Temper

Verdict

If you have been to Temper before, you already know the answer: yes, go back. The Mexican-barbecue format at 25 Broadwick Street in Soho holds up on repeat visits in a way that most casual London restaurants do not, because the kitchen is structured around live fire and whole-animal butchery rather than a rotating menu of trend-chasing dishes. Opinionated About Dining has ranked it in the top 500 casual restaurants in Europe for three consecutive years (2023, 2024, 2025), which is the kind of sustained recognition that removes guesswork. Book it for lunch mid-week if you want the most relaxed version of the experience.

About Temper

Temper is a live-fire, whole-animal barbecue restaurant with a Mexican accent, overseen by chef David Lagonell. The format is casual; counter seating, open kitchen, the kind of room where you can smell the wood smoke before you sit down; but the cooking operates at a level that comfortably outpaces its price tier. That gap between the relaxed format and the quality of execution is exactly what makes it worth prioritising over flashier Soho options.

The OAD Casual Europe ranking climbed from a recommendation in 2023 to #429 in 2024 and #463 in 2025. Rankings do not always move in a straight line, but three years of consecutive recognition in a list that covers the full continent tells you the kitchen is consistent.

What separates Temper from the standard London barbecue offer is the Mexican framing. The kitchen uses the whole animal and builds dishes around tacos, salsas, fire-cooked proteins rather than the American low-and-slow model. That means a more varied plate, more acid and brightness to balance the smoke, a menu structure that works well for groups who want to share across several rounds rather than commit to a single main.

Timing matters here. Temper is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 9:45 pm, Sunday noon to 5:45 pm. Monday is closed. The lunch service on a weekday gives you the leading conditions: the room is quieter, the kitchen is fresh, the open-fire setup means aromas from the grill are at their most direct without the evening crowd adding noise. If you are coming on a Friday or Saturday evening, expect a lively room, the Broadwick Street location pulls a dense Soho crowd and the open kitchen means you hear as well as smell the cooking. Sunday lunch works if you want a shorter window: the 5:45 pm close means the kitchen does not stretch into a long evening service, the pace tends to be more deliberate.

Booking is direct. This is not a three-week-wait situation. You can typically secure a table with reasonable notice, which makes Temper a reliable option when you want quality without the logistics of the city's harder-to-book rooms. For comparison: getting into CORE by Clare Smyth or The Ledbury requires planning weeks or months ahead. Temper does not ask that of you.

For food and travel enthusiasts who are working through London's restaurant scene, Temper answers a specific question: where do you eat well in Soho without spending £££££ or fighting for a reservation? The answer here is consistent enough to recommend without heavy qualification. If your interest runs to the formal end of the London dining spectrum, the full London restaurants guide covers the broader range. But for casual excellence with a clear point of view, Temper is a dependable choice.

How It Compares

Temper sits in a different category from the formal London rooms it often gets mentioned alongside, that is the point. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, CORE by Clare Smyth, and The Ledbury all operate at the ££££ tier with booking windows that can stretch to several months. If you want tasting-menu formality, multi-course precision, the kind of service infrastructure that comes with a Michelin-credentialed room, those are your options. Temper does not compete on those terms and does not need to.

For the Soho casual tier, Temper competes on execution and consistency, on both it outperforms most alternatives at a comparable spend. Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal offer theatricality and prestige, but at a significantly higher price point and with considerably more booking friction. If your evening does not require a tasting menu or a destination-level price tag, Temper returns more per pound spent.

The clearest peer comparison within the casual fire-and-meat segment in London is with the broader barbecue and grill category rather than with the ££££ fine-dining set. Temper's Mexican framing gives it a more distinctive identity than most competitors in that segment, the OAD recognition sets it apart from restaurants that do similar food with less consistency. If you are building a London itinerary that also includes destinations outside the city, the Waterside Inn in Bray, L'Enclume in Cartmel, or Moor Hall in Aughton cover the formal end of the UK spectrum. For London itself, explore the full London restaurants guide, London bars guide, and London hotels guide to build around your visit.