El Bulli

***PLEASE NOTE: Sadly El Bulli stopped functioning as a restaurant in July 2011, and will re-open as a culinary foundation in 2014***.

Ok, so it's not actually in Barcelona but El Bulli merits mention for the simple fact that it is the best restaurant in the world - at least according to prestigious The Restaurant Magazine which has awarded El Bulli the number one spot for the fourth year running (it happens to have three Michelin star too). Chef Ferran Adria is utterly devoted to his craft and the mad scientist of gastronomy actually spends most of the year in his food laboratory concocting the menu for El Bulli's open season - May to September. We're talking truly spectacular creations like rabbit brains and oysters, coconut and caviar, and olive oil spirals which you loop on your index finger before dropping into your mouth. Needless to say getting a table at El Bulli is a Herculean feat, but 'you've got to be in it to win it'. Place a reservation in October for the following year and keep your fingers crossed. The restaurant is just outside Roses resort, 1.5 hours up the road from Barcelona on the Costa Brava.

Ferran Adria has announced that El Bulli will be closing in 2012, and re-opening in 2014 in a new format. If you want to experience El Bulli v.1.0 then you'd better reserve your table now.

It started well, and got gradually worse... I'm talking about the reviews and not the restaurant!

Big D - it is almost impossible to get a table. You talk a lot of Bulli.

In fact it is very possible to get a table Mark - you just have to take the Bulli by the horns...

If you manage to get a table, well - Bulli for you!