Food

Big Island Bento Offers Tasty Bento Boxes and Poke Bowls in new West Ashley Whole Foods

Published

6 years ago

September 30, 2018

Whole Foods Market recently opened their second area location in West Ashley, and while many of you are more than familiar with the store’s offerings and their popular hot bar, some may not be aware of Big Island Bento, which is available at the new store.

Big Island Bento is run by Genji, which began as a mom-and-pop sushi and Japanese cuisine restaurant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their Whole Foods locations offer customers the option between building their own Hawaiian bento box and choosing from a variety of pre-rolled sushi and other Japanese entrees.

I was offered the chance to try some of these menu options at no cost the West Ashley Whole Foods and jumped at the chance. Needless to say, this is not your average supermarket sushi.

I was lucky enough to try many different options and ended with the following takeaways:

All of the bento box and poke options, sushi rolls, and sides are made in house and are all high quality
The poke bowl I ate was full of fresh ingredients and was very flavorful. It had a welcome spicy kick, which took it over the top for me. I definitely place this as my top pick
My favorite bento box protein option would either be the Loco Moco Burger with fried egg or the Huli Huli Chicken
- The burger is juicy and cooked with onions, which makes it perfect to sop up with the quinoa or rice base
- Also, who doesn’t love a burger with a fried egg?
- The Huli Huli Chicken is tender and has a pleasing sweet taste
The only protein I didn’t care for was the Hawaiian Tofu Balls. They were bland and dry. If you order them, be sure to have some kind of sauce to dip them in
The sides were all pretty good, but I recommend the grilled red pepper pineapple or the cheese wontons
Although my meal was free, the prices are pretty good – $10.88 for bento boxes and $9.99 for poke bowls

With a good price point and fresh, tasty ingredients, Big Island Bento offers Whole Foods shoppers another great option for their next on-the-go lunch or quick-and-easy dinner. I definitely recommend giving it a try the next time you’re grabbing groceries.

You can see the photos of their menus and dishes below.

The West Ashley Whole Food can be found at 1125 Savannah Highway. Click here for hours and more info.

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