Bul Box in Morrisville gets a solid four stars out of me. The food we had was fresh and delicious. Everything was relatively quick to prepare, healthy, and affordable. No matter if you dine in or take out, every box is prepared the same way and presented beautifully. If only there was a Bul Box closer to us in Chapel Hill, we'd be more frequent customers.
There are currently three Bul Box locations in the Triangle: (1) this one in Morrisville near Wegman's, (2) one in the North Hills mixed-use development in Raleigh, and (3) another in Raleigh at Transfer Co. Food Hall. This location in Morrisville is nice, inside and out. It opened in July 2020 and still looked new when we were here.
Both the indoor dining room and outdoor patio (uncovered) are spacious and were clean. The setup is fast-casual with orders prepared on-demand in an assembly line format (like Chipotle). Drinks, like organic tea and non-GMO Tractor Beverage Co. brand soda, were self-serve from beverage dispensers. The kitchen is open and ingredients were out on display, whether they were box-ready proteins and veggies on the line or fresh greens in the fridge and containers behind.
During our visit, poke boxes were priced at $12 per box, signature boxes with preset ingredient combinations were priced at $10.49 or $11.49 per box, and you could build your own box starting at $9.89 per box. Certain ingredients could add to the cost of a box such as avocado and seaweed salad (+$1 each). There were two poke boxes and five signature boxes to choose from.
Bul Box's schtick is eponymous. Their boxes are essentially the same thing as bowls, but they serve food in boxes to be different. The cuisine type is mostly Asian and Hawaiian-influenced (poke). "Bul" means fire in Korean and is most commonly associated with the Korean food bulgogi (marinated and cooked beef).
Here's what we got:
* Kona poke box with tuna with brown rice ($12) - cucumber salad, roasted beets, banh mi pickles, cherry tomato salad, seaweed salad, crab salad, crispy onions, spicy mayo, and teriyaki sauce
* Malibu poke box with salmon and half & half brown rice and mixed greens ($12) - citrus kale salad, bean salad, pickled red onions, avocado, rice puffs, spicy mayo, and teriyaki sauce
* Shanghai signature box with noodles ($10.49 + $1.50 for the noodles) - ginger chicken, bok choy, eggplant, roasted veggies, rice puffs, scallion, yum yum sauce, and sweet chili sauce
* Seoul signature box with kimchi fried rice ($11.49 + $1.50 for the kimchi fried rice) - bulgogi beef, citrus kale, kimchi, banh mi pickles, romaine lettuce, eggplant, fried egg, scallion, sesame seeds, and gochujang sauce
* Thai signature box with brown rice ($10.49) - Thai chicken, jalapeno, cucumber salad, banh mi pickles, roasted veggies, chopped peanuts, cilantro, Thai basil lime aioli, and peanut curry sauce
All of the boxes were tasty. I enjoyed everything I tried. Without a doubt, my favorite box was the Seoul signature box. It was also the most eye-popping with the fried egg on top. You can add a fried egg to any box for $1 extra. It's already included in the Seoul signature box. The beef bulgogi was savory and full of flavor. The eggplant was soft and yummy. The spicy gochujang tied everything together. If you want to go extra Korean, I do recommend ordering the Seoul signature box with kimchi fried rice.
The box I had the biggest gripe with was the Malibu poke box with salmon. The staff simply did not put enough salmon in the box. The Kona poke box was different because it included crab salad in addition to the tuna (or whatever fish you chose; spicy tuna was the third option). If Bul Box had more generous portions of fish in their poke boxes, I'd recommend their poke.
The Shanghai signature box was probably my second favorite followed by the Thai signature box. I ordered noodles with the Shanghai signature box, but I'm not sure they were worth the additional $1.50. The chicken in each box was prepared differently. The Shanghai chicken was battered, fried, and sauced while the Thai chicken was grilled and a leaner cut. The bok choy was crisp. The jalapenos were plentiful and potent (spicy).
We originally planned to dine outside on the patio, but wind gusts were about 15-18 MPH, so we dined inside. There was only one couple dining inside when we arrived and they left by the time our order was ready. We were the only indoor dine-in customers for the duration of our visit. For the entire duration of our visit, from entry to exit, the kitchen was constantly busy filling takeout orders. Most were for individual customers who came in to pick up. Bul Box has a designated pickup area next to the register. There were also drivers who came in to pick up orders for delivery. You can order and pay online by following the links at https://bul-box.com/.
Service was great. There were three guys. They were polite and worked efficiently. No problems.
Drake music played the entire time we were here. read more