The 5 or 7-course Matera Journey menu is one of my top picks for fine dining so far this year. With influences from Chinese and Japanese cuisine, you will not find a second modern Italian dining experience like Matera. The 7-course meal starts off with hot and cold snacks before the first course of La Lune Oyster with an egg pudding, similar to a chawanmushi. It was followed by a foie gras with toast and chrysanthemum jelly before the Hokkaido abalone with dried vegetables that is chef kissed.

The restaurant’s signature dish of Dumpling that contains juicy and plump red prawn and paired with an umami XO sauce with a side of prawn toast. The pigeon with cevennes onion course is cooked perfectly without any gaminess before the entree of wagyu beef with morel with an accompanying side of rice donabe with cheese. It was a spectacle sweet ending with the Japanese melon with limoncello, burrata and tofu ice cream.