High above Costa Rica's cloud forest, San Lucas Treetop Dining Experience offers a nine-course tasting menu inspired by the country's diverse provinces – combining fine dining with immersive storytelling.

It takes a long, winding road and a leap of the imagination to reach the San Lucas Treetop Dining Experience, a fine dining restaurant perched high above the above the misty cloud forest floor in Monteverde; one of Costa Rica's most biodiverse regions.

Hidden behind a tall, discrete gate and suspended on elevated platforms, San Lucas feels like a deep forest secret. But as soon as diners cross the tree-shrouded threshold, the mystery is slowly unveiled – signalled first by a large map displaying the country's seven provinces and some of its islands, bearing the message: A tribute to Costa Rica.

A narrow wooden footbridge, raised some 10m (33ft) off the ground, leads to eight private glass dining cabins overlooking the canopy. Each is enclosed by floor-to-ceiling windows, offering views of rolling clouds, distant mountains and at the Gulf of Nicoya, from where the restaurant sources much of its seafood

San Lucas's sky-scraping design draws inspiration from the hanging bridges and zip lines that made Monteverde a famed ecotourism hub.

"Monteverde is synonymous with fog, hanging bridges and being above the forest," said Diego Valverde, one of San Lucas's owners. Valverde, a civil engineer as well as a hospitality entrepreneur, also devised the restaurant's concept: an innovative space where food, nature and adventure combine. "The platforms are an extension of that essence, and San Lucas wants to capture that same feeling of being suspended in the air, surrounded by leaves, breeze and the forest’s nocturnal melodies."

Each cabin contains just one wooden table in order to keep the focus on the view, and my afternoon sitting unfolded across daylight, sunset and into darkness. At 17:00, the waiter, Carlos Marenco, arrived carrying a brown vintage suitcase. Dressed in dark green cargo pants and a cream button shirt with large pockets, he looked more like he was ready to go searching for poisonous frogs in the jungle than serve food.

"Today, we are going to do a gastronomic journey around the country," he said. "In this journey, you will need luggage, a passport and a guide."

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He handed over a San Lucas "passport", which included another map of the country with background about each province, and opened the suitcase to reveal an adventurous assortment of appetisers: taro root chips; a cocoa butter sphere containing agua de sapo (a drink made with sugar cane, lime and ginger); mushroom-shaped butter; and a shot of

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