can we just start an appreciation thread?

i searched. did not find one. seriously, i'm in love.

i expected to be underwhelmed, but i totally was not.


http://bukuraleigh.com/buku/

3/5/2010 2:34:22 AM

3/5/2010 2:36:06 AM

it's really fucking good

but i have to go with someone

because if i'm by myself i'll just go to cooper's

3/5/2010 2:38:26 AM

i will list what we got tonight:

Roasted eggplant, tomato,onion, olive bread, curry oil ~ 7
Viet cucumber salad, crisp shallot, chiles, fried peanuts, sweet rice vinegar ~ 4
Empanadas, bay-braised chicken, avocado leaf, farmers cheese, salsa ~ 7
Tuna tataki, ginger dressing, wakame and cucumber ~ 7.5
Korean bbq, shaved prime sirloin, flash grilled, garlic, dark soy, kim chi, sesame spinach, hot mustard ~ 7
Sake-braised short ribs, pickled daikon, Japanese rice ~ 7

3/5/2010 2:40:11 AM

Would you say two people could go there for food, no alcohol, and have a dandy meal that's not hitting bank?

3/5/2010 2:46:40 AM

klezmer dance party this weekend! no fucking way!

i have never heard a klezmer band play south of the mason-dixon line, i am pumped

3/5/2010 2:51:50 AM

^^ what is hitting bank? we probably could have ordered 2 less things and been fine...soooo the answer to your question i THINK is yes?! we just wanted to try a lot of different things.

3/5/2010 2:57:41 AM

No fucking idea what a klezmer band is.

Google.

Ahaha, oh, yes. OH MY GOD, I want to go to buku this weekend!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bQmT1EM0Eg

3/5/2010 2:58:56 AM

if you get 4 things and aren't that hungry you can come out fine! we were STARVED and that filled us both up - i was too full to eat anymore so eric even had more (which i suspect is what most boys want)!

i was actually really impressed with the food

3/5/2010 3:02:12 AM

here's some good images of klezmer dances:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ0uXBARBMc

and if they do this you won't want to miss it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2qjrqURXBE&feature=related

i'm so pissed off that its this weekend when my back is all fucked up

[Edited on March 5, 2010 at 3:29 AM. Reason : -]

3/5/2010 3:28:00 AM

milla jovovich sings in a klezmer band in dummy

it's quite good, actually

3/5/2010 3:33:59 AM

from 1500-1948, there was nothing else that made it worth being an Eastern European Jew...life sucked all around. but they can never take our awesome folk music and the shitty dancing we put with it

3/5/2010 3:53:53 AM

You never did give me a Jew's take on where to get a fucking good deli lunch around here, with real mustard goddamnit.

3/5/2010 4:25:26 AM

just did

3/5/2010 4:53:34 AM

My family went there for opening weekend b/c my parents were HUGE fans of Fins (place that was there before Buku. Same owner opened Buku just w/ financial backers)


Everything we had was delicious but b/c it was opening weekend, it took over 2 hours for all our food to come out. But we are going to go back once they have all the kinks worked out.

[Edited on March 5, 2010 at 8:48 AM. Reason : f]

3/5/2010 8:46:08 AM

i am going out of town this weekend. i will be missing klezmer. unless its sunday

[Edited on March 5, 2010 at 9:21 AM. Reason : nope its saturday ]

3/5/2010 8:54:06 AM

Meh.... we went on opening weekend because our friends run the place. We ordered 2 rounds of food about 30 minutes apart. They both ended up coming out about 2 hours after the first round was ordered. We had 9 things to split between 4 of us and everyone left hungry. Everything tasted very good, but nothing was hot either.

Poor experience, but I will give it another shot sometime.

3/5/2010 9:43:18 AM

yea i can imagine the difficulties associated w/ opening weekend

and fwiw i don't think i'd recommend going on a weekend yet at all. we went last night (thurs) and it was pretty freaking crowded. we got in without a reservation but for 9pm on a thursday it was pretty packed IMO.

i want to go for lunch.

but our food all came out within 10 - 15 minutes of ordering, hot, delicious. and we ordered more after our first few dishes. and like i said we had 6 things between 2 and i AND my bf were full. we started with 4 things but realized that was not going to be enough. definitely a small plates place so i guess you have to realize that when you decide to eat there!

3/5/2010 4:14:10 PM

This place is fucking awesome maybe my new favorite Raleigh restaurant.

3/5/2010 4:25:18 PM

^ i agree. i'm in love

3/5/2010 4:33:01 PM

menu looks impressive! I'll have to check it out.

3/5/2010 4:44:56 PM

thank you for helping me decide where to eat tonight

3/5/2010 4:57:00 PM

I was there with a big group so I was able to try a lot of different things.

Bolded are favorites, but all were awesome:

Columbian arepas with farmers cheese
Massaman curry, broad bean,cauliflower, gold raisin,mango chutney
Pierogis, puffed in brown butter, pastry, winter squash, beer-braised chicken
Empanadas, bay-braised chicken, avocado leaf, farmers cheese, salsa
Cochinita pibil, tender, pulled, soft corn tortilla, pickled red onion,habanera salsa
Tuna tataki, ginger dressing, wakame and cucumber
Bichotan grilled dayboat scallop, tsune, sesame-sushi rice, scallion butter
Korean bbq, shaved prime sirloin, flash grilled, garlic, dark soy, kim chi, sesame spinach, hot mustard
Beef tataki, crispy onion, wasabi greens, ponzu dressing
Creme Brulee

Also be sure to get agua fresca to drink. Delicious and it's only $1.

3/5/2010 5:12:37 PM

Am I the only one who started to read the title and immediately thought this, but read the rest and was disappointed?

[Edited on March 5, 2010 at 5:14 PM. Reason : ]

3/5/2010 5:13:28 PM

^^ we got the tuna tataki too! MMMM. and the korean bbq + empanadas. I LOVED the bbq. kinda sad we didn't do the beef tataki. we ALMOST did but then got the japanese short rib instead. which was delicious also.

^ i guess you missed the parody thread!

[Edited on March 5, 2010 at 5:17 PM. Reason : .]

3/5/2010 5:17:43 PM

The beef was prepared and served exactly like the tuna, but it wasn't as good. The tuna tataki was probably my favorite thing.

3/5/2010 5:26:32 PM

the service/speed always sucked at fins too, so i guess some things haven't changed.

3/5/2010 9:08:11 PM

How were the Empanadas?

I'm fucking dying for some good ones, perogies too but I'll probably have to finally go to J. Betskies for those.

3/6/2010 3:38:08 AM

^^ on opening night i guess it sucked but i just said when i was there on a relatively crowded thurs night, the service was fast. so. whatev

^ they were good but i mean, i wouldn't go there just for those

3/6/2010 6:40:12 AM

I thought this thread was about Yung Joc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bavqZPVEthc&feature=related

3/6/2010 6:54:59 AM

Oakwood Cafe still has better empanadas IMO

[Edited on March 6, 2010 at 10:26 AM. Reason : .]

3/6/2010 10:26:28 AM

Quote :

"the service/speed always sucked at fins too, so i guess some things haven't changed."

We always sat at the chef's table (bar that overlooks the kitchen) at Fins and got good service.

3/6/2010 10:54:43 AM

^^Been meaning to go to Oakwood anyway, then.

3/6/2010 12:53:38 PM

I tried it tonight and wasn't really impressed.

It's a really cool concept, but most of the food seemed pretty mediocre.

4/21/2010 1:01:29 AM

what did you get there?

i LOVED what we got and it was delicious.

4/21/2010 1:09:14 AM

I'm not impressed with dinner there but

GO THERE FOR LUNCH!

Interesting, delicious, and totally reasonably priced!

4/21/2010 1:20:14 AM

yea their lunch menu looked amazing - i've only been for dinner.

at dinner i thought the korean bbq was really yummy and the empanadas were good.

i can't even remember the other stuff we got. oh yea the raw tuna salad. that was good.

4/21/2010 1:21:17 AM

steamed chinese dumpling - eh
empanada - tasty
filipino pork lumpia - no flavor
tuna tataki - didn't try it, she said it was so so
pork chop - nice piece of meat but didn't really have any flavor
apple tart - something funky in there

i feel like it all might have been pretty good if we'd paired it with the right sauces. we ended up getting a spicier one with the lumpia and used it on the pork chop as well, but even then it masked the blandness of the dish instead of adding a new element to it. i'd rather have the food seasoned or come with a sauce instead of having to drop another few bucks on an accessory to make it palatable.

4/21/2010 1:43:34 AM

i'm way too pissed about the loss of fins to eat at this place.

4/21/2010 7:25:42 AM

I'm going to look like a real hater now, but I never had a good meal at Finns.

To their credit I ate their once their first month and didn't make it back, so it may have improved quite a bit.

4/21/2010 7:35:54 AM

^^Its the same chef/owner that was Fin's. He just wasn't doing well financially and had to get financial investors and they wanted him to close Fin's and reopen as Buku.

4/21/2010 7:56:00 AM

Quote :

"steamed chinese dumpling - eh empanada - tasty filipino pork lumpia - no flavor tuna tataki - didn't try it, she said it was so so pork chop - nice piece of meat but didn't really have any flavor apple tart - something funky in there"

STUCK UP MOTHERFUCKER.

DON'T BE ACTING LIKE YOU KNOW HOW TO RATE FOOD SON.

YOU JUST A SIDE DISH FOOL.

4/21/2010 8:06:36 AM

^^ you don't have to explain to me why i'm pissed. i know it's the same owner. i'm still pissed.

4/21/2010 8:09:24 AM

LOOK, ASSHOLE, THIS IS WHY YOU'RE FUCKING PISSED.

4/21/2010 8:11:17 AM

bttt

9/3/2010 3:52:36 PM

thanks

a little interesting tidbit for the restaurant peeps:

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/food/dauvray-leaves-buku#storylink=misearch

Quote :

"D'Auvray leaves bu.ku Submitted by gregcox on 09/02/2010 - 10:37 Tags: Mouthful | bu.ku | chef | William D'Auvray William D'Auvray, executive chef and founding partner of bu.ku in downtown Raleigh, has left the restaurant. D'Auvray didn't give specific reasons for his departure other than to say that he's working on another project. We'll have more details as we get them. "

[Edited on September 3, 2010 at 3:55 PM. Reason : .]

9/3/2010 3:54:29 PM

I want to figure out how to make their cucumber salad

9/3/2010 3:56:51 PM

^Wow, I'll have to let my parents know. They loved Fins and Buku as well.

9/3/2010 3:56:56 PM

Hopefully he's starting an ethnic restaurant that has minimalist decoration in an attempt to look modern while playing house music in the background.

Raleigh really doesn't have enough of those.

9/3/2010 3:57:56 PM

^^ i know! my dad never ate at buku and didn't eat at fin's once it moved downtown (too long of a drive for him haha...must.not.venture out of north raleigh!). but he loved fin's, too.

i wonder whats up?

[Edited on September 3, 2010 at 3:59 PM. Reason : .]

9/3/2010 3:58:41 PM