Trvalý odkaz Pridané používateľom Anonymný (bez overenia) dňa So, 11/30/2024 - 06:26
An invitation to lunch at Caviar Kaspia was, once upon a time, an offer you simply didn't refuse.<br>
<br>
Providing, of course, that the bill was on someone else.<br>
<br>
Because caviar, smeared on blinis or piled high on baked potatoes,<br>
<br>
sure didn't come cheap. There may have been other <br>
<br>
things on the menu, but no one paid them much heed. This was <br>
<br>
all about lashings of the black stuff.<br>
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<br>
Caviar Kaspia's signature baked potato and caviar:<br>
<br>
‘there are few better dishes on earth…only the price, at just under £150, <br>
<br>
is ridiculous'<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Caviar Kaspia popped her final tin about two decades back.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
And that site, hidden down a smart Mayfair mews, was taken over by Gavin Rankin (who used to be <br>
<br>
the boss), and transformed into the brilliant Bellamy's.<br>
<br>
It prospers to this day. Kaspia, on the other hand, went quiet.<br>
<br>
Until last year, when she reopened as a members' club in another Mayfair backstreet.<br>
<br>
But a £2,000 a year membership fee proved hard to swallow,<br>
<br>
meaning the doors were opened to the great unwashed.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Which is how we find ourselves sitting in a rather handsome - albeit near empty - dining room, lusciously lavish, under the stern gaze of a stern painting of a very stern man. The <br>
<br>
soft, crepuscular gloom is broken up by the glare of table lamps,<br>
<br>
indecorously bright, while a loud soundtrack of indolent, indeterminate beats throbs in the background.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
The whole place is scented with gilded ennui.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Our fellow diners are two young South Korean women of pale, luminescent beauty, clad in diaphanous couture.<br>
<br>
They don't speak, rather communicate entirely via <br>
<br>
camera phone. Pose, click, check, filter, post.<br>
<br>
Immaculate waiters hover in the shadows.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
We sip ice-cold vodka, and eat a £77 caviar and smoked-salmon Kaspia <br>
<br>
croque monsieur that tastes far better than it ought to.<br>
<br>
Next door, a large table fills with a glut of the <br>
<br>
noisily, glossily confident.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
We're looked after by a wonderful French lady of such effervescent charm and charisma that had she burst into an impromptu <br>
<br>
performance of ‘Willkommen', we would have barely blinked.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Baked potatoes, skin as crisp as parchment, insides whipped savagely hard with butter and sour cream,<br>
<br>
are a study in tuber art. A cool jet-black splodge of oscietra <br>
<br>
caviar, gently saline, raises them to the sublime. Only the price, <br>
<br>
at just under £150 each, is ridiculous. But there are few better dishes <br>
<br>
on earth. I'd eat this every day if I could. But I can't. Obviously.<br>
<br>
That's the problem with caviar. One taste is never enough.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<b>About £200 per head. Caviar Kaspia, 1a Chesterfield Street,<br>
<br>
London W1; caviarkaspialondon.com</b><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<b>★★★★✩</b><br>
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<br>
<b>My favourite luxury dishes</b><br>
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<br>
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<br>
<br>
minjiang.co.uk<br>
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An invitation to lunch at