The Three Compasses, Dalston — Restaurant in London

LE BUN AT THE THREE COMPASSES Burgers burgers, everywhere. London's love affair with all things Americana shows no sign of slowing down any time soon and it seems that every corner you turn, you'll find a rib shack, burger bar or BBQ rustling up buns of varying degrees of success. The Burger Awakening only struck me a year or so ago so I'm a little slow on the uptake of the various outlets but the only one on my list worth writing home about (and revisiting) is MeatMission. Until now.

Le Bun is stealing the show. Fresh from winning Sky and Samsung's Launching People and a two month residency at the Old Bengal Bar, Le Bun have taken over Dalston Pub The Three Compasses to offer fast food French-style. Last night was their launch party, and with the promise of great food, 50% off and killer tunes, it was suitably rammed.

With no time to lose, we did what four sensible people do when offered six options - order one of each and dive right in. I kicked off with the Le Bourguignon Bun (I was swayed by the promise of bacon salt, champagne slaw and truffle mayo) and practically inhaled it, it was so good. The slow-cooked meat was deliciously melt in the mouth with a great depth of flavour from the glaze; crunchy cabbage slaw added that bit of tang and the saltiness from the bacon and truffle rounded everything off. The rest of the team didn't even get a look in.

Le Duck Frites Bun was equally as sumptuous with crispy straw fries packed straight into the bun, whilst Le Chevre managed to serve up a whole wedge of oozing goats cheese, topped with that biting crunchy slaw for good measure. Le Royale With Cheese sold out pretty sharpish and passed the boys' meat test (ie. plenty of it) and this time, I was the one who missed out.

We didn't stop there. After catching up with the brains behind Le Bun (Tim Talbot and Andy Taylor) we just couldn't resist even more food. So out came three sliders and Le French Onion Dog - the first three were 'down in one' affairs (see the boys about to get stuck in) and the dog we shared, all grinning beatifically. Also, who fries parsley? It's genius!

These guys have got the burger thing down, I'm a total convert. They're sticking with The Three Compasses for a while and are also running Taco Tuesdays (self explanatory, right?), Steak Frites nights on Wednesdays complete with Red Wine Roulette and a toasty winter garden to wrap up in. Whilst you're out there, try one of the crazily moreish winter warmers from Kamm & Sons - I fell in love with the Hot Roots so have one for me.

Le Bun, I salute you. Cinq out of...

One star because the food was banging.

I booked weeks in advance to celebrate my birthday. I was emailed the day before my booking to ask if we wanted to take part in the pub quiz. I replied to the email to say that we wanted to, and also that I wanted to add a person to the booking. I recieved no reply, but when I called the answering message said they can't always answer the phone but they will always see their emails so figured it would be fine to turn up with 1 extra as I hadn't been told no.

When we arrived, the table was a squeeze even for the 7 of us initially booked for to eat around. I asked a staff member for an extra chair and he was pretty dismissive of me. When I tried to explain it was disappointing because I'd booked he said "I don't know what you want me to do about it". I asked some of the other staff and they were kinder and told me they were working on finding me one more chair. It would've been totally cool if someone had shown a little empathy to the fact this wasn't an ideal seating situation, which was a bit stressful and disappointing. The kitchen staff were bloody delightful though!!

The pub quiz host Thom Harris definitely brought the vibes down. He had a question in his quiz about Anne Frank that was incorrect and insulting, and when I pointed it out during the answers he said on the mic: "I had a joke about Anne Frank but I'm not going to say it now". When I tried to bring up the issue with this question with Thom alone he got hostile towards me, victimised himself, said he didn't have time to listen to me because he was marking the quiz, and I should take it up with someone else because he didn't write the questions. He also wouldn't tell me what his Anne Frank joke was (prob cause he realised that nothing about Anne Frank's life or death is funny and that I was gonna name and shame him in a review lol). There were also other questions that were incorrect like some of the song names in the music round. If you want to run a pub quiz, pls pls have some sensitivity and sense of responsibility and fact check if you're going to use a whole quiz written by someone else. This would have upset me faaaaar less if Thom had shown some genuine accountability and said he would fact check things before presenting them in future. I loooove pub quizzes and was really looking forward to my first one post pandemic and it's such a shame when the host makes you...

Glad to hear some other people singing the praises of the Three Compasses. This is my local pub and I totally love it. It's a local in the city. A real mixture of people of different ages not just a hipster parade.

Really friendly atmosphere, chilled atmosphere on weekdays, then it really kicks off on Friday when they usually have a DJ spinning some good tunes. I like it best on Sunday afternoon, sitting around drinking bloody marys and playing backgammon.

They serve a menu of burgers, just burgers, but they're filthy lovely. Great to shovel down whilst you're having a few drinks.

Drinks selection is good as well - lots of local brews from London which I like to see. Some Hackney stuff, some Camden stuff...