Monday, September 26, 2022

Buka bringing Nigerian cuisine to 1st Avenue

Photos by Steven

The Brooklyn-based Buka is bringing its homestyle Nigerian cuisine to 137 First Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street ... 
This will be a second outpost for Buka, which has a new location on Fulton Street in Bed-Stuy after launching in 2010. (This piece at Eater offers more details about what to expect from Buka.)

Per the Buka Instagram account, this East Village spot is expected to open on Oct. 1 with hours of 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. You can find a menu here.

The space was previously home to Drunken Dumpling, which debuted in the fall of 2016 and received favorable press for its gigantic soup dumplings created by the mother-son team here. The restaurant was closed for a good part of the pandemic, reopening back in November before going dark again in the spring. 

6 comments:

  1. so sad to see a sweet dream for a son and his mom go cold bc of some hedge fund clown opening his "brooklyn dumpling house" a block away :(

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  2. Mom made fantastic soup dumplings, wish I could have afforded to go there more than I did. Have never even set foot iBrooklyn Dump House.

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  3. Will miss Drunk Dumpling hopefully they can respawn elsewhere, feel torn cause Excited for the Nigerian food

    Couldn't agree more that the chain looking dumpling place half block away on the corner there is so jive live right near it it's a blight, didn't know it was hedgie owner but it explains their pigginess two sheds blasting music for a year+ they still do on occasion plus the sheds they also have a sidewalk set up so really horrible corner to navigate carrying groceries home on a busy day

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  4. Gotta say this dumpling shop put me off soup dumplings for years. I bought their single huge soup dumpling, didn't cut the grease with vinegar or anything, and just drank the soup out with a big straw. Big mistake. Almost threw up, and can still remember the aftertaste years later.

    Small soup dumplings. That's what you want. Small is fine.

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  5. would encourage others annoyed by Brooklyn Dumpling and its totally enormous and overkill outdoor sheds to submit a complaint on the 311 website. the pedestrian situation crossing st marks at 1st ave is insane because of these huge sheds and the restaurant is literally never busy enough to warrant all this seating. plus the guy is a bad faith actor in the community.

    anyway best of luck to BUKA although i fear that the east village is still not quite ready african food, seems like any time someone tries to make it happen , the reality becomes apparent super quickly. no one around here used to eating goat, palm oil, etc...

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    Replies
    1. Have to disagree a little on one point. Haili, the Ethiopian restaurant on B and 11th has been around for years with great food. Family owned and run

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