El Bulli (pronounced "L Boo-Yee") has held top spot in the Restaurant list for the past four years. Even in the strangely self-obsessed world of elite chefs, this ranking is seldom railed against; a tacit agreement, perhaps, that Ferran Adrià is that rare thing - someone who has inspired a paradigm shift in fine dining, a sort of Mozart of the kitchen. His importance is underlined by the fact that two of the other restaurants in the Top Five are run by disciples who once worked at El Bulli. The other two share Adrià's principles of innovation. The question is whether Adrià's brilliance at thinking up new techniques and dishes to express familiar flavours in unfamiliar ways makes for a good dinner.

Adrià's restaurant is a nondescript three-hour drive north-east along the coast from Barcelona. There is a strange sense of anticipation clattering round in my gut as we drive into the fading seaside resort of Roses, its esplanade lined with cheap cafes that smell of fried food and stale beer.