Breaking the mold, Chopsticks offers bento boxes for both lunch and dinner. Lunch bentos are more simple with tempura, sushi, salad, rice and soup, while evening variations are more substantial with main acts like pork belly tempura or grilled salmon teriyaki.

Nagoya native Kaz Okochi has dreamed up seven bento boxes that are popular during the restaurant’s lunch rush, plus a special bento that changes daily. The unadon bento (BBQ eel on top of rice) comes with tempura and salad, while a vegetarian bento box overflows with tempura, hijiki seaweed, Brussels sprouts and a green salad. Kaz Sushi Bistro serves bentos at night too, but the prices nearly double.

A restaurant no bigger than the typical Tokyo apartment, Kintaro serves a lunch-only bento box that tastes like mom made it. It comes with a few slices of thick sashimi, katsu fried fish, rice, soup, salad and a bowl of Japanese comfort food like beef with onions in a sweet soy-mirin sauce.

Both the Bethesda and Cathedral Heights Raku restaurants serve eight bento boxes for lunch and two for dinner. Lunch choices lead with mains like beef tenderloin or sashimi, and they all come with a California roll, salad, fried shrimp shumai and portobello mushrooms with green beans. Go big with the deluxe bento box.

As one might expect from a restaurant that’s unafraid to incorporate strawberries into a sushi roll, SEI’s lunch bentos bring modern touches. The SEI bento includes miso soup, kale pistachio salad, one sushi roll, and a main dish such as boneless short ribs or a mini miso bread pudding. There’s also a sushi bento focused on rolls and nigiri sushi.

The lunch bento is a way to experience Sushi Taro for less ($12.95-$14.95). Order one, and a three-compartment box will arrive filled with textbook-perfect tempura, slices of fresh-from-Tokyo sashimi and main dish such as grilled salmon, fried oysters or sushi. Every box comes with miso soup, rice and pickles.

McLean’s Japanese authority serves two lunch bentos and two “dinner boxes.” Lunch is the better deal. Take Box A for example, which comes with shrimp tempura, grilled salmon, chicken yakitori, tamago egg omelet and hijiki seaweed for $13.95.

Falls Church newcomer, Takumi Sushi, is from a Kaz Sushi Bistro veteran, so it’s no surprise they sell bento boxes, since they're such a specialty at Kaz. Nine options are available during lunch, each showcasing a traditional Japanese dish such as aji furai (deep fried mackerel) or tonkatsu pork cutlet. Take advantage of the soft shell crab bento while they’re in season.

During the work week, Yuzu’s lunch-only bento box is filling with grilled mackerel, chicken, a vegetable spring roll, nimono tofu, oshinko pickles, kanikama crab, rice, seaweed salad and miso soup. Come weekend lunch, they tack on shrimp and vegetable tempura.