Katie Li, owner of the Tiago restaurant group.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Sometimes a simple garnish can give a dish that extra something, as does the next meat dish by Combal, a cassia bark that sits directly on the side of the plate doing the work. Once extinguished, aromatics and flame from the flaring cinnamon bark suffuse the foie gras, pigeon leg and breast, enjoyed in an ambience not unlike that of carnivores around a campfire after hunting in the jungle.

One shortcoming is that the so-called spicy pigeon breast seems to have been marinated for much too short a time, at the cost of a lot of flavor. But for a restaurant that strives to innovate and dares to be different, and is still in its soft opening, these kinds of drawbacks give it the opportunity to learn and grow.

Combal is akin to a new adventurous gourmet playground for the Tiago restaurant group.

"Fine dining is about an experience, something new, and something you will not forget," Li says.

In the past three years the Tiago group has opened five outlets under four brands: Tiago Home Kitchen, a causal family-style Italian restaurant; Casa Talia by Tiago featuring Spanish cuisine, Tiago Select focusing on Mediterranean cuisine, and Combal by Tiago, a fine-dining Italian restaurant.