No trip to Barcelona would be complete without a trip to Espai Sucre, a dessert lover’s dream! Based in the Old Town this unassuming restaurant is home to the world’s first dessert restaurant. Use the buzzer to gain entry and you are ushered to your table, mouth watering in anticipation of what’s to come. The choices are all set menus and they do include a savoury option, but what would be the point? We chose the 'big dessert menu' and with the wealth of talent in the kitchen (Jordi Butrón Melero is formerly of the 3 Michelin Star Pierre Gagnaire Restaurant in Paris and more recently of the number one restaurant in the World Elbulli) we couldn’t wait to sample our first course.

We weren’t disappointed! A "Marialuisa" cold soup with green apple and spicy yoghurt ice cream. An exquisite dish that cleansed the palette and set your taste buds on edge. Visually stunning, it surpassed our expectations and left you eager for what came next.

A Baba of red wine, pear and saffron was incredible. A moist Baba with a hit of red wine and pear jelly with parmesan croutons. After all, what could be more natural than pears and cheese with red wine?

The third course was no less dazzling, a Bread pudding with bacon ice cream and pineapple. Sound familiar? A Catalan take on our gammon and pineapple maybe? The bacon ice cream was no great surprise; after all it has been on The Fat Duck’s menu for years. But the marriage between the ingredients was delightful, tastes and textures that impressed in their audacity.

By the 4th course we had settled into the rhythm of plate after plate of decadent madness. An extra virgin olive oil cake, white peach, green olive and "San Simon". The peach sorbet providing the most exhilarating hit of the evening, followed by olive "caramel" and a richly textured cake.

I forgot to mention that we also chose the dessert wines to accompany our meal. A Bricco Nero '06 Asti to start with a Spanish Gewürztraminer to follow. The choices all made perfect sense to the courses, a Harmonie '06 AOC Gaillac Mauzac Loin de L'Oeil with the bacon ice cream was sensational. With the peach came a wonderful Riesling, refreshing enough to compete with the intense flavour of the sorbet.

Finally, the fifth course was the Empyreumatic 2. A dish comprising of liquorice and cacao, which unfortunately was my least favourite. This is purely based on my taste. I'm not a big lover of liquorice and my wife loved it. The wine pairing more than made up for my disappointment with a De Muller Anejo, Moscatel.

We finished with coffee and petit fours that brought the evening to a close. At €40.00 per head for the menu and just €16.00 for the accompanying wines receiving the bill makes for a rather pleasant surprise too.

It was incredible; with Jordi Butrón Melero you would expect nothing less. A truly novel concept that worked on so many levels. Not least for bringing a childhood fantasy to reality, finally I got to eat an entire meal made up of desserts without my mother telling me that I would be sick. I hope that Espai Sucre goes from strength to strength and world domination calls, it deserves it!

For more infomration vist the Espai Sucre website - http://www.espaisucre.com

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