sushi roll, fried chicken, and the tonkotsu ramen. Great service, but the food was mediocre. Nothing too outstanding. I liked the rice on the sushi. The salad was good, but usually you can’t go too wrong with seaweed salad. The ramen was very mediocre. Not on par of good. The place itself is very nice though hidden in a semi-​rough neighborhood.

I have never had dinner at a restaurant around the world that told me that they do not serve katsu don for dinner! Server was not very polite.

This neighborly place known as Obento-​ya holds the top spot in Minneapolis and in my heart for wonderful earthy flavors in their food and ramen. The house ramen broth had a soy sauce base broth with hints of ginger in the meat, it tasted great. My Takoyaki with bento flakes came out piping hot drizzled in a black sauce, they paired well with my Inari. The other ramen we had was a Spicy Miso ramen with ground pork, quite good but nothing could beat the house ramen I had today. All washed down with hot green tea a very nice meal. The toilets here are the coolest I’ve ever seen LED lighted with heated seats for the 18 degree days when you just need a heated seat lol. But anyways it was well worth the thirty minute drive into the city for this hot spot.

I’ve been wanting to try their ramen for quite some time. For some reason I can never mustard up the courage to pay $ 12 for a bowl of ramen that I can probably make at home for $ 1.
It was lunch time. Parking was pretty cramped because there is only street parking. There are a few spots in the back, but chances are you won’t get those. The place is pretty small. I’d say it can sit about 20 – 30 people tops. This is a total hipster place.
The service is great. I got seated right away. Their sushi look good. The bento boxes look good. I was here for ramen. I ordered the house ramen. It came with slices of ginger pork and a hard boiled egg and ladle to suck up the broth with. There was also seaweed and sesame seeds in there for kicks which added to the taste. The noodles and broth tasted similar to Sapporo Ichiban ramen (which are my favorite), but much much better. The pork was tender as well. Overall I enjoyed it. The only gripe I have is that the egg was cold. I wish it was a fried egg or a poached egg.
Only 3 stars because this place was too upscaled. Ramen shouldn’t cost $ 12. I’ll just stick to my $ 8 phở and $ 1 instant ramen.

Great take on sushi and Japanese cuisine. Broader menu than most sushi places. Interesting seaweed salad and spicy ramen. Nice spicy trio and ‘winter’ roll. We also had a sake flight which went great with the the courses of our meal. Finally, the best part, free green tea ice cream. boom! Service was quick, place was clean, oh, and bidet toilets with remotes. We’ll be back.

Followed Unilocalers on this one. What can I say? They try hard. By that I mean that they were a bit flummoxed during the lunch crowd on a Wednesday. A group of 6 was there with a screaming baby and a toddler running all over the restaurant and crying. Enough about that, I know it’s a norm for Minneapolis and I had a child that age once.
Anyway, aside from the distractions, my sushi was really good. Though, I wasn’t sure what I was going to get as I sat at the bar to watch the chef and was NOT impressed by the preparation. However, the fish was quite good. What wasn’t good was my Yakiniku. The salad greens had rotten lettuce and almost made me gag. Rotten greens just give me that reaction, what can I say? The waiter did remove the charge for my bento box and properly admonished the sous chef. Otherwise pretty good. Three stars.

Service here is not good. We spent half an hour on checking out. Spent about two hours waiting for all we have ordered. Feel bad:(

The best Japanese food I’ve had in the twin cities so far (I am from Hawaii)! I ordered my meals from post mates the iPhone app to get delivery to my door. When it arrived, it was hot after being picked up from Obento-​ya 15 minutes prior.
The bentos are beautiful and high quality. Deep friend options are fresh and crispy without being greasy (tempura, tonkatsu, etc). Potato salad with cucumber and apples is surprisingly good (I don’t like sweet salads). The tempura sauce is REALLY good. Good portions of each part of bento.

An amazing Japanese restaurant!
The restaurant is nice and tidy with a simple look.
I ordered the takoyaki (octopus balls), spicy trio roll, and classic chicken yakitori bento.
This was my first time trying takoyaki, so I was pretty excited. It was full of flavors, creamy, and moist. The octopus meat was good, and not too chewy.
The trio sushi was a roll with salmon, tuna, and I believe mackerel. It was full of meaty goodness. However, I did not taste any spice. Nonetheless, it was still good.
My bento box was great! It came with rice, grilled chicken on skewers, yakitori sauce, a type of salad, and mashed potatoes. Everything in the bento box was delicious! The most outstanding thing is their yakitori sauce. It’s like a sweet and flavorful soy sauce. My friend and I had the sauce to-​go in the sauce lid because it is so good. Everything in the box combined to a great meal. This sealed the deal for me.
The service was good. The waiter always interacted at the right time, and was really nice and polite.
Overall, Obenta-​ya is a gem in the area. Good service, and great food.

Honestly, there’s so much room for improvement.
My fiancé and I went here with another couple a little after 6pm on a Wednesday. The place is pretty small. Maybe 500 sq. ft. at best? The dining room was ¾ full (roughly 15 – 25 people including us). We were seated promptly which was nice. I probably wouldn’t recommend visiting during peak hours with a party of 6 or more though. The table we sat at was pretty sticky in the sense of «clean sticky.» Like it was wiped with water and that’s it, but the residue was still there.
My buddy and I originally wanted to get Takoyaki, but the waiter told us they were out. We were disappointed and when I asked if they were made in-​house he said no. I was surprised a place that would call themselves a «Japanese Bistro» wouldn’t make a dish like Takoyaki in-​house. That was disappointment number one. Number two was they were out of the beer I had asked for, Sapparo Draft. So we skipped beers and stuck with water. We ordered a few appetizers.
Kara-​age (Japanese fried chicken) — breading was light, but the chicken tasted old, tough, and reheated.
Japanese pickles — probably the highlight, but when things are pickled, there’s not much work involved…
Winter sushi roll — didn’t try it, but the others liked it.
My buddy and I had both ordered the Champon ramen. He ordered the thicker ramen while I stuck to the thin. Fiancé had ordered the shrimp Katsu bento and my buddy’s girlfriend ordered another ramen. The two Champon ramen came out first and another waiter just set it on the table. Couldn’t figure out who ordered what. It honestly was hard to tell which bowl had the thicker ramen. The dish had an abundance of cabbage in them. Disappointment number three: So after a 30 seconds of comparing noodles and coming to the conclusion they were the same thickness, I just took the closer of the two. (Later on I did mention I had ordered the thinner of the two noodles and he pointed out my buddy had the thinner set… I honestly could hardly tell) The broth was light and lacked a bit of flavor. Nearly every bite was 75% cabbage. I’m a fan of cabbage too, but raw cabbage has such a strong flavor to it. Even if they had dropped the cabbage into the broth for 10 minutes it still would’ve been overpowering. Then there was the fact we were missing our sautéed pork. The girls enjoyed their dish though.
Come end of dinner and our waiter took a decade to get back to our table. After all the disappointments, there was no sense of acknowledgement. Honestly we spent nearly two hours there and the majority of it was waiting for our waiter.
I really don’t recommend it myself. I had better ramen around town and there’s still more to try. Please if you look for takoyaki, make it your mission to at least find a place that makes it in-​house.
Also they have a bidet in the bathroom. If you stop in there, try it out. It’s an experience that deserved the star.

Absolutely awful experience. Placed an online order and was told that it would be a 60 minute wait for pickup.
After arriving an hour later to pick up my food, I was told that the system didn’t work and the order was never placed despite the fact that I was given a confirmation number. What a joke.
When I then asked if an order could be placed, I was told the restaurant was closed for the night.
I’ll never return to this place. Poor management and dismal customer service.

Since I work less than a mile away the convenience is great for lunch. I always order ahead and I keep it simple, sashimi salad and takoyaki (my favorite!) small and quaint with street parking. Good place for lunch.

Worst service I have ever experienced! We waited 25 minutes just for a server to come by, no apologies. We ordered food and waited another 45 minutes. No food, he then came by and apologizes and says he’ll bring us some edamame for our wait. We never saw edamame and ended up leaving. Couldn’t tell you how the food was since it never showed up. One table who arrived after us received their food before we even got our appetizers.
The table next to us was eating when we arrived and waited a while for their checks and they waited a half hour for the server to run their credit cards.
Worst service. Do not go here!

My family and I have enjoyed coming here for many years, but the last time we came (⁷⁄₁₀), we experienced TERRIBLE service which has ruined my opinion of the restaurant.
First off, there was no hostess at the front to check us in, so we waited for about 10 minutes before any server even acknowledged my presence. (There were multiple unreserved tables open, so there didn’t seem to be a good reason for the wait.) Since my family and I have been coming here for a while, we didn’t need much time to peruse the menu — but our server didn’t take our order for at least another 15 minutes. The most astounding thing is that it took 45 MINUTES for my sashimi bento box to come out. This is not an exaggeration — we timed it. My parents were already finished eating their bento boxes by the time it arrived.
The most frustrating thing is the lack of apology we received from our server. We inquired about the long wait for the sashimi, and he exasperatedly explained that the sushi chefs were backed up, and there was absolutely nothing he could do. What he could have done was warn me at the beginning that the sashimi would take longer than usual to come out — I would have really appreciated the heads-​up.
When the sashimi came, our server asked if everything was alright. Needless to say, we politely expressed our frustration and disappointment in the service. This seemed to further frustrate our server, and he eventually said he’d «buy the sushi.» We appreciated the gesture itself, but his tone was rude and condescending.
Furthermore, we witnessed 2 other parties wait at the front and then leave after not receiving any acknowledgment or help from the servers. Let me reiterate that there were multiple unreserved tables open — it was unbelievable.
I would give Obento-​Ya 1 star if not for the fact that I think they serve some of the best sushi in MN. Nonetheless, the appallingly rude service my family and I experienced at our last visit does not make us want to return.

What a gem. I have had sushi and hibachi before about ten thousand times, but never any other Japanese. Came in with a friend and sat at the sushi bar. We asked the server for suggestions and just went with what he said. We split the spicy tuna roll and the takoyaki, since they were both on happy hour special, and got the house bento box to share also.
The service was great! The server clearly took a lot of pride and explained what each thing was thoroughly to us and was very animated throughout. All of the food was so good. I loved the takoyaki and the bento box was so fun. Definitely recommend. It’s a small place, but definitely worth coming to. I want to try more things from their menu.

I am not sure if I am just not ordering the right dishes, or if this place is simply overhyped. I gave Obento-​Ya a couple of chances, but I have decided that I will opt for other Japanese options in town.
The first time:
I had Pork Classic Bento — Kushi-​katsu, fried. breadcrumb skewers naturally battered & served with an original seasoned katsu sauce. This was alright. It was not bad, but it wasn’t necessarily good either. Some of the components weren’t very fresh (sitting out for a while?) in my opinion. That was my first time trying a bento, and frankly, I don’t have anything to compare it to. All I know is that I try to stay away from ordering bento now.
We also had a order of Takoyaki, which was decent, but I haven’t had «bad» Takoyaki yet at most of the places I have ordered them at.
The service was quite pleasant this time!
The second time:
My friend and I arrived at this place after not feeling satisfied dining out at another restaurant. She mainly wanted some Takoyaki or some appetizer/​snack. We, of course, were not dressed the nicest. I think we were wearing sweatpants and hoodies. Well, maybe that contributed to the crappy service we received.
Upon looking at the menu, I decided to get Soba while my friend ordered Takoyaki. The Takoyaki balls were fine again, but I did not like my Soba noodles at all. They were bland and tasted like unseasoned noodles in hot, plain water. At this point, we were still debating whether to get dessert or not. However, the server never came back to check on us after the initial ordering and giving us our food.
We try to flagged him down several times, but he was busy in the back hanging out with his coworkers. Or when he was around, he was serving his other tables. After 20 minutes or so of waiting, we decided not to get dessert anymore. Now it’s waiting for the check. We actually got so annoyed waiting that my friend went and told him in the back that we were done with our meal.
I am not sure why I am even giving this place two stars, maybe for the decent Takoyaki balls. If your customers had to go to the back to flag you down, it’s a pretty bad sign. Stop judging customers by their looks. I almost wanted to give you a giant tip to make you feel extremely guilty, but I did not — saving my money for better service and better food.

Fantastic place to get sushi! I might say second best only to origami. Wonderful service but the restaurant is small. Might be a better place to go in the summer time when they open their patio.
Don’t forget to order some of their mochi! It’s worth it even when you’re stuffed.

I’ve only been here once. The place is a little bit cramped and tiny, but has really cute décor and is very clean and pretty inside. We came for lunch when it was very busy, but our party of 4 was seated quickly at one of those nice larger tables right by the window. A bit chilly since it was in the middle of January, but it didn’t bother me too much. Service was prompt and friendly so no complaints on that score.
It was a work lunch so no sake for me. I had water. I was just recovering from a very serious cold, so a nice hot steaming bowl of Ramen was just the ticket. I had the House Ramen with Shoyu Ginger Pork. It hit the spot and cleared up my nasal passages sufficiently enough so that I could breathe again. No leftovers here, I finished the whole thing. After I saw the Combo Bento boxes with that Japanese potato salad being served to other diners, I had slight order envy and now I really want to go back to try these! Soon as I saw salmon I started hyperventilating. (I’m promising myself a next time!)
I ordered a side of shrimp tempura without seeing it on the menu but I just asked our server who happily obliged me. They came out nice and hot — 2 per order. At around $ 10 for 2 shrimps, it was a bit expensive I thought — all things considered. I had a bite of someone else’s Spicy Trio roll. I enjoyed this a lot! Wish I had gotten one for myself. Their Gyoza is also delicious — fried crispy little pork dumplings. Overall I was happy with my lunch.
I do feel that this restaurant is in an odd location, sort of crammed in between a few run-​down looking buildings, next door and across the street. I mean, I almost missed it completely when I drove past it the first time, they weren’t open and everything was dark inside so I thought there were no longer in business. But looks aren’t everything, it’s what’s inside that counts! Good thing my work ladies suggested lunch here. I’d go again when I’m in the area, for sure!

I must honestly say that I was a bit disappointed by this place. At 8PM, there was no real wait for seating. Our waiter was quick to attend our table, and this was consistent through the night. Frankly, the rating I gave was due to the food strictly.
Spicy Trio Roll: This had a merge of three fish (salmon, tuna, yellow fish). Sadly, I thought the roll was pretty bland. They rolled it up perfectly (dense and not falling apart) but the actual fish were bit flavorless. I tried it with my soy sauce + wasabi and without and it made no real difference.
Beef bento: The slices of beef were flavored nicely with the sauce they had (resembled teriyaki), but it was fairly chewy and bit overdone. I loved the potato salad and the salad sides but unfortunately, there wasn’t anything particularly memorable about the main entrée in this bento box.
Kake Udon: I generally am not a big ramen person and favor udon. So, I was very very very disappointed when I tried the version here and it was so off? The soup was a bit sweet which I found off-putting…however, the noodles were perfectly cooked though. For some reason, this version just reminded me of the packaged udon (with the powder soup) you buy at asian grocery markets. I definitely will not be ordering this again.
Overall, the food was average to me here and I would not go out of my way to come again. But that being said, if I do come with friends next time, I probably will try their ramen given they advertise it as «best in minneapolis»…
Street parking!

Exceptional for the price. Cozy. Go for the filet.