The name “bu•ku” comes from an international slang twist on the phrase, “Merci, beaucoup,”  meaning, “Thank you, very much.” Located at the corner of Wilmington and Davie Streets, in the center of the quickly emerging, food & drink-conscious Wilmington Street District, bu•ku: Global Street Foodis a local restaurant telling a global story. Global Street Food naturally lends itself to a fresh, fast, affordable downtown lunch with healthy options, the bu•ku BAR offers a culinary-inspired approach to hand-crafted beer, wine, and cocktails, and the Sunday World Tour Buffet Brunch is Downtown Raleigh’s best. 

Working within different regional traditions, the menu brings together complex and flavorful dishes that have been honed over generations.  Foods like Polish pierogis,Colombian arepas, and Thai papaya salad served in a banana leaf can be found on the street corners of Warsaw, Bogota, and Bangkok. Their predecessors, prepared in kitchens and over outdoor cook-fires for hundreds of years, are popular favorites that have morphed into street foods to meet the demands of changing times. Bu-Ku strives to convey the immediate thrill a traveler feels eating foods like these as they first cross over the cart and exchange hands into the urban setting.