Sushi Bento

After hearing about this place from friends and checking the reviews on here, I decided to head to the mall and give them a shot. Walking up to the counter, you are warmly greeted by the guys that work there who are very friendly and talkative. I ordered 3 rolls; a crunchy spicy tuna roll, an avocado roll, and a cucumber roll. By normal standards, these are almost impossible to mess up. Spoiler alert: They were a train wreck. Even though I was the only person ordering, it took them over 15 minutes to complete my order. I can’t imagine how long it would take if there was any kind of a line. Shockingly, as the one guy was making my tuna, he asked, «Do you want any avocado in your spicy tuna roll?» What? No. What kind of question is that? Are you serious? I already ordered an avocado roll, are you trying to be cheap with the tuna and use it as filler? Crunchy spicy tuna rolls normally do not have avocado in them.
After the long wait I sat down and opened the tray to find everything completely off. I said, «Oh boy, here we go», as I snapped apart the super cheapie, ultra short, coffee stirrer thin chopsticks and proclaimed, «itadakimasu!» Looking at everything, you couldn’t help but notice that they were incredibly stingy with the wasabi and soy sauce. A wasabi blob as big as a pea and two half-​filled soy sauce containers. The ginger portion was ok, however. There were no greens of any kind, not even the plastic Easter grass you commonly see. All of this was served in a generic styrofoam tray. I noticed another review on here saying the portions are large. They aren’t. You immediately think that because you’re seeing 8 pieces instead of 6 that there is more food. There isn’t; they just cut them thinner so it looks like you are getting more. Presentation? Absolutely terrible.
Going for the tuna first which had the most dreadful coloring I’ve seen in awhile; as soon as I bit down, there was a weird taste and the texture was completely wrong. I wondered what it was, and peeling the side open of one of the pieces, I find they had packed it with something akin to deep fried chinese noodles. It was most certainly not tenkasu or tempura; wrong color, wrong taste. I don’t know what it was, and I don’t know what they think they are doing, but this is not how a crunchy spicy tuna roll is to be prepared. Ever. The cucumber roll wasn’t even truncated and had big random stalks sticking out of the sides of the two end pieces. The avocado roll looked sad and I could tell by the color that it wasn’t ripened enough yet to have been being used for this. On top of it, all of the rice was just a mess. Did they actually use sushi rice for this? What is going on with this place?
As far as the prices of things, they are equal or higher than the average pricing you’d find for the same menu items in better places. I understand it’s the mall and they must have rent to pay, but the quality just isn’t there for the asking price. At least you are able to use credit cards at the register; which is probably the only positive thing about the experience aside from the guys being so friendly. I didn’t have high hopes for this place as it was, because it is the Staten Island Mall food court afterall. But if you think this place is good, you haven’t had good sushi yet. Again, I can’t fault the guys for their friendliness, but friendly doesn’t equate to good food. If they can manage to screw up a simple cucumber roll, I certainly wouldn’t want to find out how they could mess up more elaborate sushi. Overall, I would not recommend this place.

Yummy yummy in my tummy. Nothing else hits the spot better than carbs when you’ve been walking around shopping all day. Ordered the shrimp teriyaki bento and salmon teriyaki bento, both with brown rice. All bento boxes come with whatever protein you want over rice, a 4 piece California roll and a side salad with orange dressing. They were both reasonably priced and were made to order. Food were not sitting there on display unlike other food court stalls.
The people working there were nice and the food was ready quickly. They give you generous portions for the price ($ 7 – 10 ish) which i was surprised about. The food was delicious. My teriyaki shrimp was cooked but not overly done and there was probably 7 – 8 pieces over my generous helping of brown rice. California roll was okay… it’s really hard to mess that one up. The side salad was nothing special but the rest of the bento made up for it. Sorry I don’t have a pic of the salmon bento but it came with like 4 slices.

the only real live sushi place in the mall. the mall’s food court is small but this one gave it its punch. I was happy to see the regular sarku teriyaki stand but I wanted something more fresh when it came to sushi. I don’t like cold rice sushi when I can have it warm. the tri star roll was good. it a had a combination of fish which I don’t remember, just remembered it was good. salmon roll was also great!

Stop by for a free sample before you buy!
I don’t give out 5 stars to a food court stand often — actually I’ve never actually done so. But I’m giving Sushi Bento 5 stars because the food is good and the people are just so damn friendly. For years, there has only been one chicken teriyaki vendor in Staten Island Mall but recently Sushi Bento opened up. When I first noticed Sushi Bento, I felt like they were copying the other vendor. After I tried a free sample, offered to me by the extremely friendly guys behind the counter, I changed my mind.
The chicken teriyaki here is one of the best I have ever had. It’s moist, well seasoned and huge chunks of chicken! You also get a side salad and a California roll with your chicken + rice. The sauce is really the star of the show — so tasty! But I really really must comment on the super nice guys that run the stand. They’re always making up some teriyaki chicken to give out as free samples and they’re so super friendly when you order too. They’re always smiling, unlike the people at the other teriyaki stand who look like they hate their job. Gotta love the attitude!