Trvalý odkaz Pridané používateľom Anonymný (bez overenia) dňa So, 11/30/2024 - 21:21
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 was on someone else.<br>
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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>
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paid 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 price, at just under <br>
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£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, was taken over by Gavin Rankin (who used to be the boss), and <br>
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transformed into the brilliant Bellamy's. It prospers to this <br>
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day. Kaspia, on the other hand, went quiet.<br>
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Until last year, when she reopened as a members' club in another Mayfair backstreet.<br>
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But a £2,000 a year membership fee proved hard to 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 <br>
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- albeit near empty - dining room, lusciously lavish, under the stern gaze of a stern painting of a very stern man. The <br>
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soft, crepuscular gloom is broken up by the glare of table lamps,<br>
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indecorously bright, while a loud soundtrack of indolent, indeterminate beats <br>
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throbs in the background. The whole place is scented with gilded ennui.<br>
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Our fellow diners are two young South Korean women of <br>
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pale, luminescent beauty, clad in diaphanous couture.<br>
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They don't speak, rather communicate entirely via camera <br>
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phone. Pose, click, check, filter, post.<br>
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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 <br>
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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 <br>
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charm and charisma that had she burst into an impromptu performance of ‘Willkommen', we would have barely blinked.<br>
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Baked potatoes, skin as crisp as parchment, insides whipped <br>
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savagely hard with butter and sour cream, are a study <br>
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in tuber art. A cool jet-black splodge of oscietra caviar, gently <br>
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saline, raises them to the sublime. Only the price, at <br>
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just under £150 each, is ridiculous. But there are few better dishes on earth.<br>
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I'd eat this every day if I could. But I can't. Obviously.<br>
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That's the problem with caviar. One taste is never enough.<br>
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About £200 per head. Caviar Kaspia, 1a Chesterfield Street, <br>
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London W1; 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 pick of the best places to splash the culinary cash <br>
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Beef wellington sliced and sauced at the table (£150) and crêpes <br>
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suzette flambéed with aplomb (£62): Arts de la Table is edible theatre at its most <br>
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delectable.<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 <br>
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or homard à la presse (£150-£220 per person); stay for <br>
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beef tartare (£42), foie gras (£22) and poulet de bresse rôti (£190,<br>
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two courses).<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 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 skin first, <br>
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then two servings of the meat. Superb.<br>
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<br>
minjiang.co.uk<br>
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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
An invitation to lunch at