Valencia Eats Throwback: Kento's Sushi and Bentos
While I’m staying at home due to COVID-19, I’m going back through my archives and writing about places I should have written about long ago. This one comes from Spain; hoping this eatery and its staff make it through this crisis.
Back in 2017, a new sensation popped up in Valencia. Far from new to the world, but new to the city: freshly and well-made, reasonably priced sushi to go. Kento wasn’t just a mom and pop operation either - it was born from the Lanzadora start-up incubator, and hired the Valencia interior design firm Masquespacio.
They became a favorite in the office, especially on those days when no one wanted to cook: it was fast, clean-up was easy, and everyone liked it.
I often went for a bento box, which (at least starting out) were very reasonably priced at 8€. This one had teriyaki chicken, and a variety of vegetable sides like seaweed salad, cabbage salad, Japanese omelette, and edamame. I loved the variety of dishes!
This one was a curry with chicken cutlet. I also got a chicken karaage on the side. The only drawback of these bento boxes was that to heat it up, they’d have to remove the packaging and heat things up in the microwave in the kitchen.
And sadly, these elaborate bentos soon gave way to a much simpler execution. The later bentos were just a single compartment tray with rice, maybe chicken teriyaki on top, and stir-fried vegetables like zucchini on the side. It lost a lot of the original magic (and they increased the price to 8.90€).
So my go-to order would later be their salmon or chicken salads. For the salmon salad, this consisted of layers of cucumber, rice, carrots, seaweed, and a generous helping of raw salmon on top, along with a tub of dressing. There was heft from the rice, there was crunch from the vegetables, and there was freshness.
I also tried their Tom Kha Gai, Thai coconut soup with glass noodles and chicken, which was a neat concept: basically a gourmet instant ramen pot, because you just added hot water!
There were always a bunch of different dishes at different price points and sizes, so you could often combine a few different items to suit your taste. Like the salad with chicken karaage below.
Of course, the main draw for a lot of people is the sushi. Though it’s mainly a takeout operation, with the food in to-go containers on refrigerated shelves, the sushi always tasted fresh, and you could always see the (often Japanese) chefs making sushi continuously in the kitchen.
And the sushi was quite good indeed. The rice was nicely seasoned and perfectly moist, the ingredients were of high quality.
In the evenings, a couple hours before closing, Kento would also discount their sushi. I heard that people would get into arguments or not play fairly (like put their hand on the items they wanted just before the discount time came around to “claim” their sushi), though I believe eventually they came up with a fairer system.
Kento didn’t remain a single shop for long; they quickly opened up quite a few other stores, all close to one another in el Centro. I think they’re up to five stores now. Whether they can sustain so many locations clustered together remains to be seen (especially during the COVID times), but I wish them great success with their formula of good Japanese food at good prices!
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Kento
various locations, including:
San Vicente Mártir 36
Valencia 46002
Spain
