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List Price: $66.00
Sale Price: $46.91
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It's a great "lunchbox" if you adapt your menu to it.
First the description
The lunchbox is a Thermos Jar with a non-insulated plastic top. There are four containers that fit into the jar in a specific order.
-The bottom container is a insulated bowl. It has a gasket sealed screw on top, insulated side walls and a small vent for pressure. The most insulative of the bunch it is designed for soup or other liquids
-The next container is the biggest. It has a slide and lock insulated top.
-The third container is notably smaller and has a Tupperware like pop top.
-The fourth container is smaller yet and has the same top.
You stack the containers in the jar and then clip the top on with little side clips. The whole thing then goes in a nice nylon carry bag that also has a pair of chopsticks in a narrow plastic box. There are little pockets on the side for extra sauce packets or condiments (or I-pod video's to watch while your eating lunch).
This unit is optimally designed for the Japanese style lunch. A soup, Rice, entrée and pickled/salted vegetables. Normally you'd put your soup in the bottom container, fill the middle container up with rice. Your entrée would go in the third and the veggies in the fourth. Since the soup and the rice container both have insulated tops they stay warm. The other containers are not insulated and neither is the top. This allows some heat coming off the bottom two containers to escape so that your veggies are at room temperature. Understanding this is important. Its not supposed to keep the entire meal at the same temperature. Its supposed to keep one part hot and the other part at room temperature.
I've found that in real use the soup container stays steaming hot. The stuff in the rice container stays warm (but not hot) the stuff in the top two containers heats up to room temperature, maybe a little bit more.
Naturally you don't have to use it as designed (soup/rice/entrée/veggie) but departures require a little bit adaptation and creativity. You need to balance both amounts and what you want to keep the hottest vs coolest. Also if you have access to a microwave at lunch it kind of makes this not quite as useful since you could just heat your food up there (as opposed to heating it up in the morning before you go). You could use the whole thing as a cooler (everything remains cold/cool till you heat up what you want). That might be a better way to go if your using it for the office.
The size of the room temperature containers is not large enough to handle American sized sandwiches and breads, so if your looking to take that traditional lunch box stuff this isn't the best unit for that.
If your looking to make the most of this unit you might check out some Bento Box cookbooks. They give receipies and menu sets more in line with what this is designed to handle. In particular I enjoyed the book "Bento Boxes" by Naomi Kijima
Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go
I'll cook something up out of that and thrown in a packet of instant miso soup for a Japanese style lunch.
Pros-
Compact and efficient use of spaceIt all goes in the tube, no bag full of different containers
Allows for two temperatures in the same container Allows for flexible combinations
Lots of interesting comments from your co-workers
Cons-
Cleanup is a bit of a pain Not dishwasher safe. The soup top is a little tricky at times.
Soft plastic will eventually pick up strong smells/Stains
Two temperatures in the same container Requires a little creativity, doesn't keep everything uniformly hot/cold.
Conclusion-
As long as you understand how it works and adapt it's a great product. Might encourage you to cook a bit more healthy food and eat more vegetables.
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I bought one of these not too long ago. I thought it was a little expensive,* but I can see that I will get many years of service from it.
The construction of all the components are very sturdy, and the container is very well insulated. The bag has an outside pocket that you can use to store a napkin (or teabags, as I do) and comes with a detachable shoulder strap and an attached short carrying strap. Inside the bag, along with the thermal container, is a utensil box that holds a pair of chopsticks. Everything is quality construction even the chopsticks, which have a textured surface on the business end of them making it easier for you to pick up food with them. Whoever designed this package gave it a lot of thought.
The bottom two containers are intended for holding rice and soup; the rice container has an insulated cap, allowing you can to store hot & cold items in the same container.
Overall, I'm very satisfied with this purchase and would recommend one of these to anyone who needs a lunchbox.
My only complaints (which are minor, but included here for the sake of completeness): the instructions are in Japanese (as if you needed them), and no western utensils (you can pack your own fork). But outside of that, it's a perfect product.
*Expensive? It paid for itself in 2 weeks after I bought it, I stopped eating fast food for lunch.
** It's been 2 years since I bought yet to show any sort of appreciable wear and tear. I love this thing!
*** It's now been about 5 years. Still using it, still in darn good shape.
*** It's now been about 10 years. Still using it. No appreciable wear.
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The picture doesn't show that each bowl has a lid. The two smaller bowls have snap on tuperware type lids.
The rice bowl has a thick, insulated lid but it's not airtight. Instructions say to use it only for rice as other contents may spill.
The soup bowl has a twist on lid that has a valve on it. However, the instructions say not to microwave the bowls with the lids on, so I'm not sure why the valve is there.
You're not supposed to put the pieces in the dishwasher, nor put any food directly into the outer container.
My lunch jar came with both English and Japanese instructions.
Honest reviews on Zojirushi Mr. Bento Stainless Steel Lunch Jar
My daughter, a high school senior who agrees with her friends that the school lunches "suck," is sold on this. She wanted to lose a few pounds, which this has helped her do despite the fact that she now eats a higher volume of food during lunch.
How? She, like all her friends, used to skip lunch and leave school famished, scarfing down the first things she could get her hands on usually high fat, high calorie junk food. This lunch box has eliminated her after-school munchies, keeping her appetite in check all day long. For the first time, she can pack hot (or cold) nutritious lunches at 6:30am, and they are still piping hot (or ice cold) when she pulls it out of her locker at 11:30. Her friends, who good-naturedly mocked her "space capsule" lunch at first, now crowd around her during lunch with their tongues hanging out, jockeying in line for her scraps. One remarked: "Your lunch container is about the same size as my water bottle, but you've got, like, a 4-course gourmet meal in there."
She's lost 10 pounds in the 2 months since she started taking her lunch in the Zojirushi jar, has gained noteriety among peers for having the "best lunches ever," has become more good-natured and less surly (better nutrition), and dances in her seat during 4th period as she waits for the bell to signal lunch period, where she can spread out her containers before her envious yet admiring friends and hold court over her "gourmet surprise" meal, trying to decide what to eat first. By her own admission, she has more energy and better concentration in class and during studies (her grades are up, by the way). She admits it's a pain to have yet one more thing to carry around in addition to her backpack (not that it wouldn't fit, but the backpack is already stuffed tight with books), but swears the payoff makes it worth the minor trouble. As a parent, it tickles me to see this self-described "laziest person on earth" hunkered over the sink at nights, lovingly and painstakingly cleaning out every container and lid (no doubt thinking ahead to the delicious and wholesome treats it will contain tomorrow).
Such a good buy, I bought another Zojirushi model better suited for my 11-year-old daughter. My kids say they will never go back to school cafeteria lunches, and have become much more nutritionally aware and involved in meal preparation. While their friends waste half their lunch period standing in line for tasteless and overprocessed entrees laden with salt, refined sugar and carbs, my kids dine on veggie chili and hot cornbread w/butter, delicious main course salads with homemade dressing, pita sandwiches and hummus, and stir fried teriyaki veggies over whole grain rice. And that's just the bottom 2 containers! The top 2 containers are perfect for fruit, tortilla chips, nuts and/or healthy desserts, all items middle and high schoolers love to eat. I'm thrilled with the product, which is solidly constructed, and which works completely as advertisied, with even better results if you preheat or pre-cool containers for 5-10 mins. We replaced the chopsticks with a plastic cutlery set, which fits nicely upright in the cloth carrier, thanks to the stretch loop on the inside.
NOTE: Like the other reviewer, I too was mildly annoyed at the Japanese-only user documentation, but then called the company at their California office (800-733-6270) and they promptly mailed/faxed English instructions. Don't even get me started on the money this saves by eliminating costly meals out and packaged foods. Excellent, excellent buy that has already paid for itself tenfold.
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We purchased the Bento box, based on the good reviews on Amazon, and initially had a good experience with it. The concept is obviously sound (with centuries of testing!), although we were concerned by the apparent flimsy security of the insulated tub "rings" on one container (the little rubber inserts for insulation). The center "plug" fell out after a few weeks use, and would not stay securely inserted thereafter. We called the manufacturer, and were curtly advised that there was NO WARRANTY on the product whatsoever! We were invited to purchase replacement plugs for nearly $3 each, plus $3 shipping, which we did, begrudgingly. We filled out a customer service feedback form online, hoping that perhaps the lack of service provided by phone was an anomaly (It's not so much the additional expenditure that bothers me, as the company's complete unwillingness to stand behind their product. That's disconcerting, to say the least).
UPDATE: The company just called and threatened legal action based on the above review...!? Way to go, customer service! I am leaving 2 stars for the product, but the company behind it gets zero stars. Purchase at your own peril, and in the knowledge that you are paying mor ethan $40 for something that will likely break, and has no warranty for anything but the large outer casing.
