Temper Soho is a one-of-a-kind barbecue restaurant nestled beneath Broadwick Street in a vast basement space, its grungy, below street-level surrounds feeling synergistic with the live fire cooking and nose-to-tail ethos of the restaurant and its founder, Neil Rankin.
Rankin has an interesting background in the culinary world. A physics graduate and former sandwich entrepreneur, Rankin began his cooking career later in life, retraining at Gordon Ramsey’s Tante Marie culinary academy and earning his stripes at Chez Bruce in Wandsworth. However, it was during his time at Jamie Oliver’s Barbecoa where Rankin developed a love for cooking with fire and embraced the art of barbecue.
Rankin’s passion for the grill led him to open the first Temper restaurant in 2016. Today, there are three locations across London – Soho, Covent Garden, and the City – each offering a unique dining experience centred around open kitchens, great cocktails, and top-quality barbecued meat.
If you’re expecting an American style barbeque joint with brisket and burnt ends, you’ll be sadly disappointed. That, or pleasantly surprised. Instead, Temper Soho is known for its Mexican influenced menu, where taco dishes rub shoulders with prime cuts of steak.
The restaurant’s centrepiece is a giant fire pit, where chefs expertly cook whole animals sourced from English farms. Diners can choose between counter seating to watch the chefs in action or comfortable leather booths for a more intimate feasting experience. Either works when the food is this show stealing.
Here, sustainability is a priority. The restaurant orders whole animals and butchers them in-house to minimise waste. The meat is then aged, cooked over fire, and served in corn tacos or on house-made parathas.
In addition to their mouthwatering barbecue, Temper Soho offers a Saturday bottomless brunch and a legendary Sunday Roast. The highlight of the latter is the ‘Three Beast Roast’, which sees aged beef, roasted pork and smoked lamb shoulder served to share, family style.
Though it does have a reputation as being a great place to dine solo in the capital, all three branches of Temper have a party-like atmosphere any day of the week, which is only louder if you dine on the weekend, as you’ll be able to pair your beef with bottomless drinks for £45 per person all-in. Just make sure you pack that paracetamol!
Address: 25 Broadwick St, London W1F 0DF
Website: temperrestaurant.com