Temper Soho

Temper Soho is a great spot for dining with friends or for starting your night out if you're looking for a buzzy restaurant with a good atmosphere. Food highlights include the cheeseburger taco, the crab tostada and the smoked beef flatbread. Definitely get all of the sauces. And leave room for the baked cookie dessert which is a real sweet treat.

I recently went here on a date night, having wanted to go for ages! The restaurant did not disappoint. The only slight flaw was the waitress got one of our orders wrong. But other than that, it was fabulous. We were greeted by a very lovely hosted, brought down to the best view in the house (the counter). i had a fab Irn Bru cocktail (I'm Scottish - I love it). The food was fab and the desserts even better. Believe the hype - it is definitely all true.

Just crowned "3rd best restaurant in London right now" (Time Out), Temper had in fact been on my wish list for some time. Ever since a throwaway Grace Dent post on Instagram mentioning the delicious wine and cheeseburger tacos my food radar was buzzing, then a glowing Jay Rayner Observer review absolutely sealed the deal. Unfortunately I didn't get round to booking until last month, and in the interim the restaurant featured on BBC's Celebrity Masterchef - which our waiter told us has increased their daily bookings at least 300%. You could tell. We arrived at 7pm (early for Soho, I thought) and the place was already very busy and noisy. Turns out it is just very noisy all the time. After feeling somewhat pressured by our lovely waiter to get our order in, we watched them turn over those tables, and turn them again - and I think I had my longest ever wait for main courses to arrive. It's a semi industrial space below street level with an open kitchen. You can sit at the bar in pairs, and they have booths for groups up to eight. We were given a four seater table near the entrance which was great space-wise, but we could barely hear each other speak by 8pm (peak customer hour). I didn't mind a bit of shouting, but if we're all doing it, maybe a few cushions are in order? We had the cheeseburger tacos and a taco special (pig cheeks): both were sublime, particularly washed down with two perfect Negronis. After that long wait our selection of main dishes arrived: the well-reviewed smoked meat on flatbread (lamb rump), lamb masala (curry), burnt end larb (astoundingly good), and a few sides. I think the char-grilled meats are better at Blacklock. Everything was good, nothing was great. Except the tacos. Add two rounds of beers (4 total) and our bill came to just over £100. Next time, I'm ordering every taco on the menu, cocktails and dessert. Mezcal please!

I was early but while waiting for my companion was welcomed by the staff and offered three wines to try before deciding which I went for. Mini burgers are a must, as are the burnt ends!

Temper was recommended to us by a number of people who all said that A) finding the door is a challenge – it is, and B) not to sit at the uncomfortable stools at the bar – so we didn’t. We ordered the Aged cheeseburger (very tasty), smacked cucumber (which was described by the waitress as “cucumber just squashed/mashed”, but there was certainly more to it than that, beef fat potatoes with ogleshield – good, but could have done with some seasoning. You can then order a selection of grilled meats by the 100g, and we had the goat – delicious and the lamb (my favourite) and green sauce on the side. All in all a very enjoyable meal. Service was slick and our Portuguese waiter was keen to tell us all about the produce and assist with wine selection. Top tip – when they offer to take your coat to the cloakroom, let them, otherwise it will smell like “Guy Fawkes” on 5th November!

The verb to temper means to ‘improve the consistency of a substance by heating it or adding particular substances to it,’ according to the dictionary. And this, simply put, is the angle that this slightly hectic but very on-trend new dining spot in Soho promises. Its website proclaims that the offer at Temper is one of ‘barbecue, tacos, wine, mescal and good times.’ In the last respect in particular, this is perhaps a bold claim, although one on which the restaurant mostly, but by no means totally, delivered. Diners arriving here descend to a subterranean basement where there is a choice of tables or seats at the bar, where there is the well-trodden option of observing the culinary theatre of the place. We were seated at the bar, which was fine, but an initial quibble might be that the stools were placed rather too closely together and not all that comfortable to sit upon. The place was definitely busy and full of atmosphere on our weekday lunchtime visit, but the relative discomfort of the seating was compounded by the inordinately long wait for our dishes. Before assessing the food, service stands out in the memory as generally in need of improvement. It was generally quite hard to attract waiters’ attention, we got the wrong dishes brought to us on one occasion, and while our server conveniently did remember to bring the bill to us at the end of the meal, he forgot the coffees we had ordered simultaneously. Onto the food, and here – as almost everywhere else pseudo-trendy – it’s all about sharing. Temper is unambiguously about meat, smoked and spiced in a variety of formats. Our dishes were all well-conceived and presented beautifully, but what they gained in these respects, they did sometimes lose in subtlety. Chilli beef tortillas and crab & pickled pork skin tacos were stand-out among the starters. The two meat options we also selected for our mains (lamb and goat) were tasty, with an unctuous smoky depth, but we found ourselves overwhelmed by a spice-heavy jerk-cauliflower side. So, mostly good times, but still work for Temper to do. Also, be prepared, when you leave, your clothes will smell of smoke…

I was looking for a "Wow" venue for a pre theatre meal as part of a treat day out in London and spotted that Neil Rankin had just opened an new restaurant in Soho whilst reading over the shoulder of the lady next to me on the tube. I got my "Chef Rankin's" mixed up thinking of Paul Rankin who I'd seen on TV but only after making my reservation. I am sooo pleased i did. The place is amazing, we were warmly greeted and shown downtairs to where the magic happens, the first thing that grabs your attention is the glorious smell of the food being cooked. We chose a booth to sit in as more intimate than sitting at the bar style table encircling the cooking area. Our guide/waiter talked us through the menu and answered all our queries throughout which showed his passion and understanding of the delights on offer. We started with a couple of the tacos from the menu, a soy-cured beef and an aubergine and chipolte miso each had 2 portions so ideal for sharing. Then we chose beef, lamb and goat served with spiced autumn greens,beef fat potatoes with raclette with the black pepper salsa and green sauce. The meats arrived each on their own soft tortilla and we just tucked in, the goat was glorious the lamb delicat and the beef succulent the flavours of all dishes combining perfectly. For dessert we had the deep dish brigadeiro and butterscotch kouign amann which rounded off the meal perfectly. We had a couple of cocktails and a coffee to round of the occasion. Hand on heart it was the best dining experience we have had and the cost exceptional for the whole experience, thoroughly recommended for all meat eaters