Roast Dinners in London

Welcome back to the institution that is Roast Dinners in London, and this week is a re-review of Temper in Soho.

Though you never actually left the institution, did you?

You like the rules.

Unwritten but studiously enforced most weeks – something must be burnt, ideally the Yorkshire pudding, something must have been cooked the day before, something must be undercooked too.

And don’t even think of questioning why you only get 3 roast potatoes.

Not that you would question it. You are in the system of roast dinners, always forgiving your bang average roast dinner, always willing on the next one.

When did the system collectively agree that 3 roast potatoes was sufficient? Tell me. You are the system. We are the system. 3 is what you get. 3 is what you’ve always got. Strangely, after a while, you stop thinking there should be more. Even yours truly, has stopped questioning the 3 roast potato system.

Treatment Begins

Sunday arrived and it was time for my medicine.

You may have clocked that Temper has been reviewed before. Perhaps the title gave it away. Or maybe you noticed it in the introduction.

And you think I’m bad at photography now. Granted it was also rather dark in there back in 2017.

So why the re-review? Well, I had really enjoyed it – and unlike some other reviews I had no suspicions that the quality had declined. They’d opened new branches in Paddington, and I think somewhere else – maybe in the City, so I thought there was a good excuse to review a second branch of Temper.

Sadly it seems like they over-extended themselves, and they are now just back to Temper in Soho, and Temper Burger. But still, my heart was set on going back to Temper. My blog, my rules, our system.

So my memory of 9 days ago is sketchy enough, let alone 9 years ago, but it seemed different inside. It’s in a basement, with a fire pit cooking all the gorgeous joints of meat, merrily smoking away.

Yet it also seemed lighter inside – green lighting and lots of plants take the BBQ MANLINESS vibe away a little bit, and all for the better in my view.

Portion Control

The beer choice was firmly within the system’s approved parameters. Meantime Pale Ale was the most interesting option, with a variety of lagers on offer, including Madri on tap.

Wine was better, we shared a bottle of Rioja Tempranillo, which had enough of an edge to keep it interesting – priced at £41.00 and probably £11.00 at a supermarket, though better than your Tesco Express kinda wine.

On the menu was beef, pork loin, chicken or lamb shoulder – all priced at £28.50. I paid just £17.00 in 2017. And, yeah, Temper isn’t a place for vegans.

I’d had the lamb in 2017 so decided against that, even though it was what I most fancied (apart from Nurse Ratched) so I went for the unknown cut of beef.

There was rather a lot of food – did someone not want me to escape from the venue?

Starting with the carrots which were soft and juicy, some vague smokiness peering through too.

Then there was a mound of red cabbage – not my favourite cabbage, let alone my favourite vegetable – it was very tart and almost pungent, kind of tasted like sauerkraut. A much smaller amount would have appealed.

The green (or at least previously green) cabbage was rather on the soggy side – some evidence of buttering to taste, but not too much so possibly my imagination.

Patient Behaviour

More pointless was the puree – floating away on the plate, soft yet even emptier than your average Dubai Instagrammer, it just about tasted of parsnip yet felt like nothingness too.

***ALARM SOUNDING***

5 roast potatoes. Yes, 5. This is not within acceptable parameters. Quick – fire the sedation shots before the patients realise what is happening.

They were far from Blacklock standards, I wouldn’t rule out a deep fat fryer having been involved – the insides had that smoothness rather than the fluffiness, yet they didn’t taste of having been fried. Crispy sides occasionally were (very) crunchy sides – though broadly these were decent.

In 2017, they didn’t even have roast potatoes (except on their Instagram posts). Thankfully they are under control now.

The giant Yorkshire pudding had a little of the standard “cooked earlier” vibe, with the top verging on Quaver status, though it was all softenable with the gravy. The bottom was fluffy, it tasted eggy – yeah this was actually the rarest of hallowed beings, a pretty good Yorkshire pudding. I trust The Chief is satisfied.

Beef portions were generous, with 3 thick slices of beef. Alas it was a more basic cut, I guess topside or silverside but Temper is all about the smoked meats and holy crap, from that perspective this was damn gorgeous beef. It was smoky to taste, but also not over-bearingly smoky, plus it was really tender. Whilst I might have preferred a more interesting cut of beef, what they did with it is top notch.

Finally, the gravy was pretty damn good too. A fair amount of consistency, hints of red wine and tomato – and really matched the roast dinner well. Proper chef’s gravy.

Eating the holy trinity of beef, yorkie and gravy together really was damn enjoyable.

Temper

What does this all mean?

It means we broke out of mediocrity, and for only the third time so far this year I’m going to be rating somewhere in the 8’s.

There was lots to enjoy but also improvements are available – too much red cabbage, the green cabbage too soggy, the puree needs some more reason to exist (or just not to exist), the beef could have been a more interesting cut, the yorkie was a bit dry to top.

All fairly minor quibbles though – and the tenderness and smokiness of the beef were superb, as was the gravy, as was the quantity of food. This was huge – in many ways. And to think that they suggested a trio of meats too.

My accomplices shared a dessert – sticky toffee cookie, which sounded amazing but I wasn’t hungry 20 hours after eating that roast, and certainly not after 20 minutes.

I’m told the pork was dry in places but the crackling was superb.

My pork accomplice scored it an 8.10, my regular accomplice an 8.40 – and my score is an 8.12 out of 10. Temper is still on the ball with their roasts – and though I scored it very slightly higher in 2017, it feels more refined as a product now.

Also worth mentioning the friendly service – though back in 2017 I was still moaning about 12.5% service charges being a thing (long got over it). Yet now Temper requests a 15% service charge.

Next week I’ll be no doubt back to enjoying a bang average roast dinner in the ward. A local’s pub in a nice area, it might serve something tragic, or something joyful. I’ve really no idea but I’ll be going anyway. Hell, I might even mention Brexit, for old times’ sake.