Bento Asian Kitchen + Sushi, a quick-casual pan-Asian restaurant, has announced three new locations coming soon to South Florida: Park Plaza in Boca Raton, Pines City Center in Pembroke Pines and Dania Pointe in Dania Beach. These new locations will be situated in some of the most highly-anticipated live, work, play destinations, and join Bento’s existing South Florida restaurant in Davie and eight other eateries across the state.
“Our Davie location opened in 2016, and immediately drew a massive following, thanks to many fans who knew our brand from Gainesville and other parts of the state,” said Bento co-founder Johnny Tung. “It is currently our top performing restaurant out of our nine Florida locations, and following that success, we realized quickly there was a large demand for the Bento brand in additional parts of South Florida and beyond.”
In Pembroke Pines, Bento will be located within Pines City Center, a master planned, mixed-use village on the southwest corner of Palm Avenue and Pines Boulevard. In addition to Bento, tenants at the center will include Publix, Cooper’s Hawk, BurgerFi, Smoothie King, PizzaRev, and the Halal Guys. This location is set to open in early 2019.
The company’s upcoming Boca Raton location will sit right near the Office Depot headquarters on Glades Road and Military Trail in the plaza currently anchored by Fresh Market and the first South Florida location of Fresh Kitchen. The Boca Raton restaurant is also scheduled for completion in early 2019.
In Dania Beach, Bento will join a wide-array of popular restaurants that will soon be located in the heart of Dania Point, the 102-acre, premiere mixed-use development that boasts 1 million square feet of residential, retail, commercial and public event space. The anticipated opening is summer 2019.
Bento’s leaders are also targeting Miami, Palm Springs and Palm Beach for future South Florida locations.
“It’s a very exciting time for Bento Group, especially with all of our expansions,” said David Yu, a management partner with Bento Group. “When Jimmy and Johnny Tung, the brothers behind Bento, were originally planning for the first Bento opening, they hadn’t really envisioned how massive it would grow to be.”
Based in Orlando and owned and operated by the Tung brothers, Bento was founded in Gainesville in 2002. Currently, there are nine Bento locations in Davie, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Jacksonville and Orlando with new stores opening this year in St. Petersburg and Winter Park.
“While we maintain a base format of our look and ambiance, including colors, spacing and flow, we try to add different touches to every store,” Yu said.
The Bento concept features a vast, customizable menu including sushi, rice and noodle bowls, bento boxes, poke’ bowls and boba teas. With its quick, casual service and affordable prices (most dishes in the $8-$11 range), Bento caters to the constantly-growing “on the go” population. Customer favorites include Pao Pao (Spicy Cream Chicken), Teriyaki Steak and the Volcano Roll.
Open for lunch and dinner 7 days a week, Bento offers dine-in, takeout, delivery and catering.
About Bento:BENTO Asian Kitchen + Sushi is an Orlando-based quick-service restaurant serving pan-Asian cuisine. With the intent to bridge the gap between the more traditional Asian dining experience, and the first-generation Asian-American palate, brothers Jimmy and Johnny Tung opened Bento Asian Kitchen + Sushi in the summer of 2002. Bento was born as a 2,000 square-foot, 40-seat restaurant in a freshly built plaza a few blocks west of the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Today, there are over nine locations across Florida, and a team of over 500 individuals. With plans of continued expansion on the horizon, Bento strives to remain true to the original vision - to present traditional Asian recipes in a colorful, fresh way - one roll, bowl and box at a time.
