Beijing Guide: Temple Restaurant Beijing - TRB

5:00 AM Nathasya Pricilia B Kristianto 0 Comments

Since moving to Beijing last August, my life has been a total roller coaster ride. Despite the disastrous beginning (let say the visa officer does not want to return my passport), I took off and started a whole new adventure!

Beijing, just like other big cities around the world also has a buzzing and dynamic food scene. I am a food lover, and so does B so we are always on our quest to find new places to try out, both simple and fancy ones. I have heard about many different restaurants that come on top of Trip Advisor, thebeijinger.com (must see if you are in Beijing, very useful) and other websites, but one always pops out to me more than the rest. That is, TRB or Temple Restaurant Beijing. It wins the number 1 spot for fine dining celebration, and also the first on Trip Advisor list... so I was thinking, how good can it be? And so we went, not once but twice.. and I am sure there will be many more to come.

We went for dinner to celebrate a special day and opted for the 3 course menu (RMB398 ++) they had options from 3 - 5 courses. Alongside that, we also ask their wine sommelier to recommend us some wines to pair with our food, B goes with red and I go, obviously, with white.

For the appetizer we choose Apple Foie Gras (SUP RMB 30) and their Crispy Oyster( SUP RMB 50) Both were really good with good presentation. Its my first time trying the combination of foie grass with apple and white chocolate and I surprisingly really like it.

For Main Course we choose the Beef Fillet (SUP RMB 70) and Halibut (SUP RMB). The beef was superb, so good with perfectly charred outer layer and very tender meat. The Halibut tho is lacking of oomph for me.

I was looking forward for the dessert, we opted for the Parmesan Cheese Foam and their chocolate cake, which I could not find in their current menu. B said the cheese was a bit overwhelming, but I found it to be good though the chocolate cake was just okay. Maybe also because we were too full. During our dinner, we got 2 different complimentary dishes, 1 which is their potato leek soup with unagi (SO GOOD) and the other one which I couldnt remember the name.

One thing that I think is as core as their food, is the service. And how do I say this... it was an unforgettable experience? I feel like everyone of them is passionate in what they do, they give you spaces but also very friendly, they talked with you, always smiling, always ready to help! ooh the little thing that matters..... the service is just top notch that I remember telling B that even if their food is mediocre (which is untrue, BTW) I would still come just for their service. So to cut it short, we went again, this time for lunch. There was a deal which you can buy from Dianping (Food App in China), RMB 198 for 3 course lunch down from RMB 398 which I think is a very good deal.

We went on a Friday, but it was still packed with diners. Interior wise, I like it better during the day time. They had big windows which let the natural light shines through, very nice for taking pictures. I told our first server that we liked our previous visit so much that we went back to a second one, and I saw just the most sincere feelings through his eyes and I couldnt be more content. Thats what you get for being so passionate and 100% on your work isn't it? And next time we knew he came back with a bottle of complimentary sparkling wine. You must be thinking since its free,it must not taste good... WRONG, in fact it was really good.

This time round, we choose their Potato Leek Soup (again) and their Salmon Gravlax (B really likes the gravlax from Maison Flo so he was eager to try the one from here). Gravlax was very very good, much better in our opinion than what we have previously tried. Potato soup of course is very good as well.....

For the main we choose the Beef Fillet (B's favourite) and also their Cod fish... (was okay). And for the dessert we choose the Mango Cheesecake and Chocolate Feuillantine, both are fine but nothing to shout about. Before they served our dessert, our previous hostess from the dinner, served us with a complimentary cake which says 'Welcome Back'. Oh why TRB, you shoot me right in the spot.

All in all, the final verdict will be... its such a good and memorable experience that you should go and try at least once. I am sounding a lot like I'm obsessed with this place but, I've tried several other fine dining restaurant in Beijing, Singapore and Bali and none of them can compete with the level of service that TRB provides. So yes guys, I am already planning our third visit with B, and hopefully with some other friends.

Ciao,

C

PS: I'm sorry the photos are not of high quality, we are using iPhone 7+ for these not my usual camera.