Review: Le Brunch

I first raved about French-American street food duo Le Bun when I experienced the awesomeness of their Le Royale slider at #NationalBurgerDay back in August. Amongst the 4, or 5… burgers I consumed that evening it was by far my favourite. Since then I been keeping an eye on their movement to ensure ~~I can’t see no room for improvement~~ when they next pitch up tent – I’m there.

Dizzee jokes aside, let’s talk brunch. Available at the Old Bengal Bar and New Street Grill, near London Liverpool Street, Le Bun took on a month-long residency in the form of an all-day brunch experience. ‘Le Brunch’ featured brand new creations alongside their signature dishes.

All that, PLUS bottomless prosecco – YEP, you already know we’re onto a winner here.

With our first glasses of prosecco poured we studied the menu which featured variations of eggs benedict (maple bacon, poached egg, hollandiase and an asparagus salad), eggs royale (Mariage Freres smoked salmon, spinach, poached egg and citrus hollandaise), chicken & waffles (confit Southern-fried chicken, shaved winter truffles, house waffles, truffle butter and rosemary maple syrup) as well as Le Bun’s iconic Bourguignon and Royale.

I was torn between Le Bourguignon, Le Duck Frites and Le Bisque Mac (Mac & Cheese), which sounded amazing by the way – shellfish bisque infused macaroni, seared shrimps, rouille & gruyere croutes, chervil! I settled on the duck frites, with my dining partners opting for a bourguignon and Le Chèvre.

Le Chèvre was the only veggy option on the menu and comprised of blowtorched goats cheese, smoked tomatoes, eggplant caviar and champagne slaw inside a brioche bun. Before ordering, we asked the waitress what eggplant caviar was. She was pretty stumped and after asking the kitchen gave a pretty clueless answer of, “its basically nothing to do with caviar, it’s just eggplant”… After googleing I can tell you that it’s just a fancy way of saying egglant spread.

You’ll notice that all the following dishes look pretty similar but with ‘le bun’ being the main focus it’s not really a surprise. Below is Le Bourguignon in the background and Le Duck Frites in the foreground of the picture. The slow & low beef short rib covered in a bourguignon glaze inside Le Bourguignon’s broiche layer was to-die-for. Sprinkled in bacon salt and smothered in truffle mayo it’s rich flavour complimented the tangy champagne slaw.

Champagne slaw is made by soaking shredded green cabbage in a champagne vinaigrette and seasoned to taste with sugar, salt and pepper. Served fresh it’s a relatively crunchy texture, slightly sweet but mostly tangy in flavour. More slaw accompanied my pulled confit duck, with straw frites, bearnaise spread and duck sauce. Duck confit is a french duck prepared in a centuries-old process that consists of salt curing a duck leg and then cooking it in its own fat. In order to ‘pull’ the meat it would have been cooked slowly at a low temperature, allowing it to become tender enough to be pulled into individual pieces.

Le Duck Frites is a dish so rich in different flavours that every mouthful required praise. Shreds of duck, thin crispy frites, oh-so-creamy bearnaise sauce and a mature duck sauce – il était fantastique!

We ordered a portion of triple cooked chips and cauliflower cheese to share, neither were really needed as the buns were filling on their own. That said the chips were fat, fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside and the cauliflower cheese was creamy. The chunks of cauliflower were a bit too big and I would have preferred it if they’d been cooked longer to make them softer.

The staff at Old Bengal Bar / New Street Grill kept the unlimited prosecco flowing for us all morning. We must have guzzled through at least 6 glasses each so the £10 per person was pretty good value. At the end of our boozey brunch we left smiling from the bubbles and awesome grub. Le Bun strikes again.