The Bread Box

We had seen articles about the bakery so we decided to stop in this Saturday. EVERYTHING about the experience was great! We enjoyed our breakfast. My husband’s custard filled donut was huge, delicate and the custard was definitely homemade. The service was quick and pleasant and the bakery is very clean and comfortable. This is definitely going to be a place we will return to as often as we can!

Not the best Puerto Rican bakery I have been to, but definitely a good addition to the town. Usually you would have to go to Hartford for these pastries and sandwiches. Not in a very convenient location but worth stopping in if you want a breakfast sandwich or even a Cuban sandwich! The woman that helped me today was very pleasant and welcoming opposed to everyone else I have dealt with there!

I love this place… Very friendly… it’s very nice to have a Puertorican bakery in Manchester… they are not perfect but Hey! They still fairly new… God bless

I’ve been here a few times and every single time I went, I was disappointed. First off, the wait time in this place is absolutely ridiculous. I’ve been in there when there were only two people in front of me and still had to wait 20 minutes for my order. And this is with two people running the front part and two cooks in the back.
I have a huge sweet tooth, so I always order sweets and the baked goods in this place are never fresh. In fact, one day a friend decided to buy a whole box of sweets from this place and when he came over and tried to eat the cheesecake, he couldn’t. The strawberry on top of the cheesecake also had a gel like texture. Lo and behold, when we turned the cheesecake around, there was mold growing on it. When we went back to complain, the date on one of the sweets was about 8 days ago. Horrible.
Definitely drive to Hartford if you want a good Puerto Rican bakery. The one in Hartford always has fresh sweets and is cheaper than this place to boot. Skip this at all costs unless you want to wait a half hour for potential food poisoning.

This updated review reflects all the bad experiences I have had here over the past several months. At this point this place is more trouble than it’s worth.
When the food is good it’s really good which keeps us coming back even though there have been several instances of wrong orders, crazy wait times, bad customer service on the phone etc.
There have been at least three times in the last couple months where they have gotten our orders wrong. If they run out of the bread you want they will just sub it out with something different without asking. I have had to throw sandwiches away because of this. I always get mayo on my sandwich and repeat it twice on the phone, but still about half the time it doesn’t come with it. What is the point of giving a specific order if they don’t even follow it?
This last experience is what prompted this review. I always call our order in because the wait times if you order there can exceed 20 mins for two sandwiches… I called and gave my order and at the end I said oh and can both the sandwiches have white cheese? The lady taking the order said «OH MY GOD!» and then after a couple seconds of sighs and groans said «you should have told me that to begin with»… Seriously? There isn’t a protocol for ordering, whatever the customer says you make it work… That’s called customer service.
Pretty much done with this place and all the unprofessional incompetent people they have working there.

Stopped by on a Saturday morning for a quick breakfast sandwich. It wasn’t too busy but service was very slow. Even with two ladies in the front gathering the orders the line quickly got long as folks came in. They also seemed a bit unorganized.
Sandwich was a decent size for the prize. I will give this place another try eventually.
Parking is also limited.

Decent spread of pastries and sweets, can’t really speak to their quality though as I was in the market for a sandwich
I came in for breakfast to get a bacon egg and cheese, took pretty long and wasn’t anything special for 5 $
Lunch sandwiches looked a lot better though, would consider trying them again

I went there when it first opened up, and it was great! But now. Argh! Everytime I ask for bread with garlic they smothered a pound of butter on it, cheap butter at that and no garlic. Then I ask for toasted bread, here comes the microwave to use. Just not the same anymore, it’s like they are trying to get you out of there as soon as possible. I ask for a loaf of bread and it taste disgusting like vinegar of some sort. Pastries alright. Rather drive the 15 minutes to hartford t o know what I’m I’m getting for my money!

This place was exactly what I was expecting! A cute little bakery to fill the sweet tooth that I had! I got a chocolate cannoli and a powdered sugar puff pastry filled with guava. Both were delicious. Only complaint I have is the cannoli wasn’t filled and the center had no cream! Otherwise it was delicious!

I went here with my young children and wanted to get them a donut as a special treat. We have driven by the store several times but, always went somewhere with a drive-​thru instead. So the day we drove by and found a parking spot right up front, we decided we definitely had to try it! I love it when a new bakery comes to town. I am all about the sweets! We got a cinnamon roll and a white frosted donut with sprinkles. I was very disappointed to not see any of the prices or descriptions on the bakery items. I was also disappointed that they had no decaf coffee made, unless I wanted to wait 10mins, which wasn’t going to happen with small kids in tow.
The cinnamon roll was very, very dry. I would have guessed it was many days old. My son took a bite out of his donut. The whole layer of frosting came off and landed on his lap. I’ve never seen that before. How does that even happen with freshly made treats?! It doesn’t, therefore proving my point that it was days old. We definitely won’t be going back.

Wow! This place is a real gem! Absolutely delicious cubanos and other toasted (pressed) sandwiches. All bead baked on premises and the pastries are wonderful. Fantastic!

The bread here is awesome! One bite into the bread and I was transported back to PR. Thank you Bread box! The only thing is that the sandwiches they offer are not that great. They are skimpy on the meat and high in salt. I’ll be a regular customer for their warm breads though… Yummy!

I’ve had the egg, bacon, and cheese sandwich twice, really good. Little tip order head of time.

Nice to see a Puerto Rican bakery in Manchester. Sometimes it’s a pain to drive to Hartford to get the breads I crave for. I will be back here often.

Finally a Spanish bakery in Manchester. I’m Cuban and I was happy to see they had Cuban Sandwich and Cuban bread, they probably call it Puertorican bread but it’s the same I did not try any of the pastries but they look amazing. I order a Cuban sandwich like it the only thing I which is they had use Swiss cheese not American cheese since it’s Swiss cheese what a Cuban sandwich has. I also order Cuban bread prefect just like I was back in Cuba. Going back for sure this time for the pastries. Try The Bread Box you will like it.

Sometimes I go to a place just because it’s recommended on Unilocal (3 reviews, 4.5 stars), and then I wonder what I’m missing that others are seeing. This is one of those times.
I happened to go into this place hungry, which was probably what led to me buying a twist doughnut, a Boston cream doughnut, a cinnamon roll, a vanilla cupcake, and a coconut pudding. But not before this whole elaborate affair of having to ask what less-​recognizable pastries were and what went into them, and the two girls working behind the counter having to call a man who was presumably the manager out from the back to answer my questions.
Because of how difficult it was to find answers to my questions, I made a suggestion that they should have the names, prices, and even typical allergens listed on a card in front of each baked good, and the girl behind the counter just stared blankly at me like she wasn’t sure what to do with that info.
The most annoying problem for me was the complete lack of pricing on display for any of the baked goods, not in the display case nor posted on the wall. (All they had on the wall was sandwiches and drinks.) On top of this, the receipt they provided for me to sign wasn’t itemized, so I really had no idea what I paid for each item. If I hadn’t been so hungry, I would have made a bigger fuss. At least according to the verbally quoted prices, everything they sold seemed on the affordable side for a bakery.
After I tried everything I bought (spaced out over two days), I realized that even the pastries I ate immediately after purchasing were much drier in texture than they should have been. What I don’t understand is why they stored all of the baked goods in a refrigerated display case – even the ones that weren’t likely to spoil quickly. Don’t they know that storing bread in the fridge leads to a very dry loaf? I only store my bread in the fridge if I know it’s going to take a long time for me to get through it, and I don’t want it to mold… which makes me speculate that their pastries aren’t made fresh daily (I didn’t confirm this).
Reviews for each item are as follows:
— Twist Doughnut (⁶⁄₁₀) — Ate this the next morning, stored in the fridge for a couple hours and then on the countertop. I was told that this was one of the few doughnuts they make entirely in-​house (a lot of the other doughnuts they get a mix sent in and just add water). This was an okay doughnut, compared to the other doughnuts it was much less dry. From this, I realized the style of The Bread Box’s doughnuts isn’t much like the light, airy dessert doughnuts of Krispy Kreme or even the middle-​ground texture of Dunkin Donuts; it’s much closer to a sweetened bread. – kind of dense
— Boston Cream Doughnut (³⁄₁₀) — Ate this immediately. Not going to lie, the texture of this is almost like a dense brioche – much more like two pieces of powdered-​sugar-​dusted bread with some custard in the middle than a doughnut. The texture seemed dry.
— Cinnamon Roll (²⁄₁₀) — Tried to eat this the next morning, it was stored in the fridge for a couple hours and then on the countertop. It was so dry I could only eat a couple bites. I love cinnamon rolls, so I was really disappointed with this one.
— Vanilla Cupcake (⁴⁄₁₀) — Ate this immediately. The cake was like a lighter pound cake and delicious, though not uniquely standout in any way. The frosting was buttercream, and because it was stored in the fridge and butter hardens at colder temperatures, the frosting was a swirled, very solid block sitting on top of my cupcake. It was so greasy-​tasting with the first bite that I actually used the cupcake liner to remove all of it and just ate the cake.
— Coconut Pudding (⁷⁄₁₀) — Ate this a few hours after purchase (stored in fridge). This had to be my favorite, although it was slightly too sweet for my usual sugar tolerance. The pudding itself was like a light vanilla with a hint of coconut, plus a sprinkle of cinnamon on top. I noticed the top layer of pudding had congealed a little, and I’m not sure if that was because of the time that passed or if it was supposed to be like that.
EDIT: Since writing this review, I’ve been contacted by someone who explained that this is a Puerto Rican bakery and the baking style is drier and denser. I’m not going to change my rating, and here’s why – I get that maybe it’s just not my kind of texture (although some of what I bought was so dry that it was almost a PTSD moment from the saltine challenge). But it’s not like «bland» is a characteristic of Puerto Rican pastries. As someone who bakes a lot and frequents bakeries, I know what well-​made baked goods should taste like and these just didn’t cut it. Of course, I didn’t try any of the true cakes or cheesecakes, so maybe that was the difference in my experience vs. the other reviews. Regardless, the caveat is that baked goods here are drier and denser, and of course you’re free to disagree with me on the taste.

Great bakery! Breads, cakes, and pastries are made fresh daily. The almond cake is downright amazing! They get a little busy in waves and they don’t necessarily make sandwiches as fast as you would think is possible. I’ve tried a few selections from here (the almond cake being the best yet) and none have let me down yet. The cheese danish is great as is the loaves of bread they have for sale. Prices are very reasonable, but make sure you check your orders before you leave. I’ve seen them screw up a few egg and cheese sandwiches. Highly recommend though. Once again… ALMOND CAKE!