The bar has been raised for Macau dining. The Tasting Room in City of Dreams, a gorgeous but relaxed environment, is about wine tasting and chocolate tasting, it is also about an exquisite, innovative series of brilliantly conceived, creatively presented dishes.

A single oyster, served on ice, is topped with a green apple sauce, bringing a crunchy contrast; while onion soup starts as a sculpture before the liquid is poured and topped with onion ice cream - and does it work. Sea and earth meet in an acorn-shaped glass dish: Canadian lobster on morel mushroom and celeriac puree with foie gras (pictured). Dessert is a construction of chocolate with Rice Crispies, banana and sherbert.

But it is not all thrills and adventures. The beef is of the highest (Kobe) quality, and perfectly cooked - though it does come on a plate crafted as if to be a little stage. Chef Guillaume Talliot and manager Carlo Carreon work together beautifully, Carreon matching each dish to a label from the extensive by-the-glass list, which features many wines that are neither regularly offered this way, or even seen on wine lists. Anything else? Toothpicks pop out of a funky Alessi stand.