Zen Bento is a tiny speck of an eatery across 10th Street from the Idanha Hotel, with a spare menu and hours limited exclusively to lunch. As I approached Zen Bento the other day for a bit of a bite, the smell of their outdoor barbeque grill where all the meat is cooked, enticed me like a cartoon's visible aroma forking into vaporous fingers to drag me the rest of the way to the restaurant by my helpless nostrils. Man, it smelled wonderful.

The Zen Bento menu offers a choice of chicken, beef, veggie, tofu or salmon (on Tuesdays and Fridays) bento, with fresh steamed vegetables over white or brown rice and a choice of sauces. There are a couple of salad and sushi offerings, some sides ...