Number 1 Bento

Wonderful bibimbap, cheerful service, they take credit cards AND GoBox. Sad when I don’t eat here at least once a week.

Being a Portland newb and slightly obsessed with Asian food, I ate up an article on the 10 bento food stands to visit in the city. This one is conveniently located just across from City Target, so was a welcome source of fuel on the day that I was moving into my new apartment. I got the tofu bento and it was the best fried tofu that I have ever had! The kimchi wasn’t bad either. I would definitely come back to try some other things on the menu!

I usually order the bibimbap with tofu and extra fried egg. It’s delish! If you’re a vegetarian or vegan (just opt out the fried eggs), this is your dish. Otherwise, I will order the tofu bento. If you want to get your order by the time you get to the food cart, you can m pre-​order by calling.

I enjoyed the bulgogi bento box from here. It is on the pricey side, but it has a lot of food. I would return if I were really hungry.

This is one of the many food cart pods in Portland, but the difference is, we went back twice to this place! We ordered a combo of bulgogi and teriyaki chicken and it was delicious. The following day, I wanted it for lunch again! It’s quick, it’s cheap, it’s filling, and it’s amazing.

This is a review solely for the Ramen (Ramyun) they serve here.
Be warned, it is straight up Shin packaged ramen (which I love btw, and make it better than this place!!). If you don’t know what Shin ramen is, it’s a delicious packaged ramen that costs about $ 1 – 2 that you can buy at any Asian grocery store.
There’s not a single doubt in my mind that this was Shin, from the flavor, noodle type, to the tiny mushrooms and other dehydrated vegetables. They added an egg and a little seaweed, and charged me $ 6.50 (which I didn’t realize at the time, but is 50 cents over the advertised price). I used cash, too, so there definitely shouldn’t have been any fees.
Basically a complete rip off. The other food they served looked tasty but I can’t support an establishment that charged me over $ 6 for freakin’ shin!@($*$!!
Number 1 Bento should be ashamed!

Pretty good for quick Korean food. Stars are knocked down for portions and service charge. I was feening for some bibimbap and decided to go with the one with tofu. Preferably, I like my tofu not fried, so just be forewarned that it will come slightly fried in what looks like panko. The tofu is cut into two little triangle blocks — was expecting smaller pieces of tofu throughout the dish, but ok. The packaged sauce it came with wasn’t needed — also thought that was too sweet/​spicy and ruined the flavor anyway. Everything else was pretty good, but I expected more tofu for the price. Also they charge an extra $ 0.50 for credit card usage, which is kind of ridiculous since there are plenty of other competitive carts right near it that don’t.

Korean food is great! I haven’t found very many Korean places around Portland, but this one was great. I appreciated the taste of meat, flavored just right. The service was friendly. My only concern was where to eat a plate lunch with no tables nearby.

First time in Portland and we had to try the world famous food carts!
As we first walked across to the block of food carts, number 1 Bento caught my eye. However, I wanted to see my options because they were numerous. As I came back around, my heart was still set on Korean BBQ.
I ordered the Korean short ribs bento, which was $ 12 (a tad pricey in my opinion). It came with a decent amount of rice, a side salad (which was just lettuce and dressing) and jap chae. Also a drink, $ 1.50. That was pricey too, so maybe I should’ve walked around to see if any other carts offered cheaper.
They take awhile to get your order, but they do not disappoint. I ate my whole entire bento. The short ribs are about 2 – 3 slabs sliced up for easier eating. It was seasoned just right and so juicy. The rice was a little drier than I like but overall very delicious.
I’ll be back the next time in Portland although I’m not gonna lie because I wanna try other vendors because there were so many. Love this food cart concept!

I got the chicken bibimbap for $ 7.50. Pretty darn good, especially if you mix in a little extra of their Korean hot sauce. Their service is slow though, and within the time I was waiting to order and get my food, they had apparently messed up on 2 of other customers’ orders. Ie. they mixed chicken for beef and vice versa.

When I crave comfort food, this is the cart I hit. Without fail, I’ll order the bibimbap with chicken — love the variety of veggies and you can’t go wrong with grilled chicken and a fried egg. Most of all I appreciate the genial ever-​smiling Korean ladies. It really makes for a pleasant lunch.

I’m not sure why people are raving about this place. I went after reading all of the reviews and got the Bibimbap. It was absolutely bland and boring. Perhaps it’s because I went around dinner time, but the chicken in it was super dry, like it had been sitting out for hours. The rice was very oily, and the veggies didn’t taste like anything. Was sorely disappointed.

Was second in line to order in front of 6 people and was the last to get my food!!! Wtf! The quality of the food is ok, but not good enough to make up for the delay in order and poor service.

Another one of my colleague’s recommendations. Amazing!!! This place delivered! Fresh, flavorful and unexpected!!! Taking family from out of town for sure :-D

This is one of the best carts in Portland.
This long-​standing corner food cart is the first Korean cart on the pod. Before the taco/​Korean craze, before most caught on to how *good* Korean food is, this place was dishing up inexpensive portions of spicy pork over rice with fantastic glass noodles punctuated with sesame oil.
I’ve been going to this cart for the better part of five years and everything, and I mean everything, is great. The ladies working there are sweet and friendly, and no matter what you get, you’re going to be happy. Everything on the menu is $ 6.50 to $ 9.00. The galbi short ribs and combos using those short ribs are on the upper end of the price scale. They’re worth it.
Scores:
Time:
This is sort of a standard. You roll up, you order, in 5 – 10 minutes, you have food, then you eat. That’s exactly what we did.
Value-​5
Gut check at 3pm: Fine. Look meat and rice for $ 6.50 at the portions that they give you are simply satisfying. And I can’t praise the glass noodles enough.
Sustainability-​2
They use GoBox, and that’s about it.
Fear Factor-​2
For the uninitiated, a pile of red-​hued «spicy» pork could be off-​putting. But I’ve never worried about the safety or quality of the food here. Again, it’s been in business forever, in food cart years.
Staying Power-​5
This cart is a grandfather. It is popular, wonderful, and deserving of its corner status.
Creativity-​2
From a Korean standpoint, this isn’t too creative. But compared to Thai and gyros, this is *much* more creative. The sauces and flavors are different than all of the other meat/​rice carts around, and they just do it *so well*.

When it comes to fantastic lunch options, you are already moving in the right direction by checking out the food carts. While I can’t say for sure that #1 Bento Box serves up the best bento boxes on the block, I know that the cart’s absolutely gigantic portions are sold at a sweet, sweet price. At only $ 6.50 you are treated to a box easily fit for at least 1.5 meals. Frankly, the original Korean dishes like marinated spicy pork and galbi (short ribs) aren’t hard to come by, but #1 Bento Box comes through with an incredibly delicious meal bound to fulfill any cravings.
A meal comes with a large portion of rice, a solid serving of meat (or tofu), and sides of japchae (Korean glass noodles), kimchi, and salad with dressing. Dress it up with loads of the spicy go-​chu-​jang sauce and you got one hell of a spicy-​sweet meal!

The bi bim bap was perfect. Noodles, rice, veggies, BBQ, an egg on top and a bit of nori. Just mix it all up add srirach to taste, and you are ready for the five alarm off the hook rager in your mouth. And all this nirvana for $ 6. Dawg you can’t afford not to. Seriously, it was pretty good.
Proprietor also very friendly and nice.

I got the bulkogi bento. A nice large portion, and pretty good food.
I would have gone 4 stars, but it took quite a while (like 30 minutes…) to get my food. I’m not sure if they lost my ticket or someone else got my order and maybe I got theirs. Either way, they seemed a bit unorganized and they didn’t communicate order status very well.
I’ll probably go back, but will try and call my order in ahead of time and then check in with them when I arrive. Hoping for better, as the bulkogi was pretty good. I think next time I’ll try the bi bim bap which seemed popular and looked great.

Say!
I like Bibimbop with Bulgogi!
I do! I like them, Ehow C.
And I would eat it in a park!
And I would eat it by a lark!
And I will eat them in the rain.
And in the shade. And on a MAX train.
And in a Prius. With some kimchi.
It is so good, so good, you see!
So I will eat it from Number 1 Bento.
And I will eat it until I’ve gone sick-​o.
And I will eat it paying cash…
As this cart eats away my stash.
And I will eat it when it’s open on Saturday…
Say! I will eat it EVERYDAY!

I think I’ve gotten used to the idea that Portland has a rather large Asian community. There are so many Thai, Vietnamese and Korean places throughout all four corners of this town and surrounding areas that I’m sure just those foods alone would keep one busy for many, many years.
Number 1 Bento is within the city block of food carts down by SW Alder and Number 1 is right on the southwest corner adjacent to a German food cart. First off, over there I almost never know what to get. Was I getting Egyptian, Greek, Hawaiian, a bahn mi? I had it narrowed down to Korean and Egyptian and then I saw what I’d be getting and for only fifty cents more and I’d get sooooo much more food? No Brainer.
As with most Asian cuisines, you get a bang for your buck. Only $ 6.50 and I got bulgogi, rice, salad, kimchi and glass noodles. Plus a buck for a bottle of water. The two women working inside looked as if they’d been at this all their lives. The food was fairly quick to arrive and nice and hot (heat), I added my own hot to it with some sriracha. The said was just some iceberg lettuce with a sweet cream dressing on it. Not sure what it was, but it was decent. I’m no expert on kimchi, so I can’t say what’s amazing kimchi as of yet, but this version was sour tasting with a little vinegar to it. I enjoyed it. The glass noodle were room temp and balanced out the heat from the steaming sticky rice and bulgogi. The bulgogi was so good. Sweet and spicy and they were not skimpy with it. I wouldn’t be lying to say that the plastic clamshell was holding roughly three pounds of food, and I didn’t leave any of it.
This Korean food at Number 1 Bento was well worth it, and I’m sure the other offerings are just as good and just as filling. I’m not eating anything else tonight.
Enjoy.