Bül gluten free restaurant

Cooked with Love!

Bül is a lovely restaurant located close to the Sacré Coeur, in the beautiful avenue Trudaine in Paris 9^th arrondissement.

It opened in September 2015 and it is the brainchild of a young, dynamic couple: Julie and her husband Yousri.

It’s Marine, co-founder of Opn Kitchen, who told me about it the last time we met. She said that Bül is 100% gluten free, with several lactose free, vegan options on the menu. How great is that! I had to taste it immediately.

So here I am at Bül today for my lunch break.

Julie welcomes me in with a big, warm smile; she tells me that the specialties here are the juices made of freshly pressed sugar cane.

Actually her husband Yoursi was born in Egypt and it was during their marriage there that Julie discovered this energetic drink that Egyptians use to drink daily, all year long.

She literarily fell in love with it and she decided to bring it to France. So here it is the first “Sugar cane Bar” of the city.

You can drink it plane or combined with other fruit. It makes a good energy boost and it tastes so gently sweet, it is my first ever sugar cane juice and beside the sugary side, you can feel different flavours like milky bananas…fresh flowers….I think each one of us can let his imagination go while drinking it slowly.

Bül is also specialised in balls. I am a big fan! When I was a child, my grandmother used to cook for us the best meatballs that I have ever tasted. It was such a pleasure and whenever I eat some, I think of her.

Julie has concocted all the recipes by herself and she proposes sweet energy balls made of dates, coconut, nuts, seeds, so delicious!

There are also several savoury balls: they can be vegetarian, vegan and with meat. Here there is room for everybody! The duck one has also won a prize by the French Figaroscope as the second best meatball in Paris!

Savoury Balls are proposed with homemade sauces and you can accompany them with a side dish, I had salad but there are also soups and purées.

I literarily fell in love with these cute balls: so tasty! They melted in my mouth. I took a real pleasure at each bite. The only problem here, I would say, is that one ball calls the other and I could ever eaten tons! So addictive!

Another good news is that Bül is opened also for breakfast: from homemade granola to chocolate chips cookies and cakes, you can really splurge. There are also toasts that are available with different spreads. The gluten free bread is artisanal and made with sourdough by Panifica, a bakery just across the street that I do like. Here it is my older post on Panifica, if you are curious to know more about it.

Sundays are for brunch and I look forward to taste it. I love a good Sunday’s brunch! Julie tells me that she is always fully booked so it’s better to call in advance.

From Thursdays to Saturdays, Bül is opened also for aperitivo and dinner. With that lovely terrace outside, it’s going to be perfect when Spring arrives.

When I ask Julie why she has decided to propose 100% gluten free foods, she tells me that her sister is sensitive to gluten and that made her become aware of this issue. Besides she loves experimenting in the kitchen, she loves to set new challenges, to her cooking gluten free or vegan or lactose free, it is a way to never get bored at what she does.

However she has decided to not label her restaurant as “gluten free” to fight against people who still have prejudices like eating gluten free is a “fashion” thing or worse, it’s tasteless.

Here everybody is welcomed and can find his/her place at the table: food at Bül is made with Love, the only ingredient that according to Julie makes her succeed at each recipe, and it happens to be “also” gluten free.

You can eat it, you can enjoy it and you can eventually discover that is “free” ….later 😉

Thank you Julie!