Popin' Cookin' Make Bento

I put a little too much water in one part, the "broccoli", but otherwise it was very cute and not bad to eat. The black powder used on the rice part is very sour, like kool-aid powder. The rest of the flavors are fruity, some more sweet than others. I was a little disappointed that they removed the sprinkle packet from this kit, but it was still fun to assemble!

I ordered this for my younger sister because she's been watching videos of people making this stuff on Youtube for ages now, so we were both pretty excited when it finally arrived! It takes a few weeks to ship but it comes all the way from Japan so that's understandable. Although the box was kind of bent up when it arrived, everything inside was fine. It was really fun to make! The textures of the food were weird but all the flavors were good. I'd recommend it and will probably order again!

I bought this for my young daughter who saw these " popin' cookin' " products on YouTube, so I thought I would order her a few to try. As soon as they came, she was excited and eager to do them. Even though I don't speak or read Japanese, the directions were quite easy to understand since they had pictures and color coded packets and it clearly showed what color to do during which step. Even if you do have trouble, there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube to help you out (although be careful because sometimes the kits have different color packets and that makes the videos inaccurate at times). She loved doing them and they were very interactive, entertaining, and fun for her to do. One of those things that makes you wish we had something like this in the states so kids can play with more often. I have already bought more for her to try and will continue to buy them until she no longer wants them! Plus, I think they are pretty neat and like watching her enjoy playing and making things with them!

I ordered this on the 14th of February, got it on the 26th. Now that's fast! Onto the Bento... Everything was really fun to make, lots of steps. It tasted ok, the rice tastes faintly of bubblegum, all the veggies are flavored according to their color (lemon, lime, cherry?), the brown ball (breaded something) tasted kind of like orange and the orange paste (noodles) tasted godawful. Make it, but don't put it in your mouth. It's literally like a thick paste that coats your mouth with a plastic chemical taste. Kind of like flour and water. Not good. The best part were the black sprinkles which add a sour tang to everything. My advice would be to save most of it for the veggies and dip everything in the sprinkles; it really brought out their flavors! Tips: Don't overstir the broccoli (green jelly) or it'll get clumpy. Also, pour the water in the mold before the powder so that it comes out of its mold easier. Don't fill the water cup all the way when measuring for the red jelly (octopus shaped mold), it overflows from a design flaw. Directions are easy to follow if you match all the packets to their corresponding colors. The red rectangle with 1 or 2 in it indicates how many "cups" of water to add to each mixture. All in all, it's really fun to make and mix, and tastes ok if you add the black sprinkles to everything.

My 11 year old convinced me to buy this after me letting her watch one too many episodes of Bizzare Foods. She HAD!!! to get some candy from Japan so she picked this one out. Granted neither one of us knows how to read Japanese so we watched a YouTube video to see how to make it. We had fun figuring it out and putting it together! However!! when it came time to eating this candy it was much less fun. Parts of it tasted okay but most of it tasted really odd and the texture was, well...just wrong. I get the concept of it, but this is not one that I want to try again. She liked it a lot more than I did but it was fun so that's all that mattered.

Our 18 year old granddaughter loves anything "Japanese" and was hoping for a play-set of the "real" Japanese Bento -style boxes. This is a Christmas gift, and I am glad I ordered early as it took over 3 weeks for its shipment to arrive and, unlike another product from this company (see later review on the Popin' Cookin' Happy Sushi House) this one arrived well-packaged in bubble wrap. As it comes from Japan, there is also no way to track the package and, unlike other Amazon purchases which wait close to when they actually ship the item to charge you for it... we were charged at the time of order, not really knowing when/if the item would ship, or when/if it would arrive. Other than that it is a cute little item and if you can put up with the uncertainty of packaging and delivery, and the "bit weird" Japanese idea of what makes a cute "dish" as the kit "appears to be the makings of a deconstructed panda bear"... body parts... intestines and all! It is a good and inexpensive gift!

These are so much fun! My daughter and I were introduced to these on YouTube when she was about 2 or 3. We would do them occasionally and had to look up instructions back then. Haven’t done them since. I got this for her for Christmas(she’s 10 now) and when she opened it she remembered!! She was thrilled! And the instructions are so much easier now(before it was Japanese only). The rice is bizarre lol. Really fun! Will definitely be getting more of these!

Like the other reviewers, we bought this after we saw the youtube video. My three year old daughter would watch this video over and over again. When we got it, it was much smaller than I thought it would be but our opinions were based off of watching a video so... The directions are in Japanese but you can view the video on youtube and they are pretty much step by step. The box also has pictures on the back which help to some degree to follow but if you are not familiar with the video, it might be difficult. The video shows something like a cupcake liner that is silver and the person squeezing the peach stuff into it. The kit does not come with a cupcake liner, so if you are purchasing this for a child who has watched the video make sure to get the silver candy/cupcake liner. There is not a spoon included in the kit like the video and the container holes are kind of small, we just flipped the fork around to stir. Regarding taste, I did not think it tasted good at all but it was worth it to get for the experience. My daughter LOVED it.