Lagom.

Lagom

Jay Rayner went looking for a cheap dinner, found Elliot Cunningham cooking over coals in a railway arch, and wrote that a plate of golden beetroot was the best plate of the stuff I have eaten in years (The Observer).

Why go

Lagom has never had a lease. Cunningham told Pit magazine why: At the moment, I don't have any permanent residence with Lagom. I like to move around, which helps keeps things fresh from an operational point of view3. It ran at Mother Kelly's in Bethnal Green, then two years at Hackney Church Brew Co, and since about February 2026 it has been at The Three Compasses on Dalston Lane.

He is half Swedish, and lagom means roughly not too much and not too little. His stated project is to make fire do more than meat: "We always cook over fire and always aim to offer more than just meat, we like to showcase how fire cooking can make fish and veg the centre stage on our menus." He is also specific about the craft. "No two fires are the same; you could be cooking the same dishes but over a different burn and end up with a totally different result."

Rayner's 2019 review was of the Hackney Church Brew Co residency, at a different address and with a much longer menu, and it is worth reading as evidence about the cook rather than about tonight's dinner. Bone-in pork belly rubbed with fermented chilli and kithul-palm jaggery, then finished in the smoke, for ten pounds. Whole Sutton Hoo chicken. Mushrooms long smoked to an almost meaty intensity for a fiver. His summary of the method: "Each plate is a simple idea, expressed vividly and with care so that the key ingredient gets to shout its name."

What is on the pass now is narrower. Four buns, pie croquettes, triple-cooked potatoes, and weekend specials of half a roast chicken or roast pork belly. Immy Smith reviewed it in February 2026 and puts them among the best burgers in town (The Nudge).

The host pub pours 40ft and Lost & Grounded, runs a quiz and DJs, and has two happy hours a day.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the aged-beef smash burger first. The lamb burger with cemen yoghurt and ezme. The fried celeriac bun, because the vegetables get the same attention here as the meat. Pie croquettes with jalapeño tartare, and the triple-cooked potatoes. On a weekend, the half roast chicken.
• Avoid: Monday, when the kitchen shuts. Arriving expecting the menu Rayner reviewed, since this residency is burgers and buns. Assuming the address is permanent.

What locals & experts say

• Jay Rayner, The Observer, 22 September 2019, reviewing the Hackney Church Brew Co residency: If all this sounds uncomfortable and noisy and chaotic to you, then by all means stay away. But just be aware you will be missing out on some bold live-fire cooking that throbs uncompromisingly with flavour. On the dish that surprised him: It's the non-meat dishes that are more striking. Golden beetroot is roasted over the coals until soft, then sliced up into something approximating a carpaccio... This was the best plate of the stuff I have eaten in years.1
• Immy Smith, The Nudge, 23 February 2026, on the current residency: Cunningham spent two years at Hackney Brew Co., amassing crowds with his burgers and live-fire cooking that put just as much attention on vegetables as it did hunks of meat. Her verdict on the move: you'll work your way through Lagom's menu and properly line your stomach with some of the best burgers in town.2
• Elliot Cunningham to Pit magazine, on his own favourite thing he has cooked: a coal roasted sweet potato, which is then cut in half and charred with smoked garlic butter, so the flesh takes on an incredible sweet bark. Finally, it gets dressed with some buttermilk, fried herbs and Parmesan.3
• The best-burger claim has no body behind it. The host pub says the smash burger "has been touted as the best in the business".

Good to know

• Where: inside The Three Compasses, 99 Dalston Lane, E8 1NH. This is a residency, so the address is the current one rather than a permanent one.
• Timing: kitchen hours, which differ from the pub's. Monday closed, Tuesday to Friday 4pm to 10pm, Saturday noon to 10pm, Sunday noon to 8pm.
• Booking: through the pub, and worth doing at a weekend.
• The history: Mother Kelly's on Paradise Row in Bethnal Green, then two years at Hackney Church Brew Co at 16-17 Bohemia Place, then here. Rayner's review belongs to the middle one.
• The host pub: 40ft Brewery and Lost & Grounded on the bar, a quiz, DJs, and happy hours from 6 to 7pm and again from 10 to 11pm.
• Hygiene: Lagom holds no Food Standards Agency registration of its own anywhere in England, which is normal for a residency. The Three Compasses is registered at FHRSID 468764 with a rating of 4, inspected 8 April 2022, which is four years old. A previous resident in the same kitchen, Meltdown Cheeseburgers, did register separately and holds a 5 from October 2025.6
• Sites: one at a time, by design.

Verdict

should-visit — Follow the chef rather than the address. Elliot Cunningham cooks everything over fire and has never signed a lease, which is deliberate: 'I like to move around, which helps keeps things fresh from an operational point of view.' Mother Kelly's in Bethnal Green, then two years at Hackney Church Brew Co, and since about February 2026 The Three Compasses in Dalston. Jay Rayner ate the Hackney Church version for the Observer in 2019 and the line that matters is not about the meat. Golden beetroot, roasted over coals until soft and sliced like carpaccio, was 'the best plate of the stuff I have eaten in years', and the whole thing was 'bold live-fire cooking that throbs uncompromisingly with flavour' at prices that made a critic sick of twenty-five-pound mains cheerful. Cunningham's own position is that fire should make fish and vegetables the centre of a menu rather than an afterthought, and he is nerdish about the mechanism: no two fires are the same, so the same dish over a different burn is a different dish. The catch is that the current residency is narrower than the one Rayner reviewed. It is a Burger and Buns menu, four options plus croquettes, triple-cooked potatoes and a weekend roast, and Immy Smith rates those among the best burgers in town. So: go for the burger, know that the cook is better than the format, and check where he is before you travel.