Along the same vibe as other restaurants opened by Neil Rankin, the food at Temper is bold, flavourful and a real mouthful. The best part about the place is the open bar counter, where you can look into the kitchen and see all the meat being cooked and food being prepared. The place is well decorated, slick and the smell of the food will make you hungry as you wait for some properly grilled meats.
Food to Share
A constant theme on this blog is the concept of sharing plates of food. It allows you to taste different dishes and try out food that you would not normally have. The menu at Temper is designed for this concept, with tacos coming in pairs and smoked and grilled meat coming in 100g portions. It is perfect to order a few different dishes to try and share.
Once again, we simply could not miss out on the aubergine and chipotle miso
tacos. Sitting on a flat corn taco, the flavours of aubergine is accompanied with bits of nori, peanut, avocado, tomato and of course miso. The pleasant surprise was the seaweed in which all the ingredients sit on. It adds an extra layer to the combination, with the taco underneath. Well worth ordering, especially if you are an aubergine enthusiast. Other tacos that were tempting were soy-cured beef, blow-torched mackerel and crab and pickled onion pork skin. All sizeable and nicely portioned.
Smoked and Grilled
We were recommended to order around 100 to 200 grams of meat per person, all sitting nicely on a portion of freshly baked flat bread. Seeing the chefs bake the flat breads in front of you just added to the occasion. Each dish had a selection of different cuts of the meat, smoked or grilled. The beef was a combination of smoked rib meat, neck, leg shawarma and grilled prime cuts. My personal favourite was the lamb which consisted of shoulder shawarma, leg and belly and grilled loin.
The mains will go well with a side of szechuan avocado and some of the sauces such as the mysterious green sauce and the fresh tomato salsa. All combining well and your food will all be gone before you know it.
Liquid Food
The drinks menu sits across eight pages, consisting of the usual red and white wines and beers. Something unique was a full page dedicated to mezcals, some form of agave coming in different flavours. We didn’t manage to try this and went for the orange, Ottavio Rube biancom, which went well with the meats and the tacos.
This is another great place to dine: smart looking, comfortable, fantastically friendly staff and of course a great selection of delicious food.
The Details
Timings: Mon – Wed: 12-10:30, Thur – Sat: 12-11, Sun & Bank Holidays: 12-6
Location: 25 Broadwick Street, W1F 0DF
Also published on Medium.