November 4th, 2009
Ethical Butchers Do It Better | Sustainable meat hits its hot spot.0 comments
October 28th, 2009
Make Mine Meatless | Portobello cooks Italian—the vegan way.4 comments
October 21st, 2009
Q & A • Chris Kimball | The food revolution will be timed (and include a knife sharpener).0 comments
October 7th, 2009
Davis Street Tavern | It’s always sunny in Davis Street.1 comment
September 30th, 2009
Q & A • Ken Rubin | The head of a new culinary program explains why there are too many cooks in the kitchen.5 comments
September 16th, 2009
Big Fish | Bamboo proves you can have your principles and eat them, too.1 comment
September 2nd, 2009
Go Dutch | Lia and Hans Middelhoven keep the warm, fuzzy gezellig alive.0 comments
August 26th, 2009
Original Sins | The diner is ironic. The pain is real.22 comments
August 19th, 2009
Parkers Waffles And Coffee2 comments
August 12th, 2009
Bull Market | Flesh is a sure bet at Laurelhurst Market.4 comments
![]() BENTO BOSS: West Coast Bento owner Dan Bair. IMAGE: Chrisryanphoto.com |
[April 23rd, 2008]
We have no reservations about Big Dan’s West Coast Bento, the 15-year veteran of the Uptown Shopping Center, known as much for its affable owner as for the quality of its meat. It reopened this January across from Food Front on Northwest Thurman Street, not far from WW’s world headquarters. Any new place to get a cheap lunch in our ritzy neighborhood is greeted with glee by our staff—along with the much larger workforces at nearby Laika and Con-Way—but we were overjoyed to discover that Big Dan’s bento is, if you’ll pardon my catgirl-like enthusiasm, super-oishii!
Here’s the deal: If you want anything but chicken, call your order in 25 minutes ahead of time. Then you wait in line outside Dan’s tiny basement kitchen, which smells like a swimming pool, to pick up your $5 bento box, packed with a fat skewer of your preferred meat and more than a pound of rice. Chicken, beef, lamb, shrimp, curried vegetables—it’s all $5. An extra buck will get you a trio of potstickers or shumai dumplings, or a surprisingly large pork bao. Lug the box back to your office and dig in, pausing only to pump your fist in the air and shout, “Big Dan!”
Just don’t dawdle over the menu. Or ask about vegetarian options besides the curried veggies. Or ask if the curried veggies are spicy. Of course they’re spicy, doofus. And if meat isn’t your bag, why are you in the bento basement, anyway? Just head on back to Food Front, kid. Big Dan doesn’t suffer fools gladly.
RECENT COMMENTS ON “Big Dan’s West Coast Bento”
I love your curry big dan!
i love big dans the original bento king-- he looks different is this body builder big dan that used to be in phils meat market in the 80's
No it is not the original Big Dan. You can see his pic on the bottles of sweet chili sauce being sold around town at places like Roth's. Dan sold the biz to the current owner way back in the mid-90'...











