Fun fact: Culina ain't just a damn good butchery, they've got some high quality seafood on offer (which they shuck right before serving) as well. My dad & I decided to mix up a half dozen oysters with an even split between the popular Fines de Claire oysters (left), and the more exotic Perle Noire (Black Pearl) variant (right)

The fantastically fresh Fines de Claire is a reminder of why oysters are so highly prized round the world. Creamy, rich and moderately briny, these mouthwatering mollusks were pure pleasure to slurp down with a squeeze of lemon and a dash of tabasco.

The Perle Noire, on the other hand, was infinitely more briny and salty. It was almost as if the ocean had been trapped and encapsulated within the rich, creamy flesh of the mollusk itself. I found the Perle Noire to only really require a squirt of lemon juice to complete, as the Tabasco would've made it too salty to fully appreciate.

While these oysters may cause your wallet to take a bit of a shellacking, they're well worth shelling out top dollar for.