Trvalý odkaz Pridané používateľom Anonymný (bez overenia) dňa So, 11/30/2024 - 09:38
An invitation to lunch at Caviar Kaspia was, once upon a time, <br>
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an offer you simply didn't refuse. Providing, of course, that the bill <br>
<br>
was on someone else. Because caviar, smeared on blinis or piled high on baked potatoes, sure didn't come cheap.<br>
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There may have been other things on the menu, but no one paid <br>
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them much heed. This was all about lashings of the black stuff.<br>
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Caviar Kaspia's signature baked potato and caviar: ‘there are few better dishes on earth…only the <br>
<br>
price, at just under £150, is ridiculous'<br>
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Caviar Kaspia popped her final tin about two decades back.<br>
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And that site, hidden down a smart Mayfair mews,<br>
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was taken over by Gavin Rankin (who used to be the boss), and transformed into the brilliant Bellamy's.<br>
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It prospers to this day. Kaspia, on the other <br>
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hand, went quiet. Until last year, when she reopened as a members' club <br>
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in another Mayfair backstreet. But a £2,000 a year membership fee proved hard to <br>
<br>
swallow, meaning the doors were opened to the great unwashed.<br>
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Which is how we find ourselves sitting in a rather handsome - albeit <br>
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near empty - dining room, lusciously lavish,<br>
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under the stern gaze of a stern painting of a very stern man. The soft, crepuscular gloom is broken up by <br>
<br>
the glare of table lamps, indecorously bright, while a loud soundtrack of <br>
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indolent, indeterminate beats throbs in the background.<br>
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The whole place is scented with gilded ennui.<br>
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Our fellow diners are two young South Korean women of pale, luminescent beauty, clad <br>
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in diaphanous couture. They don't speak, rather communicate entirely via camera <br>
<br>
phone. Pose, click, check, filter, post. Immaculate waiters hover in the shadows.<br>
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We sip ice-cold vodka, and eat a £77 caviar and smoked-salmon Kaspia croque monsieur that tastes far better <br>
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than it ought to. Next door, a large table fills with a glut of the noisily, glossily confident.<br>
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We're looked after by a wonderful French lady of such effervescent charm and charisma <br>
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that had she burst into an impromptu performance of ‘Willkommen', we <br>
<br>
would have barely blinked. Baked potatoes, skin as crisp as parchment, insides whipped <br>
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savagely hard with butter and sour cream, are a study in tuber art.<br>
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A cool jet-black splodge of oscietra caviar, gently saline, raises them <br>
<br>
to the sublime. Only the price, at just under £150 each, is ridiculous.<br>
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But there are few better dishes on earth. I'd eat this <br>
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every day if I could. But I can't. Obviously. That's the problem with caviar.<br>
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One taste is never enough.<br>
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About £200 per head. Caviar Kaspia, 1a Chesterfield Street, London W1;<br>
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caviarkaspialondon.com<br>
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★★★★✩<br>
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My favourite luxury dishes<br>
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Tom's pick of the best places to splash the culinary cash in LondonTom's <br>
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Beef wellington sliced and sauced at the table (£150) and crêpes suzette flambéed with <br>
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theritzlondon.com<br>
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Otto's<br>
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Come to this classic French restaurant for the canard or homard <br>
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à la presse (£150-£220 per person); stay for beef tartare (£42), foie gras (£22) and poulet de <br>
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ottos-restaurant.com<br>
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Sushi Kanesaka<br>
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Piscine perfection comes at an eye-watering £420 per person, sans booze.<br>
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But this 13-seat sushi bar shows omakase dining at its <br>
<br>
very finest.<br>
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dorchestercollection.com<br>
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Min Jiang<br>
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The dim sum is some of the best in town. But don't <br>
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miss the wood-fired Beijing duck (£98) - crisp <br>
<br>
skin first, then two servings of the meat.<br>
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Superb.<br>
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minjiang.co.uk<br>
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My webpage พวงหรีด วัดหลักสี่ - https://Savee.it/kayakbell5
An invitation to lunch at