Change, the new constant

TRB-Forbidden City's sleek new look comes with fine-dining plates like this green apple foie gras terrine. Photos provided to China Daily

I confess I was a bit taken aback to hear that Temple Restaurant Beijing, often lauded as the best restaurant in the capital, was abandoning the more laid-back format of its elegant spinoff, TRB-Bites. The company has reshaped the child more in the image of the father, to deliver the same fine-dining experience, the same menu and the same superb wine list at both locations.

Bites is now TRB-Forbidden City, with same great view of the imperial palace's east gate.

"So far so good," ever-dapper owner and founder Ignace Lecleir says of the new space, which reopened just this week and already has TRB's polished look and feel. "But as always, anything new takes a bit of time to iron out the wrinkles."

This team is pretty handy with an iron, though. The snappy conversion took a mere four days. On one wall, a line of impossibly large white lilies are curvaceous enough to be painted by Goya. Another wall backs an imposing floor-to-ceiling wine showcase. Table settings are more serene, servers more buttoned-down, and managers move through the dining room with the comfortable assurance of swans.