12 September 2017
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!