If you’re looking for a restaurant for a special occasion and the budget isn’t a problem, then you won’t go far wrong in the restaurant within the Hotel Omm, just off the Paseo de Gracia in Barcelona.

Some of you may know that my flatmate has 24 carat gold “enchufes” and can always be relied on to get me into some pretty classy places that I’d normally never get to try, and that was the case again this weekend, as a friend of his that I met at a party a few months ago invited me to celebrate her birthday in this restaurant. At first I was a little reticent as, knowing this particular lady, the venue was never going to be within my budget, but the magic word to listen out for from a Spanish person is of course the verb “invitar”, which instantly helped me to relax as it automatically has the assumption built-in that the person doing the inviting is genuinely happy to pay.

The restaurant has a very exclusive air and the security is firm but very discreet, but the most important thing was the quality of the food. Each of the 6 courses comes with an individually selected and matched wine, so when the food arrives, each of you is brought a different bottle, and the waiter explains the reasons for its selection. Now, I’m no connoisseur, but I know what tastes good, and each wine was truly excellent and accompanied the food perfectly. There was even a white rioja at one point which went down particularly well!

For the dessert course my flatmate, being Cuban, homed-in on Recuerdos de Havana which included an amazing chocolate-coated ice-cream “cigar” which somehow had been infused with the taste of a genuine Havana cigar! It was truly unique and very highly recommended - and we all tried some of course. The second dessert course was the house speciality, a type of perfumed mousse which strangely came with a small pot containing pieces of card, the idea being that you eat a little of the mousse, and then waft the card with a complementing perfume under your nose. Very odd indeed, but incredibly effective! I caught a glimpse of the bill when it came and couldn’t help but let out a tiny gasp, but if you do ever get the opportunity to eat here, I thoroughly recommend it. And as if a bonus was needed, a little “free extra” for us was that, just across from our table, was the extremely easy-on-the-eye Spanish TV presenter Jesus Vásquez having dinner with his partner and friends. ¡Que aproveche!

Dave Hall lives and works in Barcelona.