It took well over a year for Ignace Lecleir, the man who helped launch Maison Boulud à Pekin, to open the doors to his Temple. And we waited patiently through different trials of pop-up and private events, while the exacting Belgian master of the dining room practised perfect. The restaurant is set within the walls of a 600-year-old temple complex (the actual temple is housed at the back of the compound and saved for functions and events). The conversion is an impressive and delicate balance of the old and new: the bar at the entrance sits beneath ancient ceiling beams and leads to a newly constructed, sparse dining area with towering ceilings.
There, smart Scandinavian furniture stands in subdued colors against a deep-grey canvas, like a painting waiting to happen. At night, however, it buzzes as Peng, the jovial, trilby-hatted concierge, brings you from your car into the restaurant and delivers you to the waiting staff–an army of service that kills you with kindness.
Once seated, the spoiling begins with tokens from the kitchen that last throughout the evening. The golden gougères are little crunches of cheese-infused air that give an explosion of flavor with each bite, while it’s hard not to fill up on the addictive bacon-and-cheese epi rolls.
The kitchen still has some kinks to work out in terms of seasoning: to salt or not to salt? The cauliflower velouté with seafood tartare is an example of sweetness that is one dimensional unless you wise up and stir in some salt to bring out the dish’s full potential. A silky slab of pan-fried foie gras is delightful with a purée of mushroomy cep, and is complemented wonderfully by escargot hidden in a ball of lightly fried crunch. Not everything’s a hit, though. A ham and artichoke terrine is a lost cause, more like a paté from the ghetto. The oxtail tortellini are three golden ingots in a pool of sweet port jus. If the pasta could yield some toothsome firmness, it might be something to fight over.Address: No. 23 Shatan Beijie, Dongcheng District东城区五四大街以北，沙滩北街 23 号Source: timeoutbeijing.com
