Tested: Aladdin Bento Box

Since The Aladdin Bento Box arrived from Go Outdoors I’ve not been able to stop using it. It really is a great little bit of kit for spicing up lunchtimes.

As I mentioned in my original post, the Aladdin Bento Box has taken it’s insporation from the Japanese style lunch boxes so it’s designed to keep food hot or cold for up to 5 hours.

I’m delighted to say that so far it’s lived up to that claim.

The first test was keeping my ploughman’s lunch cold…I followed the instructions and filled the containers with cold water and let them stand while I sorted out the bits I was going to have for lunch. A few minutes later I tipped the water out, dried the tubs and filled them with my lunch.

4.5 hours later it was time to get stuck in, I twisted to the tops off both containers and tucked in, everything was just right, the cheese was nicely chilled without being too cold, the pickled onions were a little bit cooler and the crackers had stayed nice and crisp. Test number one was passed with flying colours.

Test number two came when I had some left over chilli con carne. I packed the larger of the two containers with chilli, microwaved it for a couple of minutes, then screwed the lid on, put some cheese and tortilla chips in the top container and set off for work, knowing that if the Bento Box didn’t keep the chilli warm I would at least be able to warm it up in the microwave at work.

Luckily I needn’t have worried, when I opened the chilli it was still piping hot, hot enough to have already melted the cheese in the pot on the top, not that this was a problem but next time I will try putting the cheese in the bottom tub. I was also initially worried about the funky blue discolouring from the chilli but it cleaned up really easily with no signs of staining.

The third test was soup…I wasn’t convinced that this would work very well, as there was no substance to keep it warm…the chilli had beans and meat to hold the heat in, the soup was just some vegetables I had blended up, this time it was straight from the pan and into the bottom container, lid on and then left on the worktop for just under 4 hours.

The soup had stayed warm and was warm enough to eat, although not as warm as I’d have liked it, not sure if this was down to the lack of pre warming or the soup it’s self, I guess I will have to give it another go to find out.

Overall I’ve been pretty impressed with the Aladdin Bento Box, its performed really well, I was especially impressed with the way it kept the chilli warm.  It’s not leaked despite  being rolled around in my car boot on the way to work and shaken really hard just to see if I could get it to leak.

The only real downsides I’ve found are that the separator doesn’t  seem to fit in the smaller of the 2 containers and with it being round it’s sometimes a little difficult to get square bits of food in. I’m not sure I’d use it for camping as it’s a little bit bulky but other than that it certainly beats old takeaway containers for taking lunch in and would provide a great way of taking hot food for lunch if you didn’t have a microwave at work

If you fancy brightening up you lunch time then the Aladdin Bento Box is available from Go Outdoors for just under £16  in their camping accessories department and comes in a range of nice bright colours. (click the photos below to see them full size)