Despite having lived in Baguio for most of my life, including my broke college (and broke new employee) days, I never indulged in Macsbox fried rice – until recently. Established in 2002, Macsbox has been a long-time favorite of students and anyone on a budget in need of a filling meal. Strategically located in front of the Saint Louis University main gate, they sold enough boxes of fried rice for them to expand to Pampanga, Pangasinan, and Tarlac.
Although they have an impressive dine-in restaurant, they are currently offering delivery services exclusively for health and safety reasons. We decided to try three different variations of their fried rice: Macsbox Special, Chix Mix, and Khao Khluk Kapi.
At Php75 a box, you get a lot of bang for your buck. The fried rice is fragrant and flavorful, and comes in a deceptively large serving. The Macsbox special is a sort of breakfast fried rice with bits of ham, sausage, egg, and veggies. The Chix Mix contains shredded chicken, flavored with herbs. Macsbox’s take on Thai bagoong rice is the Khao Khluk Kapi.
Go with your craving when you order, but any one of them is a compact but heavy meal. If you don’t want to dirty any dishes (That is, if you don’t want to wash any dishes), you can unhook the tabs on the sides of the box and open it up like a plate. Be careful, though – you might end up dirtying your table instead. We moved ours to plates to be safe.
Macsbox also offers dessert, and we couldn’t decide whether we wanted their Baked Leche Flan or Mango Float, so we just ordered one of each. One tin of Baked Leche Flan goes for Php79, while a cup of their Mango Float costs Php29. These are one-person servings, and if you have a sweet tooth, you may want to get two or three, just in case.
We washed everything down with Fresh-Squeezed Lemonade at Php49 apiece. It’s a small thing, but I love when I can see the lemon slices in my lemonade. The sour kick is great for cleansing your palate after a box (or three) of savory fried rice. All in all, it was a great experience, and the convenience of having it delivered right to our door was the cherry on top.
Find out more about Macsbox on their website, or place an order on their Facebook page. They are currently open from 10:00am to 6:00pm for delivery only. Aside from Baguio, they also have branches in Angeles, Concepcion, Dagupan, Paniqui, and Tarlac City.
'Ka ni Kim 