Honestly thought we were on an excursion to a cute village somewhere to eat some rustic hearty (implication: cheap(er)) grub... the result of having not done my homework on the restaurant before. So yes, I looked at the website to figure out how to get there, but no I didn't read the bit about it being a 3 Michelin-starred restaurant...

So there we were in Saint Celoni, some 50 mins by train from Barcelona walking in a small little town before we found the restaurant in a cute little house. We were then ushered into our own private dining room (probably due to the beneficence of having our reservation made by a chef) - with gorgeous wooden beams - truly rustic. Our (Italian) waiter was fantastic, patiently explaining the Spanish menu to us, and his enthusiasm at explaining the bread was just marvellous. No snobs here - plus points!!

Thank goodness my travel companions CN, NH and RP were really accommodating and didn't even raise an eyebrow (or if they did, they were very restrained or I was too shocked myself to notice their reactions) when we finally sat down and opened the menus. Frankly I was gobsmacked. Just wasn't expecting starters to cost a minimum of €46! (damn the strong euro as well) And with my poor spanish, I first saw the tasting menu and the figure on the page was €250!!! (Turns out that was for the chef's table - tasting menu is actually an almost reasonable €140+) (it's all relative *shrug*)

Having only just had the tasting menu at ABAC the night before, most of our group of 6 were feeling too stuffed to have the tasting menu again. So we opted to have starters and mains, and decide if we could stomach dessert later.

We all opted for various different things, white asparagus with almond milk, onion cream and citrus peel; a two-part starter with the jelly and cold cream (gazpacho like), ham and mint in the picture with a second part being peas, poached egg, breadcrumbs and garlic; foie gras with shallots and salsa oil, langoustines with orange and tender (habitas); prawn ravioli with cep oil...

Everyone loved their starters but having nibbled (in true Asian fashion) a bit of everything round the table, I thought the prawn ravioli and the first part of the two part starter of jelly and cream were what really stood out. The prawn ravioli had a translucent lustre not dissimilar to soon kueh (but of course much finer) and was slippery with the texture being somewhat like a very fine dumpling (xia jiao or har kow). With the cep oil it was not too salty or rich, but tasted really fresh. Sublime.

As to the jelly with cold cream, ham and mint, it was a bit like a gazpacho since it was cold and creamy and had the freshness with the mint. We tried the bits to the dish separately and were unimpressed, but not (that) surprisingly when we mixed everything up, it was goooood. The salmon roe made the dish reminiscent in taste with Tetsuya's salmon sashimi and tobiko rice and the hot weather outside made this instantly refreshing.

For mains we had again tried different things, with the fish of the market, from Blanes market, grilled with a vegetable cocotte being my favourite. My dad loves ordering fish (our Cantonese blood) wherever we go but as much as I LOVE my steamed pomfret, sea bass etc, I usually find fish in European restaurants competent but lacking any wow factor. Here at Can Fabes though, the fish was excellent. The fish skin was nice and crispy, and the grilling with only a light sauce really flaunted the freshness of the fish.

Somehow the other fish dish, rape with snails and polenta paled by comparison - as there were more flavours there and might have been a bit too rich for me. Again relativity was at work, the other dishes were all well executed and yummy in their own way, but I tend to be more impressed when the flavours are milder and more subtle - I also get suspicious of the freshness of my food when it is drowned in rich sauce.

Portions were more than adequate (none of the namby pamby portions one associates with fine dining) and at the end of two courses we were all too full for dessert. But of course it's nice to end with a sweet note and the petit fours ended the meal perfectly. An assortment of tuiles (so thin and fine I could eat them all day and not feel like I've ingested a single calorie), madeleines (which joone normally professes to dislike but thought was really good after I nagged her repeatedly to try - I also do not care for madeleines normally: too sweet), chocolate truffles, marshmallows tasting of fennel, little fruit tarts etc. made us all happy bunnies.

Of, lest I forget, we also had the house cava (so good I brought one home, notwithstanding the risk of explosion after check in on the plane) and the house white (decent, but more forgettable). Joone and I also had a little tasting of their house red (approx €55) as joone was considering buying back, but I guess I didn't think it brilliant enough to pay for.

So what was the damage? Two courses each (with the usual amuses bouche and petit fours), with cava and plenty of white wine round the table came to €160 per person. The meal took about 3.5 hours and was thoroughly enjoyable (brilliant company plus brilliant food = always a winner!) Verdict? Can Fabes is truly fabulous cooking, and worth every euro (once in a long while)... I think it's made its way into my top 5 fine dining restaurants! (How on earth is this ranked below Hakkasan (which I love but simply don't think is as Faaabulous)?!)

Quick go, before someone discovers how amazing it is again and elevates the ranking (and price)!