Brand new Zojirushi Mr. Bento Stainless Steel Lunch Jar

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I was expecting the product to be a good way for me to bring a nutritious lunch to work. But I hate using it. It's incredibly heavy even without food in it. Each stacking dish is so large, I end up putting more food in than I want to eat. If you fill up the whole jar, you'll have at least 2 meals.
It doesn't keep foods as hot as it should (everything was lukewarm by the time lunch rolled around. I haven't tried anything cold yet.
It's too large to fit in any other bag, so it ends up being one more thing to carry.
Finally, I've been very aware of the plastics that seep into food - I hoped that this would be a good alternative. But all the dishes are plastic (not dishwasher safe).
What a waste of money!

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Bought this over a year ago, have used it a fair amount, and I'm pleased with it overall.

PROS:

The thermos jar does a good job maintaining temperature. The container most likely to contain hot food (the big one) fits second from the bottom.

The bag is really useful- it makes it easy to carry and provides a place to stash utensils and a napkin (unlike other thermos jars).

The combination of container sizes is good. There's a big one, two medium ones, and a little one- main dish, two sides, and a snack.

CONS:

The "soup" container- the little bowl with the rubber seal- doesn't work well. To get a good watertight seal, you need to close it so tight that it's almost impossible to open without spilling. Also the rubber seal, like all rubber seals, picks up food and odors and is tricky to clean. I ended up removing the seal and using the container for dry food like trail mix or veggies.

OTHER:

Because all the smaller containers are inside one large thermos jar, you can either pick hot or cold, not both. If you pack a hot entree, your sides will also warm up a bit. If you put carrot sticks and cookies in with hot pasta, they will not be cold at lunchtime.

The packaging says that the containers are not dishwasher safe. I've been putting them in the dishwasher regularly, and they're fine. Just treat them like any other plastic dish (keep them away from the heating element).

The big "main dish" container is not ideal for sandwiches, because it's round. It's great for rice (its intended use), or leftovers- noodles, mac and cheese, curry, whatever, as long as it's not too soupy (the container's not watertight). If you leave that container out, the next container in the stack rests on the rim of the jar without sliding down. This leaves space for a sandwich or a bagel or whatever, as long as it's roughly the same size as the external dimensions of the missing container.

If you leave out the top containers, there's room for a piece of fruit or a bag of chips under the lid instead.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

This is really a good, useful product, with lots of room to pack a filling and varied meal, but keep your expectations reasonable. The "soup" container is not terribly useful, so if you want to pack soup, pack a full serving in a different thermos. You can keep your whole lunch at a good temperature together, but not two different temperatures. The rice container is great for rice; if you're not packing rice (or similar), don't use it.

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I bought it almost a year ago. It costed me 65 dollars at the time. I prepare lunch for my 3.5 year old daughter when she goes to her preschool. I use it for warm food and cold food. All teachers in the school love it and some teachers bought it for their children. It is really good.

Now, I have more time in weekends. I just bought three more because the price is half way down. I am going to use them for picnics in weekends. Sitting by a beach and eat my own prepared food, clean, safe and healthy. Great product.

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Ordered it a month for many of the same reasons as other reviews. Mainly wanted a modular kit to haul lunch to and from work.

So far, have used it for soups, salads, casseroles, vegetables, meats, rice and fruit. Facilitates grazing through out the workday or for a nicely sized meal all at once.

Everyone who sees it, wants one.

Easy to use and keep clean.

No regrets.

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I got this so I could have more vegetables with my meals. I have ordered Laptop Lunch before but found their boxes to be too small.

This one comes in a box, with a bag, a metal container, 4 plastic containers and a spork (spoon/fork combo). The lids fit well.

The first day my husband and I took it to work, both our container fell sideways, and I am happy to find that nothing leaked (one of the containers contained soup, one an entree with gravy, and one container with a juicy fruit).

We don't put hot food in there, because we have access to microwaves at work. The hardest part for me was figuring out how to get all the heated food from the common room microwave back to my office. The method I use now is I just leave the cold stuff at my desk, and bring just the containers that need to be heated to the microwave (Note: the lid isn't microwaveable). Then I put the lids back on all the hot stuff, then put them into the metal container and bring it back to my desk. Now I have a nice well-balanced and attractive meal!

The containers look small, but when you use all 4 containers, it's a little too much food for me!

Making a well-balanced meal was also a pleasant surprise, it is much easier than I expected. Usually we have some leftovers, then I add fruit, add some veggies in another container, heat up some soup in the morning and then let them all cool before putting them into the containers.

The only suggestion is that I would have liked a space to put some blue ice to keep everything cool.

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Zojirushi Mr. Bento Stainless Steel Lunch Jar

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I bought this for my daughter's school lunches. It works very well overall. The only complaint I have is that the compartment for hot liquids could be bigger and sometimes that compartment is hard for little hands to twist open. Otherwise, it is a great item and it has been very useful.

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This is a great product. I have had great results with keeping warm food warm, cold food cold.

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For those of you who may not know, this system is very similar to the stainless steel stacking lunch jars which make their rounds in India. The "tiffin tins" are delivered to businesses by bicycle and typically contain various vegetarian curries/vegetables along with jasmine-steamed basmati rice in another of the stacked tin levels. This is an excellent (though not overly cheap) replacement for those who might want to try this style of "brown-bagging." I, for one, purchased this in order to force myself to bring my own lunch rather than going out to eat. This worked very well for me, where I would fill one container with salad, soup, or yogurt with berries. Then I put some chicken or other meat in one layer, perhaps some crackers and cheese in another, and then some carrots/celery (or, ahem, a cookie or two) to top it off. You can bundle all of that up in the container and happily go to work, knowing that you are set for eats for the entire day even if the day is a long one. One word of caution, while one of the stack-able containers is perfect for soup (with a rubber gasket, and steam-release one-way valve), in general it is good practice not to invert this guy too much. I have found on a few occasions (over the past two years of use) that this can lead to salad dressing from other compartments spilling into the main jar. This wouldn't be a big deal, other than you just need to clean the main jar at the end of the day as well. Great product and perfect way to maintain your eating habits.

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What a huge disappointment from a company that makes the best rice cookers in the world - my mistake for thinking they could make a good Bento kit. This think leaks like it has no seals in the containers (can't imagine one is actually designed for soup) and it is a pain to clean all the leaked fluids after use. I highley recommend that you do not buy this if you plan to use it for any food that might have even the slightest amount of liquids. I was fooled once . . .

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I bought this for myself and I love it. Only the bottom two containers keep the temperature, the top two go to room temperature. Anyone who complains hasn't read the directions. This kept my salad today nice and fresh.

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I'm only on my fourth Mr. Bento lunch day, but already I'm loving it! The only complaint I have is that the upper two bowls with the snap on lids don't stay cold. It's difficult to mix hot and cold the way that this is designed. You either need to make a cold/room temp lunch or warm/room temp lunch. There are some ingenious ways you can mix temperatures though, from making a metal disk out of roof flashing to reflect heat to freezing yogurt or pudding into the lower of the two upper bowls to keep them cool. I've found that works very well, my yogurt is defrosted by lunch time and the upper bowl has in turn been kept cold, but the lower two bowls are still piping hot. I haven't found that freezing yogurt has any unappetizing affect on the yogurt's texture or taste.

The bowls are indeed quite large, and even with a vegetarian diet (generally considered to be low-calorie), I have no problems stuffing my Mr. Bento with 800-900 calories worth of food. That's a very large meal! I usually eat 400-500 in one sitting, so I use some bowls for lunch and others for snacks. The possibilities in combinations are endless, and I'm enjoying coming up with new ideas for snacks and meals. Today was mulligatawny soup, quinoa with fresh mozzarella and eggplant-tomato ragu, yogurt with pineapple and granola, and chickpea salad. The outer pocket on the carrying case is the perfect place to fit my 3pm protein bar and is useful for carrying napkins and a sandwich bag of granola so it doesn't get mushy.

I'm not really in need of keeping foods hot or cold at work since we have both a fridge and microwave, though both are questionable in regards to cleanliness. It's nice not to have to "heat and eat", since I can do that in the morning when I pack the jar. I just open up my Mr. Bento and start eating. Neat! Mr. Bento's usefulness really comes into play after bike races. My teammates will be sitting around nibbling on a sports bar and protein shake, meanwhile I'm stuffing my face with hot daal, basmati rice and garlic naan. Can we say jealous!??!

Yes, $40+ might be a bit much for a lunch box, but I figure I only need to bring my lunch 4x a week for 2 weeks to break even on eating out. Plus, I tend to pack much healthier foods and I know what the calorie content is of everything in my lunch jar... something that can't be said when dining out.

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My husband works construction and landscaping and there is no where to heat up your food, Mr. Bento was worth every penny. We save so much money by reusing the lunch box and all it takes is each morning heating up the food he's taking and it's hot ALL day long, even in the cold winters. Other workers liked it so much they bought Mr. Bento too!

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Unlike many reviewers for this product, I'm a dedicated bring-your-own lunch person -- I've been making my own lunches since college. I used to bring lunch in a Ziploc bag or sealed plastic container, and for a while I had a lightly-insulated soft lunch"box". Usually I didn't have trouble, but sometimes things would leak or get squashed. When I started riding my bike to work and going all over the place on public transit, I really wanted something that would never leak out of its container, and would be easy to carry in a backpack or by hand. I also needed something that would hold quite a bit of food because I tend to get hungry in the afternoon and eating work-supplied popcorn and soda is not how I want to get my calories.

So far I've been very happy with the Mr. Bento container. It's easy to carry -- it fits right into my backpack, which my lunchbox and many plastic containers were a bit too wide for. I can also easily carry it in hand if I am walking from the train to work -- it is not uncomfortably heavy. It holds enough food for a big lunch and a snack. I've packed soup several times, as well as foods with some liquid (like fruit cobbler -- yum!) in the smaller side containers, and everything stays clean and inside the container. A bagel even fits whole into the main container and makes a great side with soup.

I tried the insulating properties the first day that I used it and wasn't incredibly impressed. My soup was still quite warm but not hot and other containers were not that warm. However, it's possible that I just did not prepare the jar or the food properly. Since I am pressed for time in the morning, but not at lunchtime, and I have access to a microwave, I usually just heat my food at work, and haven't tried the insulation since then. I don't microwave food in the bowls, although it says you can if you leave the lids off, because I have had bad luck in the past with various plastic containers getting a little "cooked" (crisp and bubbly) in the microwave, so I just don't heat stuff in plastic anymore. We have plenty of bowls at work, luckily.

An unforeseen benefit is that I am getting excited about packing my lunches again. When I started out making my lunch I put more work into it, but I got bored after a while and started just grabbing some leftovers and maybe some fruit for work, or just a sandwich and fruit. Now I am willing to get up a little earlier and cut up fruit or veggies and prepare something for the side, so I get more variety, which also means I am more satisfied and better nourished. I love to unpack my lunch and look at all my food before I settle down to eat. I am excited about learning to do some true bento-style lunches in the future too, and maybe even using it for breakfast on the go!

I highly recommend this lunchbox for anyone who's serious about bringing lunch to work or school, and especially anyone who already does, but wants to make lunch fun again. I would have given it five stars except for three things:

- The soup container is too small and there is no other option for something that's mostly liquid. I sometimes like a lot of soup at lunchtime and I can't do that with this box.
- The temperature maintenance did not impress me right away.
- The containers are not dishwasher safe. This doesn't matter to me since I don't have a dishwasher, but it is a big deal for a lot of people.
[Update 11/20/06] - The metallic finish on the outside of the jar is "painted" and can be scratched. This just happened to me recently and I wish they had just left it plain; I am worried now that all the paint will peel off. But this is purely cosmetic.
[Update 12/20/07] - No more scratches have appeared un the finish, and I am still using and loving my Mr. Bento nearly every day. However, I have gotten a bit bored of making lunch again!

But overall, it is a quality product and excellent way to bring satisfying lunches with you when you travel. I am still loving it and using it nearly every day more than a month after the original review date. Friends I have given it to as a gift have also raved about it!

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Ever since the reports about the risks of chemicals leeching from plastics that have been microwaved, I've been wary of carrying microwaveable lunches to work. I was very happy to find this lunch jar. I chose to buy the Classic Lunch Jar instead of the four-container Mr. Bento because I wanted the larger volume, but I have found that the Classic Lunch Jar can hold more food than I can eat (I'm a woman who can put away a large prime rib for dinner, but not in need of huge quantities for lunch). The middle container for the Classic Lunch Jar, which stands about 3.5 inches deep and 4 inches wide, is cavernous, and can alone hold more than a modest dinnerplate's worth of food.

I've found that putting soup into the bottom container is essential to keeping the middle container hot. It acts as the heat pack for the middle container. I usually heat canned soup in the morning in a pan, and pour it near-boiling into the container, and drop it into the bottom of the jar to start off. After 4 hours, the soup will still be too hot to eat!

Then, for the middle container, I heat up some leftover starches (rice, potatoes, etc.) and some sort of entree. I put the starches on the bottom, and pile the entree on top. The lid of the middle container has a hollow space built in to insulate it from the top container. The food in the middle container is still quite hot after 4 hours.

The top container should be reserved for something that would be eaten at room temperature. I think it was designed that way, judging by the pictures on the packaging. I can't read Japanese, so I was only able to guess. The picture shaded the jar from red to orange to yellow to white, starting from the bottom, which accurately corresponds to the temperature of my food after 4 hours (red being hottest, white being room temp).

I've tried putting an entree in the top container, to separate it from the starches, but it had cooled to near room temperature by the time I opened it 4 hours later. On the other hand, I've also put salad in there, and the salad was unmarred by the heat of the bottom containers after 4 hours.

If you're going to put cold food into the top container, I would recommend that you leave the top inch of the middle container empty as a heat buffer.

The only awkward thing about the container is that the soup container has a rubber ring gasket and a tiny dime-sized rubber vent cover, both of which need to be popped off and cleaned after each use. Otherwise, gunk will get into the gaps and get really gross. I've found that sticking the pointy end of the chopstick into the gasket groove will pry the thing out easily, and the valve cover is easy enough to take off. My only concern is that I swear that I'm going to lose or break either of them one day soon. But if that's the secret to being able to keep soup boiling hot for hours in a container that screws shut without leaking, then I'm willing to put in the extra effort.

Needless to say, I love this lunch jar, and would recommend it to anyone.

Check out the Zojirushi Lunch Jar fan club in Flickr. People have posted pictures of their lunches each day for all to admire. It's entitled Mr. Bento Porn.

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I love this product! I bought it for my fiancee so that he would start taking his lunch to work. So far it's been a month and he's been carrying this thing to work everyday. He says that it garners looks and questions from others at work, at how neat it is packaged. I just love how well it allows you to bring a balanced and delicious meal. He has even admitted that it's much yummier to eat this lunch, as opposed to eating out where the food is too heavy. Look for Mr. Bento on Flickr. Evidently it's created quite the stir!

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This large lunch jar is wonderful for big lunches. I like how you have four compartments for food so that you can separate ie. rice from sauce. We absolutely love it, the reason for not giving full five stars is that you cannot wash any of the parts in the dishwasher.

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Lunch is fun with Mr. Bento! I echo all of the comments listed below. I would add that I do not eat rice daily and at first the rice container seemed useless for non-dry items. I like to put a can of veggies in that container, but the juice leaks and pools at the bottom of the vacuum canister. With a small sheet of press and seal wax paper, my mess goes away.

A nice, new tool for lunch time eating solutions! No more mis-matched containers or unhealthy fast food meals. Mr. Bento will pay for itself in just a few weeks.

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Brand new Zojirushi Mr. Bento Stainless Steel Lunch Jar

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The first time we used this, it leaked everywhere and ruined my daughter's school books. I had high hopes for it, but was very frustrated and disappointed.

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Use it just about everyday for lunch on the go. For maintaining temperatures this item is excellent.

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I ordered a Mr. Bento for my wife for Christmas, after reading so many positive reviews here on Amazon. She loves it! Her soup stays hot, and warms whatever sits above it. She has to be careful packing items she wants to stay cold.
Shortly after she began using it, the little bowl that sits on top broke for no apparent reason (she does not put it in the dishwasher). I called the customer service number listed at the Zojirushi American Corporation web page http://www.zojirushi.com/ . All they needed was an email or fax of the invoice (I cut and pasted the printable page Amazon from my Amazon account for that order as a Word document) sent to them. They are mailing a free (they are paying postage too) replacement. On the phone they were the most polite people I have ever dealt with! We will enjoy doing business with them again. Highly recommended!

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