Nautilus

Despite the fact it's practically a sexagenarian, the experience of arrival via a path up Island Point Hill through jungle-like foliage never gets old. The upper platform, set with couches under towering palms, serves as a bar; soft music plays while a canopy used only on rare inclement days acts as a theatre curtain to a star-studded sky. On the dining level are well-spaced candlelit tables set with proper linen and high-backed chairs. Service might be absentminded on occasion but food commands attention; a perfect cube of pork belly is served with a pillowy and tart miniature apple souffle, gently spiced piccalilli and apple crisps. Potstickers are exemplary; lemon myrtle-scented spanner crab inside thin crisp-bottomed wrappers, while duck breast with an accompanying confit leg is cooked to perfect rosiness in a subtle anise master stock with wilted bok choy. A chocolate pudding with white chocolate almonds and rose sorbet was let down by over-seasoned salted caramel but in an atmosphere this special, it's easy to forgive such small transgressions.