Musubi & Bento Express Iyasume

I come here for their bentos. I usually like to take them to work and order 10+. Love their Musubi Pack bentos because it is affordable (starts at $ 3.65). They come with fried chicken, sausage, egg-​tamagoyaki, and a Musubi and is a perfect snack-​sized portion. Plus, it’s delicious! For an extra 10 cents, I get Spam Musubi instead of the regular Musubi with ume.
Whenever I take these bentos to work, everyone always ask me where I got them from. It’s so good and reasonable. The restaurant is located on Makaloa Street, across the new Walgreens on Kapiolani/​Keeaumoku Street. Parking in front is limited. They are open from 7am-​8pm, Sun 7am-​4pm, Saturday they are closed.
Besides bentos, they have assorted bowls with beef, chicken or fish options. They also have numerous types of Musubi… from salmon with mayo to kimchi and spam.
The employees are really nice. I usually call in the morning at 7 to order my bentos to be picked up on the same day.
I really like it here and will continue to come whenever I need bentos or musubis…

Great place for musubis and plate lunches, freshly made to go. My mom enjoys the bentos, especially the seared fish and Japanese pickled side dishes. I like to come here when I’m craving a musubi. They have all kinds of musubis, with egg, avocado, bacon! The only critique would be towards the triangle musubis– there’s too much mayo and you can’t really taste the salmon, tuna, or whatever the topping you ordered. Otherwise, very friendly staff. Would recommend!

Love the friendly service! A must try place. The food is really good and reasonable price!

They have 2 stores in Honolulu, the other one is close to Marriott hotel. There is a variety of musabi here and it seems spam musabi is a favorite here as they tasted great and price is cheap. They have staff making musabi here too. Check in to Unilocal to get a free miso soup.

Freshly made to order bento, inexpensive especially for the freshness and flavor.
Friendly cashier, quick as can be food. Its not fast food, it’s DELICIOUS Food. Parking Is limited in front of the place.

In the midst of the myriad of small shops and hole in the wall restaurants, is Iyasume Musubi and Bento Express. I have passed by it often, looked at the webpage but ever gone in… until just recently. In fact, I have visited it twice in two weeks, which kind of tells you where this review is heading.
When you enter, you realize that this place is small. A few steps in and you’re at the counter. There are some stools and counterspace on the side to sit and eat but most of the business is take-​out anyway. Everything is fresh and made to order… no bentos made in the morning and sitting all day. All types of selections: chicken, beef, pork, fish and most come in mini or regular size. The rice is Tamaki Gold… how can you beat that? Bentos usually come with some kind of okazu, most times it’s been kinpira gobo. I got a special mix «A» with salmon, potato croquette, shrimp shumai, 2 pieces karaage and the kinpira gobo. Loved it! Yes, I know… meat and rice… but that is what bentos are, right? It was mostly fried items, but hey, it tasted great! Just the right amount of salty and the karaage was done right, with a hint of ginger. We also ordered other bentos and everyone was pleased with their selections. One bento we ordered was the Iyasume Pack: karaage chicken, arabiki sausage, spam, egg. And of course, they have musubi. I saw some people ordering the bacon, egg and spam musubi… guess it’s popular. I took a chance and ordered the musubi of the day, jalapeño spam musubi. It seemed to be overpriced at $ 2.28 and was spam with slices of raw jalapeño on top and the size was smaller than a 7 – 11 musubi. It was Ok but nothing special. Guess you’re paying for the freshness. Oh, and they also have bowls, udon and more… plus you get a happy hour discount between 2 to 6pm., how awesome is that?
I really like this place. You do get value for your buck on the bentos, plus you can’t miss on fresh food. But, be patient as you need to wait for it. Recommend that you call it in and pick it up. Great place for picking up for an event or for going to the beach.

BEST PLACE EVER!!!
After getting a taste of the musubi at the Waikiki location, I had to come back for more! This location rocks because there is parking and indoor seating.
I came back and ordered 10 musubis to bring back to the mainland. My fave is the cucumber egg. The cucumber is so refreshing paired with the salty spam. And the egg is slightly sweet and so yummy! They use award winning rice too that tastes amazing.
They make your musubi to order so eat it fast! It comes out piping hot so it cooks the cucumber or shiso leaf if you let it sit.
The rice here is amazing. Some sort of gold standard so you are getting top notch musubis!
The miso butterfish bento is INCREDIBLE. Super smooth and FRESH fish that was perfectly cooked. Believe it or not, its even better than what I’ve gotten at nicer sit down restaurants. And for under $ 11, it’s a bargain!
The workers here are always sooo nice too. The cashier was so patient with me because I was so indecisive about what to order. Good luck with that btw because the menu has everything your heart desires at great prices!

I know they’re just balls of rice without even that much filling, but they’re so cute and I like eating with my hands. The lady there was very nice and helped me choose 4. I got the spicy tuna mayo, the pickle one, mentaiko + ikura, and a fried chicken one… might have been spicy. All were good, but the mentaiko one had no ikura. The lady told me that this location makes all the musubis and delivers it to the Waikiki location.
It’s a convenient location for me, and when I return, I want to try one of the spam ones:)

This is definitely my go to spot when I need a quick bite to eat in the car or on my way to the airport and I want food for the plane. They recently renovated so their shop is a little bigger and they have seats so you can buy your food and eat there, if you want. The only thing that sucks is the parking. The stalls for this strip mall is very tight and if you are lucky enough to snag a parking stall, it’s hard to reverse out since you’d need to back out onto the road in order to make your exit. I usually get the musubi pack, which comes with a musubi, a chicken karaage, a couple of sausages and a Japanese tamago-​yaki, all for less than $ 4 for the one I get. I usually get an add on musubi since one musubi doesn’t seem to be enough for me if it’s going to be my lunch/​dinner.

This place is fantastic for classic spam musubi and rice balls! Makes for a super easy picnic lunch.
Lines can get long at lunch time so be prepared to wait for the freshest musubi!

They expanded and now have seating by unfortunately the amount of food you get gas drastically decreased. Got a regular Salmon & Roe bowl and got 18 pieces of ikura. Yes I counted. Really disappointed.
Guess I will have to stick to the one in Waikiki.

Wanted to pick up dinner on the way to class and came across this on Unilocal.I came in during happy hour (from 2−6pm) and got a misoyaki butterfish bento, spicy tuna brown rice musubi, and kombu brown rice musubi. The bento came with yakisoba, hijiki for the rice and yakisoba, and miso soup… all of this for only a little over $ 12?! I am SOLD… this is one of my new favorites now :) Everything was so good and flavorful, and the misoyaki butterfish was a good sized portion.

Musubi & Bento Express Iyasume is a very simple store that offers great bentos at a great price. They have an array of bentos and different types of musubis where you can try something different every time you visit. I had the teriyaki chicken bento and it was quite large for the price and everything tasted very fresh.
The restaurant is located on Makaloa St behind Walgreens. Parking is not the best as there are only a few stalls right in front so it is best to find street parking there or by Walmart. There is also no seating area so you would have to take it to go.
Musubi & Bento Express Iyasume is the perfect place to grab lunch or to pick up a musubi or bento before hopping on a plane. I’m looking forward to trying more of their offerings.

Fast, affordable, and delicious. It’s a no frill place, perfect for the tourist on the go (and I’m sure the locals too).
Here’s what I would recommend:
Spam egg bacon musubi = yes, just get it. Deliciousness that fits in the palm of your hand.
Salmon miso bento or the broiled salmon bento. The salmon were moist enough even after being left out for hours. Rice were flavored lightly with furukake (seaweed powder). All bento comes with miso.
Easy to pick up, parking might be tricky since it’s a tiny lot. Call and order in advance, then you can quickly double park or have someone run out and grab the food.

T’was another humid day in O’ahu and I was feeling for something über delicious without putting a huge dent on my bank account. A coworker and I skipped and hopped over a couple blocks down from work to this legitimate hole in the wall. By the time we arrived, we were already dripping in sweat and by coming inside this place, it’s not any better. The door is kept open and no AC. I mean, serious hole in the wall with people in line out the door for lunch. The establishment is so tiny that a line of 3 people will not fit inside. With that said, there are no indoor seats for dining and is strictly take out only.
I’ve not been to many musubi specialized places, however, they have a nice selection of not only spam musubi’s but also Japanese style bentos, musubi bentos, bowls of all sorts from chicken to meat and seafood. What got me hooked is the Avocado Bacon Egg and Spam musubi (their new creation). The flavors meshed together tastefully together like a choir that I regretted not getting a second one. I am looking forward to trying their bowls especially the Spicy Chicken rice bowl when I have a bigger appetite. If you work around the area and needed a good lunch for a potluck or have a last meeting and are on a budget, they have a pretty good menu here for a large group.
They are located on Makaloa St. across from Walgreens (same building as Kickin Cajun). Parking is limited and there are street parking as well. Keeaumoku and Makaloa st. (cross streets) are streets with continuous action. Good luck!

I’m not quite sure how this tiny place survives based on their rock-​bottom prices for delicious musubis and bentos but I’m not complaining!
First thing’s first, get the Bacon, Avocado, Egg and Spam musubi. Yes, all that comes on one musubi. It is the best musubi combo ever invented.
Their mini combo bentos (at less than $ 6!) are a steal! They come with 2 entrée choices, 1 any musubi choice and a couple of sides — best bet for pick up on your way to the beach!
This is not an eat-​in establishment. In fact, don’t even stand inside after you’ve placed your order, it’s too small. I have yet to figure out how to best to figure out when your order is ready. Usually we just stand outside for a few minutes, then peek your head in every so often.
No frills here but everything i’ve had so far is delicious and worth every penny!

Rice, rice baby… whether you are looking for lunch or a snack, this is definitely the place to go. It’s a small hole in the wall on Makaloa Street behind the new Walgreens. Parking is limited with a few stalls in the front so it’s not the most convenient place. I was at Ala Moana so I decided to walk over and get a musubi. Well, needless to say I ended up with a few musubi and a couple of bento. They have tons of choices along with various made to order bento too! It took about 10 minutes from when I ordered for my food to be ready. This place is small so it can get busy fast.
Their rice balls are cute. Whatever filling you choose, they put dab of it on the top so you know what it is. How clever! I got a salmon and ikura rice ball. It had a good ratio of filling to rice. Rice balls range from $ 1.78 to $ 2.28. You can also have multigrain rice for $ 0.10 more!
They have various spam musubi that range$ 1.88-$ 2.68. They have the basic of course and specialty ones like red shiso spam musubi. But the king is the avocado egg bacon spam musubi. That musubi is a meal in itself.
For their bento, they have two sizes, mini
and large. I got a mini menchi (minced pork) katsu plate which was fresh and really tasty. It wasn’t too greasy and didn’t even need sauce. The mini was good enough for me. It came with Japanese potato salad, rice and 2 pieces of katsu cut in half. I got the boyfriend a large menchi katsu plate which had 3 pieces plus hijiki (brown sea vegetable). The large would have been enough to share for two people or one hungry man!
The mini bento range from $ 5.95-$ 7.95. The large bento range from $ 7.45-$ 10.95.
They do have daily specials for the musubi and bento.
Great place to grab lunch on your way to the beach, mid day snack or post work out grub.

Yummy musubi (a bit pricey I have to admit)
Also the bento was super yummy but I think the amount of protein is a bit too little ;(

Awesome bento and musubi prepared fresh to order, at reasonable prices! I’ve only eaten here once but would love to eat here every day and try all of their many items! But that would mean I’d have to graduate from T25 to P90X. And my body couldn’t handle that!
The rice was just the right consistency, not too hard or soft. The mochiko chicken had a very light coating, was crispy on the outside and tasty and juicy on the inside, and piping hot! Each piece also had a small amount of skin to make it even better. The misoyaki salmon was tasty and broiled well. I’m glad I got the mini, which was only $ 5.50 but enough for breakfast or lunch. It came with a scoop of potato salad and tiny mound of yakisoba noodles. This was the mini combo bento, in which you can pick 2 out of about 20 choices.
I also got a musubi with tuna, mayo and curry, and it was very good although on the smaller side. I liked that the entire thing was almost covered with nori.
Looking forward to many more visits! Thank you fello Unilocalers for recommending this tiny gem!

These musubis are HUGE. Too much rice and a full slab of spam. The great thing is 20% HH 3−6pm. The staff is really nice as well, but be prepared to wait over 20 – 30 minutes for your order. It takes forever since it is made to order.
Ordered bacon egg spam, spam and cheese, and spam. The spam itself tastes good!