An eight kilometer taxi ride north from the nondescript Spanish seaside resort of Roses takes you over the headland to a tiny bay and an unobtrusive restaurant which more people wish to visit than any other in the world.

It is a lottery getting a table at El Bulli, with some 500,000 people a year clamouring for one of 8,000 covers. I was disappointed when my email was returned tinged with deep regret and elated when a second arrived a fortnight later offering a cancellation on a different date.

No matter that the wedding anniversary was 10 days away, four of us flew into Perpignan on a Thursday morning, drove south to the Costa Brava, booked into a jolly resort hotel in Roses and swam in the Med on a glorious late September afternoon.

“Going to El Bulli?” asked the receptionist when we booked a taxi. I don’t suppose many Britons arrive in a seaside resort midweek for one night. The flights and hotel cost next to nothing, so heightening the anticipation of a blow-out dinner with Ferran Adria, who opens his 15-table restaurant for a single dinner sitting for only six months of the year.

The rest of the year he plays with his food in a laboratory. This year, he is apparently thinking round, which may mean more spheres of liquid and essences and fewer foams, airs and traces of sea urchin. Each of the tables receive a different menu and repeat guests, if there are any, are never served the same dish.

The tasting menu consists of around 30 dishes in three acts – small snacks, larger tapas and desserts, eaten with fingers, forks and spoons (no knives). The sommelier chose five wines for us, but first the four hour meal exploded into life with gelatin balls of vodka in our pina coladas.

The service was excellent, the waiter speaking flawless English to explain the intracacies of each dish, particularly useful as most questions revolved around how on earth they did that.

Over a glass of wine and a smoke on terrace later, the very accessible Adria said he preferred guests to experience emotions rather than explore the mechanics of ravioli on dry ice or aerated frozen foam flavoured with Parmesan. Both responses were in evidence on our table: emotional talk of Thumper when the crispy rabbit ears were served and wonder at the freeze dried foie gras. With no menu to guide us, each dish was keenly anticipated and rarely disappointed. Some were ludicrous (think balloons with lemon air), some sublime (raspberry and thyme communion wafers) and some pure art (pumpkin oil capsules with gold leaf).

We managed a quick tour of the kitchens where pipette-brandishing chefs slaved over immersion tanks and liquid oxygen feeling we had participated in high theatre, which we had. But I still would have had room for steak and chips when we got back to the hotel.

NEED TO KNOW

Dinner costs £125 a head including wine. The restaurant is open from May until September – reservations are taken from mid-October. Contact El Bulli (00 34 9721 50457, www.elbulli.com). The Hotel Terraza in Roses charges around £60 for a double room in September. A taxi to El Bulli costs £10.

Good links for El Bulli:

http://chezpim.typepad.com/blogs/2005/05/eye_candy_el_bu.html - a good photo gallery

http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2006/08/dinner_at_el_bulli.php - a great review and pics of each dish

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