Woks Box

Woks Box
Festival Towers, Cnr of Albert and Charlotte Street, Brisbane



One afternoon, I was decidedly too tired to make dinner so we looked for somewhere fast and cheap to eat in the city.

Woks Box is one of those fast Asian food concept stores - like Noodle Box where you pick a menu item and they quickly wok fry the ingredients (most are precooked) before dishing your meal into a plastic take-away box.


When we went in, the place seemed to be occupied purely by people who knew the owners/staff and they were all chatting among themselves so I felt a bit intimidated.

There's a reasonable variety of meal boxes to choose from - noodles, rice plus some soupy options like laksa etc. Each meal comes in 2 sizes and are very affordable.


We picked a noodle and a rice dish and as expected, the food was ready really quickly. Even as we were ordering, a kitchen staff was loading up the necessary ingredients into a bowl to get stir fried. Imagine Sumo Salad but hot and with an Asian Influence.

The staff were polite but it felt too much of a family and friends affair for me to feel comfortable eating there so we took our food to Myer Center. The boxes tend to keep your meals warm for some time because they provide a bit of insulation. Be warned though - I once ordered a noodle dish from Noodle Box and it leaked everywhere. Not sure if I read somewhere that they claimed their boxes were waterproof or I just stupidly (and incorrectly) assumed so but make sure you don't do the same.

Bankok rice

My Bankok rice had a lot of shredded coconut, which added an interesting texture. It tasted 'good' without being at all exceptional. The kind of thing you could probably make at home if you had the ingredients and some store-bought flavoring sauce.

Red curry noodles

The same applied to the red curry noodles. Charlie even said he expected it to be just curry sauce with noodles and some other things thrown in. That's pretty much what it tasted like but that's not to say it's a bad thing for a basic everyday meal.

Taste-wise, you'll be satisfied with the food as long as you don't have really high expectations. Keeping in mind that a small box from Woks Box tends to be under $8 (and I find it very filling), it's unreasonable to compare with restaurant quality food. However, some Asian eateries also offer really cheap meals for under $10 (e.g. in Elizabeth St. Arcade) and I would say that the standard of food there is a bit better.

Woks Box is an option for food on the go or to take home. Otherwise, if I had a bit more time I would choose a more authentic eatery.