The third pizza place that we visited was ‘Bistro Box’. This was an interesting place that we were all very keen to find out more about once we were made aware of it. The concept is basically a self-service, fast food pizza place where all the food and beverages are dispensed through automated vending machines. The pizzas are small in size and rectangle in shape with the standard tomato pizza sauce and cheese topping. Bistro Box state that they use local, Austrian ingredients for their meals. However, there is an option of 5 types of additional pizza’s; Pizza Salami, which consists of small slices of pepperoni and chillies. Other options include the Leberkas Pizza, which is s traditional Austria meat of corned beef on top of a pizza. Pizza Schinken which is topped with pieces of ham and sweetcorn. Pizza Diavolo, which is very similar to the ‘Salami’ pizza with mini slices of pepperoni but instead of green chillies they have red chillies. All of the pizza’s listed were €4. Finally, there is the Käsebaguette, which doesn’t include the tomato pizza sauce. This pizza is the cheapest, standing at €3.50. You can use both notes, coins and bankcard, which is very handy for anyone to use this service. Another factor that gives it a potential edge over other places that are directly in competition with it is the fact it is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The actual premises of the branch we went to are situated very centrally in the city of Salzburg, on Linzergasse. Our journey with Bistro Box started off rather rocky as we elected to use a machine that didn’t seem to work, although it took money off my card it did not dispense my order. It appeared to be working as the screen was on however the money quickly returned into my account and I just used cash on the other machine. The pizza took 2 minutes to be served to me from point of order in which the pizza I selected seemed to be taken out of a mini fridge by a robotic hand and placed into a microwave oven. The quick timing of the pizza was good, and I was pleased with this as it meant I could eat faster!! The pizza itself was as you would expect from a microwaved vending machine pizza, not great. It was absolutely roasting hot and the first bite almost singed by tasted buds off, which maybe helped the rest of it being bearable. The base was ‘cardboard-like’, the cheese was actually not that bad, the pizza sauce was hardly there and very very warm. Finally, the toppings were far from ideal, with the chillies being slightly chewy and dry and the pepperoni slices possessing pools of grease on top of them. All in all, the pizza was pretty much as expected, really not very good. However, I have to say that if I was staggering home from a night out and I found this self-service pizza restaurant for as cheap as this, I would definitely use my taxi money to get a quick pizza and walk home instead.
Our journey with Bistro Box started off rather rocky as we elected to use a machine that didn’t seem to work, although it took money off my card it did not dispense my order. It appeared to be working as the screen was on however the money quickly returned into my account and I just used cash on the other machine. The pizza took 2 minutes to be served to me from point of order in which the pizza I selected seemed to be taken out of a mini fridge by a robotic hand and placed into a microwave oven. The quick timing of the pizza was good, and I was pleased with this as it meant I could eat faster!! The pizza itself was as you would expect from a microwaved vending machine pizza, not great. It was absolutely roasting hot and the first bite almost singed by tasted buds off, which maybe helped the rest of it being bearable. The base was ‘cardboard-like’, the cheese was actually not that bad, the pizza sauce was hardly there and very very warm. Finally, the toppings were far from ideal, with the chillies being slightly chewy and dry and the pepperoni slices possessing pools of grease on top of them. All in all, the pizza was pretty much as expected, really not very good. However, I have to say that if I was staggering home from a night out and I found this self-service pizza restaurant for as cheap as this, I would definitely use my taxi money to get a quick pizza and walk home instead.
Moving onto the “drinks section”, of course there are another two vending machines for drinks. There is one for hot drinks and one for cold. There was a good range of drinks with the classic soft drinks such as Coca-Cola, Fanta etc. with also the option of things such as water and even cans of beer. Which is another win in the mind of someone who is trotting home, after being kicked out the bar and looking for somewhere to eat and continue their drinking! They also offered their own branded energy drink, which pretty much just a knock off Red Bull. The drink was priced at €1.90
Having been so critical of the pizza itself I do think it is worth noting that Bistro Box probably aren’t necessarily aiming to be the high-quality option on the market. For a quick and (I’d assume usually) easy option to get a pizza on your lunch break or stuttering home after a night out then its definitely a very strong option.
Taste: 2.6 Location: 4.8 Service: 3.5 Price: 4.4 Overall: 2.8
Thanks for reading and I hope you (atleast try to) enjoy your pizza!!
Getting Cheesy Team x
Below is a link to our vlog of this experience!
