Buka New York

Hard to find good vegetarian food in this neighborhood, so it’s refreshing to stumble on an oasis like this. It’s not advertised as a vegetarian option, but there are several animal-​free choices. Heartily recommend!

I gave this place the third and final chance the food is good I can’t lie about that but the service is not and it’s been like that everytime I’ve come in this place. Every table except mine was given water we had to tell the waiter more than once about drinks we ordered and he just wasn’t as attentive as he should have been. I don’t think they will change because this is my third time coming and it’s the same old dissapointing song and Dance I won’t be returning although I wish them the best.

When it comes to food from The Motherland, Nigerian isn’t on the top of my list. I suppose I like more sauces on my food, and I’ve found Nigerian dishes to be on the dry side. Nevertheless, I thought it would be great to check out a Nigerian spot with a group of Nigerian homies on a nice Saturday night.
Food:
We ordered a variety of dishes. I specifically had the suya (thinly sliced grilled beef in Nigerian spices), jollof rice and efo sauce. All was just okay. The suya spices were good and the meat was tender, albeit a little well done for my taste. My friend ordered the fish pepper soup, which she enjoyed (note that there were a lot of bones). Another friend ordered the pof pof, which are little Nigerian donuts — they remind me of zeppoles. I liked them.
Service:
This is where this restaurant needs to do better. The restaurant was not particularly full, but service was, let’s say, the opposite of expeditious. After finally dropping off our bill, the waitress took nearly 20 minutes to come back to collect our payment. Twice I got up to flag her down because this was just ridiculous. People got places to go, nah mean?! She finally came to pick it up, but quickly returned because the restaurant can only take four credit cards per table. We should have been informed of this from the onset. So here we go trying to divvy out cash when most people didn’t have enough of it to cover the cost of their meal (so I ended up overpaying. The joy). The waitress finally returned to collect our cards and cash but once again took 15 – 20 minutes to return. One of my friends had to leave at some point during this time, too. This was a again ridiculous. Either Buka needs to hire another person to work the tables during dinner hours or this waitress needs to learn to multitask.

The goat, fufu, and pounded yam was delightful. I am a huge fan of the goat peppered soup, it was tender and a filled with meat and spicy broth and it never disappoints. The jolloff rice was spicy and authentic. Dodo was delivered to our table piping hot. The Buka Mojito was smaller than I expected but decorative, deep, and rich in flavor.
The room was dimly lit and I mean void of light and sparsely lit, I would highly recommend on nights that are heavy with clouds and overcast that the staff reevaluate the lightning. The Nigerian music was low, at a dull whisper. I would have loved to hear more.
Service is slow. There was one very attentive and courteous young lady who served as hostess and waitress between us and about four other parties, we had to hunt her down to our bill.
Good experience. Authentic and locally own and operated by native Nigerians. This is a date night must.

Great food! If you love spicy food, this is the place for you. Nigerian food, just so you know. Drinks was good as well. Service was great. Owner is really nice.

I stopped in here for take out today. Tilapia, Jollof, yam fries, dodo.
The food was pretty good. I didn’t think the Jollof had much flavor or maybe it’s just different than what I’m used to. The fish was good. The pepper sauce and dry pepper with the fish were excellent!!! The yam fries were not very crisp and it seemed like an aging grainy yam. We tossed these out sadly. I had ordered a fried rice as well but it was sadly not in the bag when I got home. They said 20 minutes and I came back in a few minutes early thinking I’d be waiting but it was all ready to go. Very nice staff and it looks like a pleasant space to dine in.

After I left I was willing to chalk up my bad experience to me simply not liking Nigerian food, but I decided to write the review after my girlfriend’s had food poisoning for the past two days.
The service is slow, and had little patience for any questions. The server was the only one on the floor, so I get that.
But I ordered the goat stew and the fufu, and I didn’t finish it. I ALWAYS finish my food. So, it was bad. The goat needed to be stewed a lot more. My girlfriends beef was slightly better, but I just didn’t like it, and could feel it not settling well in my stomach.
I would not recommend this place at all.

As a Nigerian i liked this place. I got jolloff rice and dodo to stay safe. I came here for a friends birthday. We brought a cake and they helped is with it. The food is good. Not the best you’ll ever taste if you’re a Nigerian but i’d recommend this place. My only issue was they had 1 girl running the whole restaurant. It was a Wednesday night and there were like 7 tables and she was host and server for them all. They need more help

Food was cool. Service was lacking. Disclaimer, this review was from about a while ago. It was my second time there. It took forever for everything and the woman definitely deliberately gave me the wrong item that was an upsale then when I got my receipt and asked her about the total she said «well why did you eat it then.» As if I could decipher the difference between one cut up meat from another drenched in sauce especially with me experimenting with a new food. I only mentioned the meat I ordered and even the person seated with me only heard me order what should have been on there receipt. I didn’t even ask a question about what she ultimately billed me for. The waitress didn’t even deny that I never asked her for what she gave me. It was clearly intentional. Weird way to do business. She should’ve sold me another drink instead.
I brought someone with me because the food was memorable from the first time. The second time around the food was cool but not as good and the lady wasn’t very nice. I left there knowing I probably wouldn’t be back.

Giving them 1 star for the service is terrible and extremely slow.
Let’s talk about the dinnerware. Oh my gosh the glasses smelled badly and the forks and Knives were dirty, we had to wipe them down with hand sanitizer first.
The appetizers were served an hour and half after they took our orders.
The lights are so dime that it can be hard for some to read the menu.
I just realized that the palm wine we had was expired. I found out after looking at the pictures we took last night.

Ordered Jollof rice with dodo and mixed meat for takeout. Friendly staff… relatively quick turnaround… but the jollof rice was terrible! How can a Nigerian restaurant not know how to make a Nigerian staple??? Might try other dishes again and give a second review…

Huge disappointment with the food. Not only did I find dirt (have u ever bite into a stone in your food, well that’s what was in my fufu and my bitter greens) I sent it back and got dirt in my second plate as well. I guess some sort of renovation was taking place there and sand fell into the food, the food was gritty and gross. Ruined my Valentine’s Day lunch completely.

Good Nigerian restaurant
1) Got the suya skewer, chicken, jollof rice (amazing!) and fufu.
2) Next time I will get the goat pepper soup.
3) Ambiance is awesome!

Great authentic Nigerian cuisine in downtown Brooklyn. The venue is very warm and cozy, oozing a super rustic vibe. The food is delicious and very true to form if you are at all familiar with Nigerian cuisine. The goat meat is extremely tender and flavored beautifully, as is the jollof rice; definitely a must try if you are sampling Nigerian food for the first time. My honey ordered the suya steak along with fried rice. Also delectable. I will forewarn that Nigerian food has a tendency to air on the spicy side, but nothing too overwhelming. I will definitely be back next time I’m in the city.

My second time coming here. There have been a few other previews about how slow the food was. Mine came out pretty quickly although They did forget one of the things I ordered and had to remind them. The waiters are smiley and service was okay.
My two biggest grouses however were:
1. Presentation. I ordered the pounded yam and efo. First of all the efo was almost minuscule and bare visible on my plate. The stew was all over the place and slightly watery. I’m Nigerian. Our food is all about presentation so I was missing this.
2. Music. Looks like their speakers are busted so you hear this annoying string on songs from a speaker that sounds like it has a cold and has lost its voice. The little things. Buka. The little things.

As a Nigerian who was born in America, I brought my older cousin here (who lives in Nigeria) to show her that we haven’t forgotten our culture. I ordered pounded yam & okra soup and what I got was raw okra and red oil with assorted meat. Abeg, which kind of okra soup is this?
I immediately switched to edikaikong and was so satisfied. The soup was so tasty and the meat was well seasoned and cooked. Am missing my mommy’s pot chai.
The Victoria island iced tea is disgusting, I guess I missed the jalepeño in the drink description. Jesus, it tasted like acid.
I hope Keisha continues to work there, she was a sweetheart and made my cousin feel so welcome, as hard as she was to impress :)

I went to Buka tonight with some friends and had a great time and a really good restaurant experience. I didn’t get our servers name but she was pretty on point. Every thing we asked for, she got for us, answered all our questions and was pretty attentive the whole night.
I ordered the grilled tiger shrimp with jollof rice and it was SO GOOD. Only downside was my shrimp was a little cold, due to the overwhelming order from my table but aside from that, it was cooked perfectly and so delicious. I tried some of my friend’s dishes, which included the bean cakes, yam fries some steak appetizer and the grilled tilapia. Btw, who knew tilapia could taste so good?!
Overall, I throughly enjoyed my dinner at Buka and even though it was my first time having Nigerian food, I’m definitely coming back!

They tried to half ass the service and when confronted about the dodgy food they were argumentative and disrespectful. My mother’s stew had gone off. They Brought us some makeshift pepper soup with substitutions and insisted that it was the same soup, eventually stating that the color of the soup was due to the use of a different (red) pepper. when asked how it altered the color they simply kept repeating that it was the pepper. When asked to explain the state of the other food they (a bottom heavy woman and a spectacled man in a hat) simply got louder more defensive and more discordant.
Instead of apologizing they would try to justify the state of the food in an effort to get us to pay for the shoddy food. They were arguing so loudly that they neglected to realize that we had already stated that we were willing to pay for what we had partially consumed (the «pepper soup» and ginger ale). And keep in mind that just before this incident the waitress had an unprofessional tone, asking one client «what do you want» when they sat down and ignoring another set of clients, consistently stalling them.
During the incident they would often ignore me and continue conversations in their own language as though I was not there.
I used to be a doting customer, recommending this restaurant, and the food in particular, to friends and family despite the slow and or rude unprofessional service/​waitresses. But after this fiasco it is clear that this lack of professional acuity extends much further than the servers.
(For a visual reference see the images i posted)

Wow. I never had Nigerian before my friend took me here. She’s a regular and knows most of the staff and owners.
I sat in the bar area up front, but he ceilings were super high and the back area is reminiscent of a beer hall.
There were musicians playing music and a very positive vibe. My friend got me a cocktail that was interesting to say the least. It was peppers, vinegar, and alcohol, at least that’s what it tasted like. I was glad to try something unique, but it wasn’t for me. So I stuck with the wine.
The ambiance is dark and could use a bit more lighting to enhance the vibe.
The bathrooms are well maintained and cleaned.
I had a whole bony fish, Jollof rice (amazing), seared shrimp. It was all delicious. Very comforting. It didn’t feel too heavy at all. Everything was perfectly seasoned and simple. It was all spicy just how I like it.
Some items on the menu weren’t available. I’m looking forward to going back and trying something new. This was an excellent introduction to Nigerian food.

We were brought here by a friend who recommended this place as the best Nigerian restaurant in NYC. BIG WARNING was the service is very, very slow. We figured we’ve seen slow service in NYC, no biggie, and we were going with the big group so we’d deal. OMG, slooooooow service was no exaggeration.
Our party of 8 arrive at 630 and did not finish our meal until almost 10 pm. With this came 5 orders of appetizers and 8 entrees. The food came out when it was ready to come out, in no particular order, in no particular fashion. There were entrees that came out before appetizers and we ordered two Akara’s which came 30 minutes apart, for some reason.
We tried a variety of different items on the menu: dundun, dodo, akara, grilled red snapper, pof pof, beef fufu and ogbono sauce, suya steak, and suya appetizers. The food was interesting and different, there was nothing we could compare it to. The food was enjoyable, except for the suya steaks, which didn’t come until 9pm and they were dry.
We’re not sure if the food just takes way too long to prepare, or if the service just takes way too long to arrive, but it was way long. We really have no idea how a restaurant can make money if the tables have no turnover in one night. From the time we sat, til when we left, there was only one party at each table. Nobody new came, no idea how the restaurant profits. The low stars are just due to the lack of service and the long wait.