Temper City

Hands up if you loved the first Temper. Yeah, me too. So I was excited about this sequel. Gone are the exotic tacos, displaced by a fusion take on Asian street food, mostly south Indian and Thai. The big space, though a tad bright, is buzzy, with a good-time soundtrack and lovable staff.

But eating here is a game of russian roulette. Make your choices. Spin the cylinder. Hold your breath. Some dishes – such as the moist, meaty mutton roll – were terrific. Duck masala was beautiful: rich, creamy, with coconutty sweetness. Also good were the dry goat curry and a playful twist on pakora (with squid and samphire).

I loved that they put those crappy foam banana sweets in a pud called the ‘bananaramadrama’. But while it’s one thing to use innovation to improve the food; it’s another to start dicking around for the sake of it. ‘Korean haggis’ tasted more like minced liver in syrup and chilli. Tandoori chicken, slathered in an unpleasant mix of lemongrass and turmeric, was like eating something out of your cleaning cupboard.

So: a fun place, with food that is weird or wonderful. If you fancy a City gamble that won’t lead to an internal investigation and a spell in jail, you’ve come to the right place.