Pridať nové hodnotenie

An invitation to lunch at Caviar Kaspia was, once upon a time, <br> <br> an offer you simply didn't refuse. Providing, of course, that the bill was on someone else.<br> <br> Because caviar, smeared on blinis or piled high <br> <br> on baked potatoes, sure didn't come cheap. There may have been other things on the menu, but no one <br> <br> paid them much heed. This was all about lashings of the black stuff.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Caviar Kaspia's signature baked potato and caviar: ‘there are few better dishes on earth…only the price, at just under <br> <br> £150, is ridiculous'<br> <br> <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 <br> <br> transformed into the brilliant Bellamy's. It prospers to this <br> <br> 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, 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 <br> <br> - 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 <br> <br> throbs in the background. The whole place is scented with gilded ennui.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Our fellow diners are two young South Korean women of <br> <br> pale, luminescent beauty, clad in diaphanous couture.<br> <br> They don't speak, rather communicate entirely via camera <br> <br> 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 croque <br> <br> monsieur that tastes far better than it ought to.<br> <br> Next door, a large table fills with a glut of the noisily, glossily confident.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> We're looked after by a wonderful French lady of such effervescent <br> <br> charm and charisma that had she burst into an impromptu performance of ‘Willkommen', we would have barely blinked.<br> <br> Baked potatoes, skin as crisp as parchment, insides whipped <br> <br> savagely hard with butter and sour cream, are a study <br> <br> in tuber art. A cool jet-black splodge of oscietra caviar, gently <br> <br> saline, raises them to the sublime. Only the price, at <br> <br> just under £150 each, is ridiculous. But there are few better dishes on earth.<br> <br> 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> About £200 per head. Caviar Kaspia, 1a Chesterfield Street, <br> <br> London W1; caviarkaspialondon.com<br> <br> <br> <br> ★★★★✩<br> <br> <br> <br>  <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> My favourite luxury dishes<br> <br> Tom's pick of the best places to splash the culinary cash in LondonTom's pick of the best places to splash the culinary cash <br> <br> in London<br> <br> <br> <br> The Ritz<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Beef wellington sliced and sauced at the table (£150) and crêpes <br> <br> suzette flambéed with aplomb (£62): Arts de la Table is edible theatre at its most <br> <br> delectable.<br> <br> <br> <br> theritzlondon.com<br> <br> <br> <br> Otto's<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Come to this classic French restaurant for the canard <br> <br> or homard à la presse (£150-£220 per person); stay for <br> <br> beef tartare (£42), foie gras (£22) and poulet de bresse rôti (£190,<br> <br> two courses).<br> <br> <br> <br> ottos-restaurant.com<br> <br> <br> <br> Sushi Kanesaka<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Piscine perfection comes at an eye-watering £420 per person, sans booze.<br> <br> <br> <br> But this 13-seat sushi bar shows omakase dining at its very finest.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> dorchestercollection.com<br> <br> <br> <br> Min Jiang<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> The dim sum is some of the best in town. But don't <br> <br> miss the wood-fired Beijing duck (£98) - crisp skin first, <br> <br> then two servings of the meat. Superb.<br> <br> <br> <br> minjiang.co.uk<br> <br> <br> <br> My web site: ช่อดอกไม้สีพาสเทล - http://it-Viking.ch/index.php/The_Pain_Of_%E0%B8%8A%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%94%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%81%E0%B9%84%E0%B8%A1%E0%B9%89%E0%B9%82%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%81%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%81
Hodnotenie: 
3
13 + 4 =