The Box Lunch Company

I was forced to get one of these dispicable things while my daughter was at Stanford University Hospital. It was Sunday morning and the commisary had very little to choose from. The egg salad sandwhich looked fine. I nearly threw the sandwhich at the poor cafateria lady but hoped that for $ 4.75 I would be pleasantly surprised. NOT! 2 pieces of dried out whole wheat, a meager scoop of egg salad (I doubt there was a quarter of 1 full egg in this) and a honkin piece of lettuce to bulk the sandwhich up and make it look like its worth the money. Then reality set in. I had been taken. The worst, most bland piece of garbage I think I have ever tasted. At $ 1.50 this was a rip off. The problem is these things are conveniently masked in the coolers of many places to make you believe the food was prepared on the premisis. So, like me, you get surprised and try to blame the local establishment. Nice ploy! Don;t be taken… read the labels and stay away from this brand.

My company gets all our microkitchen foods from Panini Time now and sometimes it’s edible, but usually, it’s pretty horrible. I’d like to use a megaphone to complain about the caesar salad they serve, its cheese is so incredibly stinky and you can smell it through our whole office, it smells like feet. It’s like a salad bomb. :(The sandwiches are usually soggy too.

I love free food so whenever my company has a lunch and learn scheduled I’m there. Regardless of how boring the presenter is or how I really do not want to learn about another insulation manufacturer, I will always show up for the lunch and learns.
Our company ordered from BLC once and my poor coworker ended up getting sick from the food. That was two years ago and we hadn’t ordered from them since. Fast foward to today. The presenters ordered for our company this time and so we didn’t know what we were getting until the big box showed up.
BOX LUNCH COMPANY logo on box.
Ahh crap.
But hey it’s free food. Yea. No. I picked the Mozzarella sandwich thinking it couldn’t possibly mess up mozzarella and tomatoes on a focaccia bread right? Wrong. It was bland. Even with their funky thousand island looking sauce. How does a sandwich with sauce still taste bland? True mozzarella is a pretty tasteless cheese but when you throw some olive oil and sale and pepper… hello! yumminess happens. Even the potato chips were bland. How’d they do that? Find the company with the blandest chip and throw their bag in the box to make the ultimate bland lunch box ever.
The only highlight was the Andes chocolate mint hiding in the box.
Sad. So sad.

Don’t get their sandwiches! I’ve tried them at least 10 times (not by will) and no matter which sandwich I pick, the meat is always dry, bread either soggy or rock hard, and there’s never enough condiments to make it tasty.
To top it off, today I picked the Very Veggie sandwich, thinking they can’t go wrong with veggie?! I was wrong. It was anything BUT very veggie.
It consisted of 2 tiny pieces of lettuce, 2 thinly slices of tomoatoes, 2 thinly slices of cucumber, a pinchful of sprouts, some grated carrots and cream cheese.
I mean, when you charge a vegetarian sandwich the same price as a meat sandwich (which by the way are all overpriced), you’re expecting avocados or grilled bell peppers and portabello mushrooms. Not some thinly grated carrots and lettuce???
Don’t waste your money. Go somewhere else.

I work in a large corporate office and have to arrange catering for meetings. My co-​workers and I had sandwiches delivered from Box Lunch Co. and were impressed with the prompt delivery, the clean presentation and the quality of the food. I had a wrap and it was excellent, however some did comment that the bread was not the best quality (soggy in one case, too hard in another case).
The vegetarian sandwiches were REALLY good and the fruit is notable in the respect that whenever I get a fruit cup/​medley from a lunch place, usually half of it is past it’s prime, but all the bits were ripe and edible earning my enthusiastic thumbs up for The Box Lunch Company & Panini Time!

the box lunch company gives me that funny feeling in my stomach.
and by ‘funny feeling’, i mean FOOD POISONING.
my office hasn’t ordered from the BLC since.
farewell, unidentifiable-​cake-​frosting-​that-​seems-​to-​lift-​off-​the-​cake-​in-​one-​chunk…

I love greasy, fatty gross food. I went to London and was all «I don’t understand why everyone says British food is bad! Bring on the sausage pies!!!»
But I really, really hate Panini Time. It’s a prime example of how anyone can write nice copy and make something sound upscale, but in reality, it’s anything but.
My work sells them in their lunch facilities and given my unhealthy habit of waiting until I have reached near death levels of low blood sugar to eat, I would ocassionally get one of their sandwiches, usually the fresh mozzarella sandwich, which always sounds like it’s going to be good, but instead ends up being a mess of soggy bread, slathered in some insane substance they call pesto and iceberg lettuce. I’ve also had the veggie wrap, which was basically a raw spinach and red pepper sandwich missing a little something we like to call flavor.
Anyway, it looks good, it sounds good, but not too much going on upstairs, know what I mean?. If you happen to be at my work’s lunch facilities, the Clif bars are right across from the sandwich cooler. Buy one of those.

THIS REVIEW IS FOR PANINI TIME ONLY
Since I’m waifishly thin and can therefore eat whatever I want (ha!), I have recently added a little something extra special to my lunchtime repertoire. Three words, children: mayonnaise. bacon. together.
It’s the together part that I find most seductive. By together, I mean they make the mayonnaise with bacon in it. They more or less steep the bacon in mayonnaise. This is particularly enthralling when paired with roasted turkey, smoked mozzarella, roasted red peppers, and caramelized onions. Panini Time calls that a Chicken Italiano. I call that a lunchtime orgasm. And another 3 lbs away from my goal weight.
Yes, they’re pre-​made, meaning they come all wrapped up with a big old sticker telling you about every single one of the 609 calories you’re about to consume. The upside is that you don’t have to wait during the lunchtime rush for a «sandwich artist» to work his/​her way through a long line of people with crazy requests and dietary restrictions. I’m pretty sure they’re available at many lunch counters and shops in FiDi and I know many smaller mom and pop and specialty food stores around the city carry them.
If you’re not so big on saturated fats, I can’t really help you. This is the only sandwich I’ve had from Panini Time. I know better than to cheat on a good thing.

Our company’s favorite catered lunches come from Box Lunch Company. Their sandwiches and salads are always very fresh, tasty, and original. They deliver from South City all over the city and peninsula, as far south as Palo Alto. They offer a good mix of veggie and meat sandwiches and salads. You can get sandwiches, salads, complete lunches with a selection of each, or trays with combinations of items. The Turkey Nudo sandwich and the Lemon Tarragon Chicken salad are big hits at our office.
I’m not really sure about the Panini Time part of the business, which seems to cater lunch counters in corporate lobbies.
If you need a good catered sandwich meal, this is a great choice.