@Purple:
! Because, well, they are actually expanding on different takes of different dishes. Both of the ramen dishes featured the general essences of ramen with a flair of port city cuisine, Erina's aide made a burger with turtle meat and customized it with a different take on a bun, and Hayama's still involved ground meat in the form of Kofte with the "bun" being, I presume, pita bread. Alice's technically fit under the definition of a "Bento" but it was definitely much more of a selected course of sushi than a lunch box.
! It just seems abit unfair for Alice put that way though. Her sushi theme was definitely a different take on bento, but then Hisako and Hayama's burgers weren't very traditional burgers either.
! For the preliminaries Alice did a whole unique take on curry and the judges loved her for it, for the bento it seemed like she was punished for being different though.
! Also the burgers I was kind of expecting some fries or at least some variation to go with it. Soma had plenty of side dishes to go with his bento and it enhanced the whole 'bento experience', you would think fries would be included with the burgers.