J-TOWN Toronto Bento!

This past week I went to Ontario and on the way to my destination I HAD to stop at J-Town, a Japanese mall in the greater Toronto area. I heard about this area through forums, and I finally got the chance to go. I anticipated to find a mall similar to those in Toronto’s Chinatown, but J-town is a little different. (At any point in this blog you can click in the image to enlarge, and consult the gallery below for more pictures).

The mall has a beautiful entrance and to the left you will find a store dedicated to beauty products. To the right was the entrance to another wing of the building in which all the stores share one open space. Right as you enter you will find the store Silk to your left, this is the store which I found a bunch of great, CHEAP bento! Before moving further on bento, I will say that silk had a wide variety of many kitchen items, kawaii school supplies, and clothing articles. All items were very well priced. The rest of the all was a little difficult to tell where one store ends and another begins, but they have a bakery, grocery area, butcher, etc. Check out their website at: www.jtown.ca

The first thing I grabbed at Silk was the most adorable Totoro keychain (by now I knew I was in for a good day). For $4.50 you could buy Totoro   with little bells in grey, off-white, red, or light blue. All the totoro have a little green bow painted on their head. They had other charms available as well.

Moving to the next aisle I was faced with a whole shelf unit full of Bento! I was startled when I saw they were all less than 5$. Starting from the right, the round clear containers were the cheapest at $2.95; the green/yellow/white poka-dot bento $4.50 and microwave safe; then they had a whole variety of the brand Natural Lunch Time with chopstick&cutlery set at $4.20, a package of 3 miniature bento for $3.50, and the bigger bento ranging from $4.25 to $4.50. Moving still to the left they carried the brightly coloured brand Glit & Brillia where one tier bento were $4.20, and two-tiered at $4.50. The also sold a rice ball box (origini bento) that is 3 tiered but can be made into a single tier for $4.50 (pictures below). They also sold egg molds which came in packages of 2 or 3, for $3.95 to $4.20 a package. These containers varied from fish/car molds as seen below, to stars/flowers/hearts, and even to Quail eggs! In addition to the egg molds, they sold other bento accessories such as the Crab-shaped hotdog cutter which was sold for $2.95, sauce containers shaped including the fish/pig ones for $2.95;  seaweed shape cutter for $3.95; and Glit & Brillia matching chopsticks with case for $3.20.

The store even had more bento just around another corner! After looking at this whole aisle, I found another corner of the store that had plastic lacquer-looking bento in either red or black for $4.25-$4.50. These had really loose fitting lids so I did not purchase any of them, but they came in a variety of sizes.

All of the bento were made in Japan and the majority were Microwave safe. I walked out of there having spent 23$ and wishing I purchased even more.

Ultimately these were my purchases: a pink 1 tier Glit & Brillia, a 2 tier G&B, a 3 tier rice ball and side dish bento, the crab-shaped hot dog cutter, and a Totoro cellphone charm. Out of the packaging they look like this:

The lids of the 2 tier are very insecure so I have to get an elastic band for it before using. I highly recommend stopping in to J-Town and specifically the store SILK, even if you aren’t into bento, because the whole area has so many things and really great looking food! Now if you are bento obsessive like me, these are great options to help you build your collection like me, or if you have kids and don’t want to risk spending 25$ that will end up in the school  lost & found 5 years later.

Again, check out www.jtown.ca for more information location and what all they have to offer. It was 10-15 minutes off the Highway 401 for us to get to by car so it is well worth a quick visit!