It seems to be a common issue with a lot of eggs benedicts I am seeing recently. It’s unbalanced. A good eggs benedict – like most of life’s great pleasures – is an exercise in restraint, not excess.

Tamper falls foul of the most typical eggs benedict failures, too much meat. A mouthful of english muffin, ham, egg and hollandaise is a unity. If one of the elements makes itself known above the rest, it misses the mark. Tamper, I love the atmosphere of your cafe but my first and biggest request would be to just drop the amount of meat you guys are using, its unnecessary and frankly it makes it hard to trust you.

The other issue is that it’s not even ham*, it is a ‘salt-beef benedict’. Why? What possible reason? Having it slow-cooked for 16 hours doesn’t impress anyone, its just 16 hours that could have been better used. We would all be happier if you put that enthusiasm to other interesting dishes once you proved able to demonstrate the restraint and balance that a simpler eggs benedict would show. 

The last thing that indicates the discomfort of Tamper with this dish is the inclusion of ‘Yuzu Hollandaise’. Again, why? What is Yuzu adding? Hollandaise done right is solely an exercise in attention, its very off-putting when a cafe adds something to it like this, it feels like a cover-up for a sauce that just is not being done well. Worse, it tastes like a cover-up.

I like the space, I like the atmosphere. I like being there with my wife. But I have had this eggs benedict 3 times at least. It surprises me greatly that the staff there have settled on it as their interpretation of the dish. 

Unbalanced and unconfident. 3/10.

*Note: I am perfectly happy with an edgy benedict that uses bacon.