WHAT’S NEW restaurants Daily 6.30am-2.30pm, 5.30-10.30pm. 1/F, Rosewood Beijing, Jingguang Centre, Hujialou, Chaoyang District (6597 8888) 朝阳区呼家楼京广中心北京瑰丽酒店1层 200m south of Hujialou Station (line 6, line 10)
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ou know a hotel restaurant is successful when it makes you want to get a room and stay there even if you live right around the corner. So it is with Bistrot B in the newly-opened Rosewood Beijing. Behind the restaurant’s show kitchen stoves is Jarrod Verniak, a former protégée of Daniel Boulud, and James Beard Foundation “Rising Star Chef of the Year” nominee. A pedigree like that brings certain expectations to the table. Thankfully, Verniak fulfills them all and then some. The single-page menu sticks mostly to modern French-Mediterranean with occasional forays into Chinese and Southeast Asian cuisine. The Asian flavors are serviceable, but the kitchen’s strength is in classic French cooking. The pâté maison (RMB 130), with its firm pork and unexpected chunks of foie gras and mushroom, is among the best we’ve had in Beijing, the result of 10 years of recipe adjustment. Perhaps best of all is the sole meunière (RMB 260), a dish not often tasted in Beijing, four delicate sole fillets practically swimming in a pool of brown butter. The prices may seem steep, but portions are prodigious. Cleverly, the hotel has made a commitment to working with local suppliers, so you will find Slow Boat beers on the drinks menu, organic vegetables from Ronking Farm in your salad, and goat cheese from Le Fromager de Pekin on your cheeseboard. This, along with the quality of cooking on show, makes Bistrot B a welcome change from the cut-copy buffet atmosphere of many other hotel restaurants. Robynne Tindall
RUM baba
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December 2014