We discovered TRB Hutong, as Temple Restaurant Beijing is more commonly known, because it had been planned as a lunch stop on our private guided tour of China’s capital, in August 2018.  It’s in a low-rise red building which sits in a courtyard decorated with a few interesting works of sculpture, on the edge of a restored 600 year old temple, off a narrow side-street in Beijing. It’s very close to the North Gate of the Forbidden City (locally called the Palace Museum) and the ‘old-fashioned’/undeveloped Hutong area of town.  Our lunch stop was meant to be for just an hour, but we departed full, very happy and a little tipsy two hours after entering.  Luckily we had a very understanding, patient and flexible tour guide, Cathy!

You enter into a bar and lounge area. The dining area is next door in a spacious and airy room with stone flooring and full height windows looking onto the courtyard outside.  Tables are dressed with white table cloths, furniture is ‘updated retro’ style and the walls are painted white or taupe, so it all looked very appealing.  We were initially offered a great window table, but because it was a very hot and sunny day outside we moved to a table away from the windows and closer to an aircon vent, which also gave us a good view of the restaurant.  It was a Saturday, so we were shown the weekend Brunch menu of contemporary European dishes, from which we were invited to pick 5 courses for just CNY328 (c£36). We also chose the wine pairing at CNY198 each (c£22).  Both seemed like very good value…..IF the quality was there!

We befriended several of the young international waiting staff, in particular Germain, a Frenchman who I think was the maitre d’, as they brought us a phone charger, cool mineral water, bread and then our first glass of wine. It was a ‘proper’ glassful of a refreshing 2017 Riesling from New Zealand’s Clare Valley, which was an excellent foil to the oily fish we had both chosen to start the meal.

Mr A had a very pretty dish of cured salmon and I chose charred mackerel with ponzu, yuzu and radish.  I found my mackerel to be a bit dry and chewy, from over-cooking, and the yuzu was hard to taste. 6/10 I think it would have been a better dish if the mackerel had been raw and if there was more of a citrus edge to it.

Next up we both went for the Gazpacho (a favourite on a hot day), which came as a disc of tomato compote with pickled onion, topped with avocado spheres and dill flowers. A cool, sweet tomato soup was poured into the bowl to complete the dish, which was a novel and delicious interpretation of the Spanish classic, and oh so refreshing. 8.5/10. The accompanying 2017 Lafage rose from Languedoc was very light and subtle and it balanced the sweet soup nicely.

For the next course I’d opted for Foie Gras, white chocolate and green apple, and Mr A went for Rigatoni with foie gras, artichoke puree and hazelnut (which was deliciously rich and earthy). My foie came as a sphere of smooth, rich mousse encased in a green jelly, so that it looked like a green apple, sitting atop apple sautéed in Sauternes, with raw green apple strips (not as sharp as Granny Smiths) and three (superfluous) droplets of white chocolate. A fresh brioche roll was served on the side. It was all reminiscent of Heston Blumenthal’s signature dish of “meat fruit” (a chicken parfait sphere looking like a mandarin orange) but I actually thought this was even better. 10/10  The accompanying 1996 Sauternes was worth a 10 too, and what a generous glassful we had!

Next up, while Mr A had Lobster Ravioli, I had Quail egg, pumpkin puree, smoked eel and caviar.  For me there were too many eggs on the plate (five) and only two of them had runny yolks. Everything tasted nice together, but I preferred the eel on its own. The caviar appeared to be humble lumpfish roe. 7/10. A nice Macon chardonnay cut through the richness of the egg and fish.

For the 5th and final course, while Mr A went for a delicious chicken dish, I opted for the Lobster dish he’d had earlier.  A regular ‘beef’ of mine, I have to point out that this was a single raviolo, not the ravioli promised by the menu. The large raviolo was submerged in a lobster veloute, but I found the lobster filling to be quite dry (overcooked) and definitely not my dish of the day. 5/10 A 2016 Sauvignon Blanc from Otago tried its best to support the dish and we still had the dregs of previous glasses to get through before we rejoined our tour of Beijing!

Whilst we chatted more to Germain and his colleagues and ordered a coffee, we were presented with a surprise extra course, a dessert, of macerated strawberries covered by Chantilly cream and a few meringue sticks. It was simple, light and lovely 9/10. We were also presented with a mango mousse sprouting a small candle, with “welcome to TRB” written in chocolate sauce, which I thought was a delightful touch, though a little odd to be ‘welcomed’ at the end fo the meal.  And they gave us more Sauternes to enjoy it all with.

Finally our espressi arrived, along with Petit Fours and some light and delicious Madeleines, boxed up for us to take away.  The coffee was deliciously smooth and strong in flavour.

We had had a most enjoyable lunch!  We were close to the end of our holiday to China and western fine dining was exactly what we wanted.  Admittedly some of the dishes didn’t score too highly, but you must know by now that I’m super fussy.  This was the best meal we had in China, and it was made all the more pleasurable by the excellent and friendly service and the very generous servings of some very nice wines. It was also very good value for money and I shall be making a beeline for TRB Hutong when I’m next in Beijing.  overall 9/10

Michelin doesn’t yet do a guide to Beijing, but when it does I would expect TRB Hutong to win 1 star. It’s already ranked at the top of other review websites.