Modern Italian cooking with a focus on superb ingredients, impeccably sourced and handled with care and simplicity; Tempo offers both the main restaurant menu as well as smaller tasting dishes throughout the day in the upstairs bar.
Tempo
Italian Restaurant in Mayfair
Tempo Picture Gallery
All In London Review
Great-tasting Italian food, affable waiters and affordable prices… in Mayfair
The main dining room is simple yet luxurious at the same time, with turquoise upholstery and a cream colour scheme, while the bar upstairs has lavish period features and inviting leather armchairs, sadly it’s let down by the monstrous light that shines in the centre of the room, dazzling anyone who dares to sit beneath it.
The wine list offers some excellent Italian varieties – the slightly citrusy 2009 La Giustiniana Gavi di Gavi is only £35 a bottle.
Aside from conventional portions, Tempo offers cicchetti, one-serving tasters ideal for sharing, also served in the over-lit bar. The fiery Calabrese pork sausage crostini is for those with a fondness for chillies, while the prawn crostini is garlicky, served with cavolo nero, an Italian cabbage similar to kale. A chunk of seared octopus is fleshy yet crisp on the outside, served with a salad of apple in a vinaigrette dressing, pomegranate and parsley.
The menu offers three types of carpaccio: swordfish, Scottish beef with hazelnuts and salmon with grapefruit and sliced fennel. We opt for the latter due to the curious juxtaposition of flavours, sadly, it doesn’t quite work, the oily fish tasting better on its own than when eaten with the bittersweet fruit.
That is the only glitch however, as the mains are close to perfection. Tasty pork belly with crispy skin is accompanied by an oval mound of olive mash and buttery sliced mushrooms; the plentiful fish stew contains prawns, clams and scallops – the latter used as a replacement for pollock due to the kitchen running out, not bad for a substitute.
The cheese platter combines a soft blue Blu di Capra, rich goat’s and cow’s milk La Tur, and firm, salty Pecorino with a thick, gloopy dollop of Sardinian acacia honey. Desserts are equally delectable; a creamy panacotta is combined with the tart flavour of poached quince; the chocolate fondant’s rich warm centre is softened with vanilla ice cream. If your tastebuds really need awakening, opt for the very tangy lemon tart that comes with a mellowing scoop of sour cream.
If dining in Mayfair conjures up images of overpriced, minimalist portions of food then Tempo is breaking the mould. A three course meal for two with wine is roughly £100.
Reviewed by Leila
Published on Jan 16, 2011
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