Temper Soho - Wondrous Meat, Fearless Seasoning and Great 90s Soundtrack

Name: Temper Soho

Where: 25 Broadwick Street, London W1F 0DF, http://temperrestaurant.com/

Cost: A meal at Temper will cost on average £45 per person not including drinks or service. Small-eats (all tacos) are priced between £5 and £11.50, larger-eats (meat on flatbread) cost from £8.50 to £11, with sides at £3.50 to £7 and desserts from £6 to £12.

About: Temper Restaurant is Chef Neil Rankin's latest venture with three London branches in Soho, City and Covent Garden, which opened in May 2018.

I recently visited Temper Soho on Broadwick Street. The restaurant is a raucous affair in the basement of what seems a wine shop. As you walk down the stairs, the loud 90s music, the BBQ smoke, mezcal fumes, and charred meat odours welcome you with a bang.

Temper Soho is cavernous, with booths and tables filling every corner, but if you want a piece of the real action, grab a counter seat around the open kitchen where tacos are hand-pressed, flatbreads are blistered and chefs busily go about finishing off their dishes.

The focus point of the kitchen though is the central charcoal grill where whole carcasses of lamb and goat are roasted over glowing coals.

There is also a cedar wood oven, as well as charcoal and oak grilling areas depending on the dish being cooked.

The menu at Temper Soho is centred on BBQ with South American influences - the meat dishes are designed from every bit of the animal, so everything is used (Temper buys the entire animal) including their fat – think beef fat potatoes, grilled corn in lamb fat, and chilli and bone marrow just three of the dishes which give you a flavour of the food on offer.

Temper City, opened in July 2017, focuses on Indian cooking, with a tandoor oven, offerings of curry and freshly made paratha whereas Broadwick Street has a more Mexican theme with corn tortillas, flatbreads and mezcal-based drinks. Temper Covent Garden has an Italian angle, and serves wood fired pizzas, ragu, charcuterie, wine and vermouth.

What We Ate: From the small-eats menu, we chose the taco of aged cheeseburger (£8.50) - this was excellent, with intense flavours of cheese and corn, and a tender beef patty.

We also enjoyed the crab, dill, pickled onion and pork skin (£9) served on tacos, this was fresh and well seasoned although I could not detect the pork skin.

From the meat course menu, we chose the smoked beef (£10 per 100g) - this is cold smoked for 8 hours over charcoal or wood. Deliciously tender, with yellow fat and a wonderfully smoky flavour, this was simplicity itself and magnificent.

Smoked goat (£11 per 100g) was slightly less smoky than the beef, but surprisingly for such a wiry beast was just as tender.

The weakest link for me was the lamb belly masala (£8.50), with an anemic sauce and shredded meat lacking interest or texture.

Chipotle miso chicken half (£25), was smoked and grilled with paprika, then served with a herb salad of fresh mint, coriander, green chilli, radicchio and burnt lemons. The meat was succulent and tender, and had a great depth of flavour and heat from the miso and chipotle, a great combination of ingredients.

We enjoyed the ‘burnt-end’ Thai larb (£5) with lamb knuckle meat, ground toasted rice, and plenty of heat from the diced fresh red chillies. The larb was fresh, zingy and incredibly flavoursome.

The grilled corn with lamb fat béarnaise and mint (£4) was equally delicious, leavened by the surprising but very effective addition of popcorn. So novel and wonderful.

For dessert, we had the deep dish brigadeiro cookie with fior di latte ice cream (£6). With a sweet and buttery cookie and a neutral ice cream, this was a nice pudding but bore little resemblance to the Brazilian brigadeiro I grew up eating in São Paulo.

Sadly the signature butterscotch kouign-amann with dulce de leche ice cream (£6) was sold out, so instead we opted for the gin and tonic sorbet with honeycomb, grapefruit and a shot of Caperitif (£7). An adult dessert with some astringently bitter flavours, this was a refreshing and light dessert that ended our meal on a high note.

What We Drank: Cocktails are all priced at £10, with wines mostly from the New World, starting at £31 for a Pinot Noir Valle del Maule 2015, with most of the wines priced upwards of £50.  

To kick off, we had a brace of cocktails - Mr Faulty is a blend of rum, basil, rice wine vinegar and lime. Essentially a basil daiquiri, this was refreshing and full of citrus freshness.

Neil's Negroni is a modification of the classic blend of gin, vermouth and Campari, substituting gin with mezcal. The Negroni had a smoky note from the agave, which in this version is burned before being fermented to alcohol.  

With our meal, we shared a bottle of Quinta de Falorca, from Dao, Portugal 2011 (£42). A blend of Touriga Nacional, Rufete, Jaen, Alfrocheiro and Tinta Roriz, this was a straightforward wine, with plenty of red berry fruit flavours and some structure, with soft tannins.

Likes: Bold flavours, excellent meats and fearless seasoning. Catchy 90s soundtrack (Prince, Blondie), lots of seating around the central barbecue pit, reasonable prices, what's not to like?!

Dislikes: None

Verdict: If you like good quality meat, fearless seasoning and a great atmosphere, you will love Temper Soho. Grab a seat at the counter to watch the action (though not for the squeamish). I thoroughly enjoyed our meal at Temper Soho and highly recommend it.

Coya - Discovering Peru in the Heart of London's Mayfair

Name: Coya Restaurant

Where:  118 Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 7NW, http://www.coyarestaurant.com

Cost: Set lunches are £26.50 or £29.50 for 3-4 courses, with a tasting menu for £75. From the a la carte menu, antecuchos, ceviches, tiraditos and small dishes cost from £4.50 to £16.50. Main courses are priced from £12 to £72 (for a rib of beef for 2).

About: Coya Restaurant and Bar sits on Piccadilly, facing Green Park in a prime but until recently rather quiet area of Mayfair. The modern Peruvian restaurant is in three sections in the basement of a fine Georgian building, with the members-only Coya Club on the ground floor. The restaurant is sleek and features a stunning Ceviche Bar, an Open Charcoal Grill area and the Central Kitchen.

Opened in January 2013 by entrepreneur Arjun Waney, who also owns Zuma and Roka, Coya is the first in the group to offer Peruvian-inspired cooking.

Head chef Sanjay Dwivedi spent sometime in Peru, travelling and learning the ropes at Lima's famous Astrid y Gaston Restaurant, and has managed to put together an impressive menu. Besides being the head chef for the Rolling Stones, his track record of cooking at Michelin-starred Zaika, The Ivy and Le Caprice is admirable.

Whether Sanjay Dwivedi’s cooking at Coya is as authentic as one would find in Peru is open for interpretation – a lot can be argued about this man’s cooking but anyone who has eaten his food would most certainly agree – his dishes are well thought-out and bursting with flavour!

Peru, like Brazil, has had many influences from other cultures including Japan and China, and its cuisine reflects this. I was pleased to see a great number of Peruvian-Nikkei and Chifa dishes on Coya’s menu and having the Zuma and Roka connection may have facilitated this.

Designed by David d'Almada, Coya’s attractive dining room blends antique Peruvian furniture with contemporary decor and colonial furniture, and discrete low-level lighting.

What We Ate: We opted for the tasting menu for £75 per person.  This started with a beautifully presented platter of 3 ceviches, 1 tiradito and a beetroot salad over crushed ice.

The classic Peruvian ceviche was “Lubnia Classico” made from sea bass with red onions, sweet potato, white corn and a well flavoured leche de tigre (literally translates as “Tiger’s Milk”, this is the marinade juices of lime and raw fish).  We also had ceviche “Dorada Criollo” with sea bream, cream of aji amarillo (Peruvian yellow chillies), crispy corn and coriander. These were as good as anything we had on our recent trip to Peru, and fine examples of their kind.

Alongside, we had a Chifa take on the Peruvian’s national dish “Ceviche de Atun Chifa” made with prime yellow-fin tuna, soy sauce, sesame-seeds and shrimp cracker. Chifa is the Peruvian word for Chinese-Peruvian cuisine/restaurants and this ceviche encapsulated the blending of these two cuisines.

We really enjoyed tiraditos in Peru – tiraditos are the Japanese-influenced adaptation of ceviche using raw fish sliced sashimi-style, rather than in the traditional cubes, and with little or no raw red onion. Coya’s Peruvian-Nikkei “Tiradito de Cobia” used cobia fish (from the seabass family), with dashi, truffle oil and chives. Deliciously creamy, it had wonderful umami elements from shiitake mushrooms, yuzu-ponzu sauce, dashi, soy-milk and truffle. I really loved this dish.

Accompanying the ceviches and tiradito, we had “Remolacha” - a deliciously refreshing salad of golden beets, aji amarillo (yellow chilli), goat's cheese, hazelnuts and pomegranate seeds.

Following on, we were served 3 dishes from Coya’s open charcoal grill including “Anticucho de Pollo” (barbecued chicken skewers) seasoned with aji amarillo and garlic, these were very well-cooked and succulent.

The “Anticucho de Setas” (barbecued forest mushrooms) had a lovely smokiness from the aji panca and cumin used in the marinating sauce – these were meaty and very moreish.

The 3rd charcoal grilled dish was “Pulpo al Olivo” (Josper grilled octopus) served with pureed Peruvian olives, potatoes, and grilled charred cherry tomatoes – it is always a joy to eat well cooked octopus (something I hardly make at home) and Coya’s was no exception – it was meltingly tender and beautifully seasoned.

Accompanying our grilled selection, we had “Ensalada de Maiz” (corn salad) – this contained soft white corn, crispy corn (chanca), and sweet corn, red chillies and finely chopped onions as well as plenty of contrasting textures and flavours.

My favourite dish of the meal, the “Arroz Nikkei” of lobster, lime and chilli was to die for. Made with short grain rice (the preferred rice in Japanese cooking), this was wonderfully creamy, with generous chunks of lobster meat and intensely flavoured bisque containing dashi, mirin and soy sauce, lifted up by a refreshing zingness from the chilli and lime. Truly sensational.

The “Lubina Chilena” or Chilean seabass had been marintated for 72 hours with white miso, sake, pisco and aji amarillo – this was sweet, delicate and delicious although the aji was not very pronounced in the flavour profile.

We also shared a “Solomillo de Res” (Beef) – this was a lightly spiced beef fillet seasoned with aji rocoto and heady star anise served with crispy deep-fried garlic. It was beautifully tender, richly flavoured and cooked medium rare just as ordered.

Accompanying our mains, we had a generous portion of sprouting purple broccoli, griddled in chilli and garlic butter and a sprinkle of sesame seeds which was spot on.

For pre-dessert (love the idea of pre-desserts!), we had “Chicha Morada”, the ubiquitous purple corn of Peru used to make one of their national soft drinks. I tried this whilst in Peru but felt it was rather sweet and lacking in acidity. Coya’s chicha morada dessert was a delightful combination of flavours and textures of granita, jelly and ice cream made from this corn - it was refreshing (rather than cloyingly sweet) having been flavoured with rhubarb, orange shortbread and various spices including star anise, clove, and cinnamon.

The dessert was a sharing platter containing, not one but 3 different puddings – “Parfait de Arabica” was a coffee parfait, coated in Kiwicha (similar to quinoa), over caramelised bananas, chocolate and Zacapa 23 year old rum. We also enjoyed “Caramelo con Chocolate” and “Frambuesa Sorbete” – these were salted caramel ganache with peanut brittle and raspberry sorbet with jelly & fruit, and a deliciously alcoholic pisco raspberry sauce. I really could not think of a better ending to this meal!

What We Drank: Cocktails range from £11.95 (for a Pisco Sour) to £14.50.  The house white is an Argentine Torrontes for £28 per bottle, with red wines also starting at £28 for a Chilean Carmenere. All the wines on the menu are either Old World or from South America.

We kicked off with a well-made Pisco Sour (£11.95) which went down well with the guacamole and tortillas we were served on arrival.

To accompany the ceviches and lobster rice, we enjoyed a couple of glasses of an excellent Chablis (chardonnay) by Domaine des Marronniers 2011 (£65/bottle).

With our mains, we had a glass of 2011 Argentinian Barda Pinot Noir from Bodega Chacra (£55/bottle). This was soft, with red berry fruit, gentle tannins, and somewhat sweet on the finish.

Likes: the Nikkei tiradito was exceptional as was the Nikkei lobster rice and the desserts. The ceviches were fresh and bursting with flavour. Excellent value tasting menu.

Dislikes: None.

Verdict: Few restaurants have excited me as much as Coya lately – Sanjay Dwivedi’s cooking and his understanding of Peruvian flavours have truly impressed me. The tasting menu at £75 is great value and I cannot wait to return. Very highly recommended.

Where to Eat Latin American Food in London - My Top Recommendations

Earlier in the year, I was asked to recommend my top South American restaurants in London for Vamos Guide, an offshoot of the Brazilian website Jungle Drums for which I occasionally write for.

While Latin America is celebrated for its hedonistic music & dance scenes, more recently its cuisines have been in the spotlight on the London restaurant scene. Over the 20 years I have lived in the capital, as The London Foodie, I have witnessed the emergence of a number of excellent Latin American eateries, some of which I share with you here. Londoners have acquired a seemingly insatiable appetite for Angentinian steak houses, Mexican burritos & Brazilian rodízios, & with the imminent launch of the much anticipated Ceviche, the future looks bright for Latin American gastronomy in the capital.

Sabor

Favourite, stylish restaurant dishing up Latin American cuisine in Islington. Classic dishes with a modern take include deliciously authentic Peruvian Ceviche, Moqueca de Peixe (Brazilian fish stew) & Conejo en Salsa de Chocolate (Slow Cooked Rabbit in Chocolate Sauce). Very reasonably priced cocktail and wine lists, and great service.

Buen Ayre

Authentic & very popular Argentinian restaurant on Broadway Market serving the best Parrillada in town - choose from four different selections of meats, provolone cheese and mushroom served at your table on a smoldering hot grill. Great Papas Fritas (chips), and respectable Argentinian wine list at wallet-friendly prices.

El Rincon Latino

Spanish-Colombian Tapas in Clapham, tiny space but big on service! Good range of Spanish dishes with some unusual Colombian choices like fried cassava served with Ají (chillies) and guacamole, and veal Empanadas (patties). Spanish brunch also served at weekends. Buzzing atmosphere attracting a vibrant local crowd.

Empório São Paulo

Upmarket Brazilian Empório (delicatessen) & café in Parsons Green with an impressive range of top quality produce from Brazil & other countries - Brazilian Guaraná, Pão de Queijo (small, light cheese breads served hot from the oven), artisan Cachaças, & Feijoada, all served with a warm smile by owner Carminha.

Wahaca

Mexican restaurant chain started by Masterchef winner Thomasina Miers. Colourful, casually fashionable décor. Pork Pibil tacos (slow cooked pork in special Yucatecan marinade) followed by Churros y Chococate were sensational on my last visit and warrant a return visit. Good selection of Mexican beers and tequilas.

Moo Grill

The home of the Lomito, Moo Grill is one of the City's most coveted lunch spots. The signature dish (Lomito) is their delicious Argentinian sandwich of beef, chicken or aubergine served with ham and cheese, salad and fried egg. The best beef Empanadas I have ever tried were cooked by Adri, the owner's mum.

Gaucho

Top notch beef from rib-eye to fillet or sirloin and now picanha are cooked to perfection at this upmarket Argentinian steak house. The Morcilla (Argentinian black pudding) is excellent too as is the Dulce de Leche cheesecake. Great cheese platters well matched with a chilled glass of Torrontes licoroso (sweet).