The syntax is very WebFormsie, far too much for my tastes. It all depends on what you should be able to do within a template. I'm personally partial to the style used in Spark[1]. If something more like a HAML template is possible that would also be very cool

[1]http://sparkviewengine.com/

> var t = kendo.template("<div id="box"><#= firstName #></div>");

Lesson: always test your examples.