Zojirushi Mr. Bento Stainless Steel Lunch Jar Get it now!

Over All Rating Reviews :

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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Over All Rating Reviews :

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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Over All Rating Reviews :

So I was really excited to pack my lunch in to one cute little container... I made some really good veggies for leftover, veggie chili, snacks... Only problem was it's sore-pressed to stay upright on a car seat for the long drive to work. And, granted, I admit that I DID read it was not leak-proof, but just how leak-proof that's the problem. I put the cold VERY thick (eat with a fork thick) chili in the larger bottom cooler container... the entire inside of the thermos, all the containers, everything, covered in chili ooze. And then there was the staining... everything finally came clean except for the original chili container. I was better off sticking with my Lock & Locks. For sale: Used once, very clean except for slight stains in one container....

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Over All Rating Reviews :

I just had to have this lunchbox. My work has a so-so cafeteria, but I prefer to bring my own. My department shares a little bitty fridge so I thought I could use this item and store my lunch under my desk. I eat 6 hours after I pack, sometimes later and I don't have a temperature problem. I do follow the rule of either all hot or all cold. You can't mix with this design. For hot it helps if you fill the outer container with hot tap water for 5 minutes before packing. For cold I just store overnight in my fridge.
You don't have to eat Asian every day to benefit from this box. The only restriction is the largest container (for rice) is not watertight, so I use it for either lettuce or chips. Sometimes I pack dinner leftovers. Other times I pack sandwich fillers and pack my bread separately so I can make a fresh sandwich at the lunch table. I've even used it to bring all sorts of fruits and veggies so I can graze all day. It works as a compact vessel for a picnic lunch too.
A drawback is that the containers are plastic. I'm afraid to put them in the microwave or dishwasher for fear of ruining my expensive lunchbox.

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