Lunch Box Buffet

I came here once. You choose four items and a cheap price. There is one at Center St, at Canal St, at Midtown, and at Flushing.

I feel like it’s a legit place and actually like these buffet type joints. The setting’s very humble and actually genuine — rare, especially in Manhattan. It feels very nostalgic to me; a true immigrant establishment. Never had the meats but the greens are consistently good (I also like the tofu dish). Aside from Wah Fung and Spicy Village, it’s probably my favorite deal in the city.

2.5 stars. The interior of the restaurant is not fancy. 15+ food items to choose from. From crab, fried chicken, vegetables, chicken, fish, etc… The food tasted good, but there was a mouthful of MSG. The portion size was nice, 4 entries, rice and soup. The soup was ok. The restaurant has a B rating. The food although seems good; doesn’t have my confidence to go back. The service was ok. I didn’t have an upset stomach which is always a good thing.

This place is nasty. Walk in and left.

Lunch Box places are popular generic Asian cheap meals.
You get a heaping scoop of rice and a choice of 4 items under $ 5.
Most of the items are very greasy.
Why would you come here?
Fast food.
Cheap food.
Don’t mind it greasy.

You should avoid this place. The food tastes like it’s been reheated 10 times. Nothing tastes fresh. It’s awful. The place is moderately clean, but amazingly crowded and gross. My mother and teenage son really hated it too. Truly disgusting food. Cheap as heck, but in this case you’re better off paying a little more and getting food that doesn’t resemble ancient leftovers. Yuck.

The reason you go here because it is cheap and you have a lot of choices. However I would not eat 90 percent of the choices they serve.
Competition is stiff because there are two more of these kind of places on the same exact same block. However the other two are right next to each other which makes life harder.
You basically choice a carb such as rice and three other options. In the end you also get «soup» which is basically the dirty water from what they cook their food in.
It is a good place to go if you are a broke high school/​college student.

This is for the lunch box buffet on Division not Grand St as one of the reviewers, Jason D., mentioned.
It’s so disgusting in here. The food all tastes the same… greasy! I can’t take this kind of dining. It’s just gross. For the same price I rather have roast pork over rice or a Bahn Mi or anything else! Hell I rather just not eat!
Why can’t these lunch box buffet places cook? So disgusting! I tried one bite of everything I picked. It all tastes similar with the same texture and dripping with oil. I like cheap eats, but not disgusting eats!

Good value for the $ 4 price. Cleaner than most other restaurants; this isn’t a hole-​in-​the-​wall place with cheap food… the place is cleaner than many other cheap eats. The female Chinese servers spoon out the portions onto your styrofoam plate; this isn’t really considered a «buffet» for $ 4. The servers determine the portions. For $ 4, you get to choose 5 items plus a hot bowl of soup. This place is around the corner from the Grand Street subway station.

I’ve had better lunch box buffets but hey, I still dig it. I admit I’m a bit spoiled by the lunch buffet style food stalls in Malaysia which has value, portion, great taste, and choices light years beyond what you’d find here in the US.
Back to LBB in NYC. 4 dishes and a serving of rice for 4.50. Lots of choices but you don’t get to choose the portions of your food. They have servers that do this for you. You just point. This is not great though, as how the hell do you expect me to just have one piece of fried chicken?
Regardless, this is still a good deal and excellent choice if you’re on the go (like I often am), starving just getting off the Fung Wah bus from Boston. 2 reasons, you order and get to eat your food right away and you get to save a couple of bucks for the rest of your trip!

The price is $ 3.50 for takeout and $ 4.50 for eat-​in for what they call a 4+1 meal — 4 servings from different dishes in the buffet and 1 serving of rice.
At first this seems too good to be true — the chance to sample from 20+ different dishes for only $ 4! And it is too good to be true — they cut corners in ingrediants (often visibly past their prime) and dishes (focusing mainly on cheap ingrediants and battering/​frying). Definately not a place to go if you want to enjoy your food, but the price can’t be beat if someone is looking for a quick, passable meal.

I saw this place on NYTimes travel reviews. I liked the sound of getting 5 items for only $ 4.
It was very true, getting 5 for 4, with a little twist… you do not get to choose the amount of food, instead they scoop out the appropriate amount and place them on your plate. It was plenty to fill me up though. They give you rice and warm milky beef soup (which I didn’t care for much).
There were lots to choose ranging from sesame chicken to battered-​and-​fried flounder including many vegetarian options.
I liked it and, above all, you can’t beat the price. If you are in the neighborhood and hungry, check it out.