Trvalý odkaz Pridané používateľom Anonymný (bez overenia) dňa So, 11/30/2024 - 17:01
An invitation to lunch at Caviar Kaspia was, once upon a time, an offer you simply didn't refuse.<br>
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Providing, of course, that the bill was on someone else.<br>
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Because caviar, smeared on blinis or piled high on baked <br>
<br>
potatoes, sure didn't come cheap. There may have been other things on the menu, but no one paid <br>
<br>
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:<br>
<br>
‘there are few better dishes on earth…only the price, at just under £150, <br>
<br>
is ridiculous'<br>
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<br>
<br>
Caviar Kaspia popped her final tin about two decades back.<br>
<br>
And that site, hidden down a smart Mayfair mews, 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 hand, went quiet.<br>
<br>
Until last year, when she reopened as a members' <br>
<br>
club in another Mayfair backstreet. But a £2,000 a year membership fee proved hard to swallow, meaning <br>
<br>
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>
<br>
near empty - dining room, lusciously lavish, under the stern gaze of <br>
<br>
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,<br>
<br>
while a loud soundtrack of 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 in diaphanous couture.<br>
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They don't speak, rather communicate entirely via camera phone.<br>
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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 than it ought to.<br>
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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 that had she <br>
<br>
burst into an impromptu performance of ‘Willkommen', we <br>
<br>
would have barely blinked. Baked potatoes, skin as crisp as parchment, <br>
<br>
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 <br>
<br>
the price, at just under £150 each, is ridiculous. But there are few better <br>
<br>
dishes on earth. I'd eat this every day if I could.<br>
<br>
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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Beef wellington sliced and sauced at the table (£150) and crêpes suzette flambéed with aplomb (£62):<br>
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Come to this classic French restaurant for the canard or homard <br>
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Piscine perfection comes at an eye-watering £420 per person, sans booze.<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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<br>
then two servings of the meat. Superb.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
minjiang.co.uk<br>
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An invitation to lunch at