Beyond Temping
Temper |
For regular readers of my blog, you all know how much of a fan I am of Smokehouse. Smokehouse has changed the way how I feel about BBQ, instead of just cheap cut of meat with a bit of ketchup and salad, Neil Rankin (Ex executive chef of Smokehouse) has taken it to the next level. He has turned BBQ into refined and well constructed restaurant dishes, that can easily sit in a high end restaurant without losing the essence of BBQ. He had just recently launched his very first restaurant: Temper at Soho, a basement restaurant that focused on BBQ with a light touch of Mexican influence.
Blowtorched mackerel, avocado, bottarga tacos |
Crab and picked onion pork skin tacos |
Mangalitza pork |
To start, I had a few tacos and they are no ordinary tacos. The crab with pork skin taco had a lovely balance flavour of freshness and sweetness, the crab was very fresh and the touch of green chilli added lovely hint of sharpness. The mackerel taco was also a winner, rich in taste but refreshing on the palate. I somehow managed to try every single main dishes as you can order by a minimum 100g. The Mangalitza pork was a personal favourite of mine, the smoked belly had a sensational melting texture and all the cuts were seasoned perfectly. Just as good was the Welsh lamb, not overly smoked, tender in texture and robust in taste, especially the loin part, worked like a treat with the freshly made flat bread.
Grilled and smoked rib beef |
Mutton kofta and lamb |
Butterscotch kouign amann and brigadeiro |
For a restaurant in its soft launch period, Temper had done exceptional well, not only that the food tasted great, our waiter was extremely pleasant and made our whole meal a lot more enjoyable. I also admired instead of just using the same successful formula from Smokehouse, Neil has done something a little more edgy and different. Give it sometime to iron out mirror issues (not something I am aware of anyway), I can see Temper can become a real beast and one of the hottest restaurants in town in 2017. Would I go back at normal price? 100%.
Food 3.5/5
What I paid:
£27 per head with a beer (soft launch offer)
Average cost without drinks and services:
£30
25 Broadwick Street, London W1F 0DF
http://temperrestaurant.com/
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