Midtown Lunch

The shipping container that is Snack Box is finally open for business in Times Square. The menu is described as “American street food,” from the owners of Republic and BONDST. What does that mean? You can get hot dogs, pastries, pretzels, coffee, etc that are pretty commonplace from the ubiquitous carts around town … but here, they’re all in one spot, and most likely a little cleaner than the dirty water dog guys, if you care about that sort of thing.

Unable to resist the delicious display case on the way to work, I stopped for breakfast. Two small La Colombe coffees ($1.95 each) and two glazed donuts — one yeast and one cake — from the Doughnut Plant (nom!) came to $10.

You might remember, I was promised “better coffee than Starbucks” last week. I’m not really a coffee aficionado, but I do find Starbucks can be bitter sometimes; Snack Box’s coffee was not, but I don’t know that it was a world of difference either. And, it seemed kind of pricey to me, considering the new fancy 47th street Starbucks across the street sells tall coffee for $1.75.

The donuts were definitely fresh, which is often half the battle with bad donuts. You pretty much can’t go wrong with Doughnut Plant, anyway, so if breakfast sweets is your gig, Snack Box is there for you. Both kinds — cake and yeast — were exactly what you want from this kind of breakfast.

A hot dog at Snack Box will run you $3.50, and a chili dog is $4.75. The dogs are all-beef and have a really nice smokey flavor.

They also offer two “snackpaks” that are ML friendly: 2 dogs + chips for $7.95 (pictured above) or 1 dog + chips + soda for $5.95. Also, if you’re HUNGRY (or, have friends) the partypak cost you $17.50 for six dogs (that’s $2.92 each).

I didn’t get to the milkshakes, because I figured consuming a zillion calories before 1 p.m. was enough, but if you try ’em, chime in in the comments.

Snack Box, Broadway and 47th Street in Times Square