Le Bun’s – Truffle Cheeseburger

Instagram can really distort reality when you see a Burger oozing with beef juice topped with a sesame seed nicely toasted shimmering bun! Shoreditch is fast becoming my proverbial Mecca for a great Burger with so many establishments unwittingly competing for my own personal Burger Crown

The Bun: 5/20

I have no idea what this Bun was about. Quite simply, was one of the worst buns for this Burger. I thought at first that it had not been toasted for long enough due to it’s hardened, unforgiving texture. It was a terrible start for LeBun, I spent a good 60 to 90 seconds trying to figure out what was happening as the I could literally peel off layers of bread unlike any I had ever seen before. Biting this bun was like teeth through undercooked yam. Confused at this Potato Brioche choice as I have never eaten it before so I cannot say this was a badly cooked bun but I can definitely state personally, if I ever saw Potato Brioche on a Burger again, I would not order it.

The Toppings: 2/10

Chiffonade Iceberg Lettuce? I could Google search here and describe the differences between Iceberg Lettuce and a Chiffonade Iceberg Lettuce….. I won’t. This was iceberg lettuce and very little of it! It reminded me a little of the type of Lettuce you get in a Big Mac at a standard McDonalds. I think if you are going to put lettuce in a Burger it should add to the crunch and texture of a bite and this definitely did not do that. Hard to comment on toppings here as I can only focus on the one that LeBun put forward in the lettuce, which, unfortunately did nothing for the overall taste of texture of this Burger. Seems that the lettuce was lost in the truffle mayo.

The Condiments: 10/10

This LeBun Truffle Mayo was exceptional. The quality of this condiment is, in my opinion, beyond refute. It had a flavour which was to die for and made this Burger more than bearable, in fact, it made it nice. It was extremely strong with a garlic flavour and it gave the Burger a nice thick layer of taste on both sides of this yam stroke potato stroke cement brioche bun. I actually caught my wife peeling back layers of the top bun like some primitive version of musical chairs trying to get closer to the flavour of the truffle. The Truffle Mayo was, by far, the best part of this Burger. The texture was thick and smooth and the flavour that it packed was phenomenal, I would love to get the recipe to this and have that on my own home burgers thats for sure.

The Cheese: 10/20

The American Cheese was nicely melted and offered a nice layer to the patty. It was nothing special, standard American Cheese, little flavour but kept little lettuce from being a withered mess falling from the circumference of the bun. Again, not much to say other than it was OK, to be honest I would not have really noticed it if it was not there either!

The Patty: 8/20

LeBun dry aged beef Patty. I would change the name of this patty to “Standard run-of-the-mill Beef Patty”. There was no flavour at all. The patty was overcooked and did not have any juices running as we all like to see in a Burger. I have spent a couple of days thinking about this patty as there were some similarities to Burger and Beyond’s patty masterclass in the LeBun patty. It had a stranded texture inside rather than the usual compacted ground texture that you would find in most Burgers. It has made me wonder whether or not it is actually a good quality of meat and was just poorly cooked? Whether it was quality meat and had been refrigerated for too long before the cook? A good few questions have come to me during the last couple of days after a near-on 120-mile round trip for a cheat meal that disappointed me in so many departments but the Beef has had me scratching my head. If you have meat that is a little older and with a low-fat content then surely you would season it heavily to at least omit some flavour? If you are that confident in a cook to not season then your meat should have great individual attributes. Unfortunately for LeBun the meat was not good, neither was it memorable for any good reason. The meat simply served as a platform for the Truffle Mayo to be tasted not the other way round. After all we are eating Cheeseburgers not Cheesetruffles (sorry Mayo, I still love you) but the facts remain, any Burger I am paying £10+ for I would expect a half-decent piece of meat.

 

The Taste: 15/20

Supported by a good patty this LeBun Truffle Cheeseburger would have taken near on full scores here but I have to deduct as the fundamentals of the Burger have not been adhered to. The taste was good, very good, but purely because of the Mayo. The other components of this Burger were confusing but I still wanted to eat it, wow, I’d have eaten that truffle mayo on bread alone!

Our Verdict: 50/100

Standing alone on the podium was the LeBun Truffle Mayo unsupported by any other component representatives. I would eat this Burger again, just not in Shoreditch where the competition is rife. Had that Burger been put in my area with Blacks or Sam’s it would wipe the floor with the competition but its fundamental flaws leave a lot to be desired. Pretty words like Chiffonade and Potato Brioche may sound appetising but the actual synergy of this Burger was like wearing Jesus Creeper sandals and a tie, makes no sense. Remove the Potato Brioche and work with the chefs on their patty execution and you may have something at LeBun. The poor Truffle Mayo must feel like Gareth Bale for Wales, just about leading his team to mediocrity.