This Spanish confection is set in a world-class restaurant – the kind of place people travel across the globe to eat at and make reservations a year ahead. If you saw the documentary El Buli last year, you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about here. And like El Buli, this restaurant is closing.

For the final night, a mixed group of guests drifts in. A writer and her ex-husband are among the first to arrive. They made the reservation pre-divorce, and neither wanted to miss out on the experience. At another table two Japanese investors are joined by the woman who would be their translator but she doesn’t speak Japanese. A group of brash Americans fill out another table, among them the writer’s editor with whom she is having an affair.  A wealthy countess sits alone, accompanied only by her husband’s ashes in an urn.  And at the final table is a solo, unrecognised, gentleman.

Behind the scenes Mar, the chef, and her maitre ‘d husband do everything to make this evening as special as possible. Mar wants things to be perfect for her guests – especially the Countess whom she is very fond of. Her husband is more concerned with impressing the investors so they have somewhere to move on to after the restaurant’s closure.

But as the kitchen sends out delectable morsels, the lives of the various diners entwine in ways none of them ever would have expected. And when tragedy arrives instead of dessert, this disparate group of individuals must work together to save the lives of some shipwrecked sailors.

Sweet, funny and often downright uncomfortable, Tasting Menu is a frothy concoction with good, solid bones underneath.  Don’t go hungry or your stomach growling might ruin the film for everyone else!

6/10

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TASTING MENU

Spain | 108 minutes | Comedy

Running Time: 108 minutes

Cast: Fionnula Flannagan, Stephen Rea, Timothy Gibbs, Claudia Bassols, Togo Igawa

Director: Roger Gual

Screenplay: Javier Calvo & Silvia Gonzales Laa

Cinematography: Emilio Guirao