What can you tell us about LeBun?
The name - kind of - gives it away. Essentially they started out life as a street food trader, selling burgers and buns with a bit of a French twist. So the burgers you'll see here have slightly more gastronomic flourishes than your average burger joint serves up. Although this time around, they've come back from travels across France and the America south and have added some more influences to their arsenal. So this new residency sees them putting quite a few new dishes on the menu.
Where is it?
They've taken over the restaurant at Leicester House (just a minute walk from Leicester Square) for a five week basis.
Can we book?
Yes you can (joy)! See the info below.
And what's recommended from the menu?
We do like a good burger and we've tried pretty much most of London's at one time or another - but we LOVED the Le Truffle Double Double (£12) that's on the menu - bit of In-n-Out California influence. That's two aged rare breed patties, truffle veal jam, truffle mayo and American cheese in brioche. It is a WONDERFUL burger and leapt immediately into our best-ever top 10.
But it's not all about burgers. Their speciality is Le Bourgignon Bun (£9.50) - pulled beef shin, bourgignon glaze, bacon salt and truffle mayo and Champagne slaw. We can see how they got their great reputation on this - which is a good alternative to the usual brisket buns appearing on menus today.
And finally we tried their Shrimp and Scallop Po Bun (£13.50) - a French take on a New Orleans Po-boy, with deep fried shrimp and scallop, bisque sauce, samphire and herb frites. A very good bun indeed - but a special mention goes to the straw fries and samphire combo - a genius addition that completely elevates this side dish. We'd recommend this goes on the menu all the time.
Talking of sides - there are great normal fries and also some very good hot wing lollipops (with some particularly good Roquefort mayo) but there's one side that really jumps out - and it tragically wasn't ready when we visited. That'll be the foie gras doughnuts (£7) - house doughnuts with foie gras fondue glaze and pinot caramel. It sounds simply AMAZING and we'll have to go back and try that again. If any of you lot try it - tweet or instagram us to make us jealous.
And drinks?
Cocktails are between £7 and £10. Standouts for us were the crazy tasting Drive thru bubblegum Daiquiri (rum, bubblebum and lime) and the Pickled Gimlet - the next step along from a pickleback with gin, lemon and picklejuice. Plus they have house wine for £5 a glass and £19.50 a bottle, with some more off-menu bottles if you fancy something different.
Overall
We've been meaning to come to Le Bun in many of its previous incarnations and kept missing it - but we're very glad we finally got the chance this time around. This could be its most accessible location yet and everything we tried was properly top notch. We'd highly recommend you get down there while they're there - and hope they decide to stay a little longer. As for ourselves, we're definitely heading back for those doughnuts...
Le Bun is at Leicester House, 1 Leicester St, London WC2H 7BL until 22 May 2016. You can book on 0203 642 3339. For more, follow them on Twitter @LeBunUK
Hot Dinners were invited to Le Bun. Prices were correct at the time of writing.
