I try to pack my lunch daily, in an effort to both save money and make sure my lunch is healthy. We also pack food all the time for my son with food allergies. So in my house, we appreciate a good lunchbox, and the black+blum Box Appetit has definitely met our high standards!
The Box Appetit is basically a bento box-style, with a large main compartment that holds two smaller containers. There’s one that fits a whole corner/section of the box, and then a very small container that’s designed for sauces and dressings. Everything is microwave-safe (though you do need to remove the top first), and since you have a few compartments you can combine foods that should be hot with foods that stay cold and just heat the section you need. It’s a remarkably compact design that holds a fair amount of food-I found it fit perfectly on its side in my standard lunchbag, and when I tried it with a stretchy neoprene-style bag it fit flat as well.
Here’s a typical breakfast that I packed into the Box Appetit:
Inside the smallest container is homemade tomato jam (which, if you’ve never tried it, is the most delicious thing that could happen to a case of tomatoes), and in the medium container I put my hard boiled eggs. I then broke up the biscuit I planned to eat with them so it fit in the main compartment, and the whole thing slid nicely into my lunchbag. If I were just packing this into my lunchbag without the Box Appetit, I would have used a small container for the eggs, another one for the jam, and a small bag for the biscuit. All of them would have been loose in the bag with the container I’d packed with leftovers for lunch, making the bag bulky from various tupperwares of different sizes everywhere. Instead, the Box Appetit streamlined my breakfast nicely, making it fit better, organizing my food more easily, and keeping everything from being squished along the way. I also used it to transport leftovers to turn into a wrap sandwich last week. Instead of making the wrap at home and dealing with a soggy mess at lunchtime, I put the innards of the wrap in the medium container, folded the tortilla in the main compartment, and put some shredded cheese in the littlest container. This way I had all my components on hand, and could easily construct my lunch on demand. Obviously, you don’t need a single streamlined lunchbox to do this, but it makes life a lot easier (and looks less silly sitting out on your desk than 10,000 tupperware containers because you keep forgetting to bring them home-not that I know anything about that).
As I mentioned up top, my son has multiple food allergies. So we often have to pack a number of snacks for him, or pack a backup meal in case there’s no safe food on hand. Again, the Box Appetit just streamlines what would ordinarily be a number of containers.We can fit a little bit of cheese, raisins, or similar small items in the smallest container, keep snacks like goldfish and pretzels in the medium container, and a roll with sunbutter in the main container area. And since the Box Appetit seals tight and is compact, we can easily toss that into a backpack and not worry about it leaking, getting crushed, etc. We can also just pull out the portion we need and stash the rest away easily.
Box Appetit is one of those items where, if it wasn’t perfectly designed, you could easily skip needing one. After all, everything it does can be accomplished with tupperware and a brown bag; no one NEEDS a fancy lunchbox. But there’s something very civilized about having a clean, organized lunchbox, especially one that is sturdy and extraordinarily well made. If you’re a regular brown-bagger, at $24 it’s more than worthwhile to upgrade your lunch game with a Box Appetit!
Source: Manufacturer provided review sample
What I Liked: Well constructed; fit a good amount of food; microwave safe; easy to clean.
What Needs Improvement: Included fork is ok but not great.
