Manresa, Los Gatos, California

I'd heard a lot about Manresa. It had fans. No, lets call them devotees. In fact there was a table near ours when we ate there with a couple that had been, if memory serves, 17 times and had brought another couple to convert to the Manresa gospel.

Manresa has two Michelin stars and probably deserved a third people said. Manresa - the best restaurant in California that you can actually get into. That's what the word was. I had to go.

Ok, confession time. We ate there on September 30th, 2007. Clearly that's more than common laziness not to have blogged it by now. What happened? Well, I guess I was just overwhelmed.

So how come I suspected it was the best meal I'd ever eaten? Was it just jet-lag? (And man, we really were jet-lagged, and over the course of our four hour meal there were a couple of occasions when our table lapsed into silence for long periods. Saving. All. Energy. For. Eating.)

We arrived at 19.45, expecting to enjoy a drink in the restaurant before the meal. No bar, we were told and sent away. We wandered in the night, passed on an empty sports bar, killed time. On our second arrival we were shown to our table for four and given a little time to peruse the menu. No need. We'd decided on the tasting menu before setting out.

We had 19 courses according to the menu. In fact, due to a squeamish guest who wouldn't touch a couple of the more outre ingredients I ended up eating 21.

Petits fours "red pepper-black olive" were served on a stone slab and tasty; very tasty, in fact, which was to prove the theme of the night. Presentation was good through-out but the star quality of each plate was in the tastes, not in visual trickery. At this stage we had no idea how many courses were actually in the tasting menu. We thought it was 12. Oh, so wrong.

A shot glass of Cucumber and shiso cocktail was gone in an instant but lingered on the palate like an exotic kiss. The Oyster in urchin jelly to follow continued to create the false sense that this would be a meal of a dozen bites - delicious but brief. We were being suckered.

The next course - a seaweed-citrus granite with corn and tomato was a fraction more substantial but light, and exquisite.

And then, the dish I'd prayed would be on the menu: Arpege-farm egg. It's a legend. Look it up. And yes, it's very, very good (and imitable by an amateur cook too!)

At this point we thought we were well into the meal, so we were somewhat shocked when the waitress explained that our amuse were now over and we were moving on to the "real" dishes.

Charcoal grilled foie gras with tomato jam was good, but let down a bit by the quality of the foie. I'd love to have some more of the tomato jam to hand right now though. Shellfish in a herbal tisane of melon, golden raspberries followed and was sweet and subtle with intense flavours of the sea. Tomatoes and smoked roe, roast tuna jus, looked dark and unsettlingly unappealing. It tasted good though. Deep, memorable.

By contrast the next dish, Spot prawns on the plancha with exotic spice, citrus, looked beautiful. And tasted beautiful too. For me, very nearly the high point of the meal; surpassed only by the trinity of cod, pork and lamb yet to come.

Blue hubbard pumpkin, nasturtium ice cream followed. Extremely tasty and I'd happily have had more, though by now we were rather full and still had no idea how many more courses were to come.

And then 'In the Vegetable Garden...' followed by Abalone in its own spice bouillon, with more sub-par foie gras. Oh my lord. I hated both of these courses and left more than half of each. The first was lovely to look at but tasted very much like garden prunings covered in spit. The second was probably fine if you like crunchy, cold, abalone. I don't. Just a bad fit for me.

Now I must admit that at this point I finally gave in and asked how many more courses were to come. Manresa was good I'd decided. In the case of the Arpege egg or the seaweed and tomato, really good, but not great I'd decided and if it was nearly time to go, well... fair enough. Just a few to come: three more mains and some dessert, I was told.

And then it all came together. I'm honestly not sure what to say about the remaining "main" courses. I don't have superlatives fitting. Delicious? Exquisite? Ok, how about perfect?

Black cod with celeriac-lemongrass sauce: perfect.

Suckling pig and boudin noir, pink delite apple: perfect. Probably in God's own cookbook.

Spring lamb and spiced carrots and brown butter: the best lamb I've ever had.

I was straining at the waist. I was dog tired. I was incapable of speech. I was in heaven.

And then they hit us with three desserts: panna cotta with red wine granita; almond croustillant, pears with black licorice ice cream; chocolate cremeaux, raspberries in armagnac, tobacco ice cream (no, it's not easy to describe the taste of tobacco ice cream - suffice to say it's much better than it sounds!)

We thought that was it but, in symmetry with the first amuse we ended with petits fours "strawberry-chocolate" again on a stone slab.

It was like running a marathon. A very moreish marathon. If it hadn't been for the slimy Vegetable Garden dish and the disappointing foie gras this would have been a meal of unquestioning dominance. As it was, well, I'll just have to go back and see if they can improve on "nearly perfect." ; )

One last note: chef David Kinch came out for a chat around midnight as we were finishing our coffee. He looked like he'd run that marathon but was completely charming and very down to earth. He does this everynight, I thought, looking at him. How can you not respond to that dedicated with dedication of your own? So count me in with the converts: Manresa - the best restaurant in California that I've been to. A crescendo of dining.