temper Soho – Steak, Tacos & BBQ Restaurant — Restaurant in London

I ate at temper several years ago and enjoyed it a lot, so decided to give it another go post-theatre this weekend. What a fall from grace!

Let's start with the food - it was average at best; inexcusable for the price. The barbecue cauliflower was largely simply burnt to a crisp and the bready thing it came on was dense, tough, and unappealing to eat. The burnt end tacos were tasty (but tiny) though the meat inside was tough. The steak - charged at Hawksmoor prices - was mostly fat, clearly unseasoned other than a sprinkle of gigantic salt flakes dispersed unevenly over the surface during cooking, and therefore either tasteless or eyewateringly salty depending on the slice (don't get steak here). The cabbage and potatoes were ok - but just ok - and the cocktails tasted weak and lacking in either a boozy or flavour punch, not delivering on the delicious-sounding promises of the menu descriptions. Such a shame, because everything on this menu sounded like it was designed to be my perfect meal, but the execution wasn't up to standard.

Atmosphere is good, at least sitting at the counter, where it's fun to watch the kitchen at work (if very hot due to proximity to all the flames). The music is a little loud (but I did enjoy the playlist immensely, for once).

The service though. Just abysmal, I'm afraid. All the staff who served us were very pleasant, nice people, but the overall organisation of it was confusing. I'm used to being served by a team rather than an assigned server, but no-one seemed to communicate with each other; some questions we were asked multiple times, others not at all, and when it came to time to get our bill it was like we ceased to exist. As our plates were cleared we were offered the dessert menu. It never arrived. We had somewhere to be, so after 10-15 mibutes we decided we'd just get the bill and skip dessert. About half an hour after being offered the dessert menu a server came up and asked if we'd been offered the bill, dessert apparently forgotten. No, we said, please can we have it. Nothing happened. After 10 minutes we attempted to flag down anyone we could to just pay and get out, during whcih time each of the couples on either side of us receieved their bills, paid, and left. It took a further 20 minutes to finally get someone's attention, and the bil was duly brought.... but it was wrong. Several cocktails we hadn't ordered or consumed were on there. In total, the time between being offered a dessert menu and paying our bill was AN HOUR.

With sharper service or a lower price tag this would've been a three-star review; as an overall dining experience I hovered over one star. It gets two because the food was at least edible (though if it was left to just me there would've been some of the less successful dishes left on the plate - my partner is a human dustbin) and until the debacle with getting the bill we were having a pretty nice evening. All in all, a restaurant with the air of having more covers than it can handle while still providing something...

Supported them during the lockdown and was unable to claim all of it back. Their customer service wouldn't even finish answering my questions since they don't understand or appreciate basic courtesies.

From what I ate during lockdown, it was overrated and over blown. They wouldn't serve any expensive cuts during lockdown and they couldn't even put any efforts into their sides either.

The cheeseburger tacos were a waste of time. The wings are basic. The aged beef skewers were dried out and flavourless and had to be prepared. The only part of the order that was satisfactory was potatoes.

If your idea of pride is meat hanging outside the shop with nothing else on that floor taking away from it then why can't you just cook it properly? See those pictures... Every dish ends up looking like a scared corpse.

Couldn't even serve it on fresh bread made in house? A frozen paratha and willingness to dial in your dishes with sauce to cover your mistakes was a joke. Basic seasoning doesn't seem to exist in their dictionary either.

I gave you a chance and held off but when enquiring about redeeming the rest of the lockdown gift card recently at the restaurant ended up being an insulting experience.

The staff at Soho were kind but it ended up feeling embarrassing when the manager "couldn't" make an enquiry about our vouchers and left us at the table completely abandoned. The next stinger from the receptionist came after coming back up after 10 mins and asking how my meal was even though I let her know about my predicament prior.

So Temper from my experience is an analogue of the Tory government - promises with glitter, a strong media presence with nothing but yes men and willing to ask you for commitment and then refusing to deliver after the fact. Don't question them as you'll find out soon enough that they're only filled with hot air and will just air you even after simple polite questions. They will beg for your money when they need it and simply won't come with the goods when it all comes calling.

Oh well. You can try harder next time but you're...

I'm here to set the world right. This restaurant has no business getting a 4.2 review (which it does at the time of writing).

There was someone in the reviews complaining on the price of steak which is easy to "cook at home" and I hope for pity's sake they don't know about drinks menus. Also someone posted that the music was too loud (??) and I just encourage them to experience "fun" as a concept and take part in society.

Look, the steak was on point. And I like steak. I'm a regular attendee at another popular steak establishment which I'll of course leave nameless (but it rhymes with "Chalksmoor"), and this was straight up better. I only wish I'd ordered the ribeye so I could gauge Temper's marbling game, but the rest of the menu looked too darn good (so if anyone with that kind of decision-making authority is reading nmaybe just make the menu a bit more crap for next time so I'm forced to choose the larger steaks?)

If it didn't pose a likelihood of making a Sun on Sunday headline, I would bathe in that chimichurri sauce AND name my firstborn after it.

I don't know what side of Planet Ass one needs to live on to NOT like the bone marrow but I'm not visiting said planet.

Order the cornbread just do it order it.

Service is mentioned in some reviews but maybe those are outdated. We had fabulous service at 7pm on a Saturday night. Even the chef at the grill asked how our food was (as well as our waitress). Faultless really.

Finally I should've tried the cocktails but modelo beers sounded too tempting. Why not both? Well shame on me for that one I have no excuse. It'll need to be next time. And there WILL BE...