Bul Box, a fast, casual Asian cuisine restaurant, opened its newest location on West Franklin Street on Monday, March 20.
Jaeyeon Kim, Bul Box's director of operations, described the restaurant as an “Asian Chipotle,” where you can order signature boxes named after cities like “Tokyo Box” or “Shanghai Box." You can also create your own with chosen ingredients.
“We wanted to have it in a similar format as what people are used to, so in a rice bowl or a salad bowl kind of concept,” Kim said. “We wanted to give people the option to make their own bowls and see what kind of flavors they can create on their own as well with the ingredients that we have.”
The Franklin Street location is Bul Box’s seventh location. All of its locations are in North Carolina. Kim said the original Bul Box location was in downtown Raleigh, and that locations are intentionally placed near universities so that students have access to quality food.
Meredith Jolly, a junior at UNC, said that, as a student with a busy life, she appreciates the fast service and take-out nature of Bul Box.
She said she is excited for Bul Box’s opening and that having affordable food options on Franklin Street is important to her.
“Since this is a campus where a lot of students don’t have the option to have a car, if we're having to go ahead and walk to get food — especially if dining hours are closed on campus — food should be affordable because college students have a hard time working and making their own money as well as doing schoolwork,” she said.
Kim said the menu at the Chapel Hill location will include unique items not available at other locations, including Japanese ramen, mac and cheese spring rolls and a chicken katsu sandwich.
She said the restaurant was supposed to open about five months ago, but construction was delayed because the building was very old and not up to date with current codes.
