The black pearl tasting menu at the 8 , is a perfect excuse to tackle the Grand Lisboa wine list and today’s winner was yet another great value Mersault .

The seafood focused menu was a perfect match and the highlight may well have been the appetiser combination of chilled Snow crab with cherry tomato and honey glazed BBQ pork . The sweetness of the crab absolutely popped and the caramelised char siu further built on that flavour profile , postscript was I was utterly salivating .

First bite is the signature Cristal blue shrimp dumpling in goldfish shaped have had this close to ten times now and putting aside the goldfish shape gimmick , this is an excellent Har Gao .

Double boiled soup with sea whelk , abalone and silky fowl was super clean and pristine . Each protein element was insanely tender as well which is rarely the case with this type of soup .

Steamed garoupa fillet is one of my favourite dishes here . A handsome tranche of fish paired with black bean and garlic , ginger .

A lobster and chicken broth infused with Sichuan spices is the final savory course , with mushrooms , lobster meat and vermicelli noodles , it is a satisfying finale .

Dessert was a structurally intact double boiled pear with parachute resin and birds nest , not overly sweet , this still matched well with the last of the wine .