An invitation to lunch at Caviar Kaspia was, once upon a time, an offer you <br>
<br>
simply didn't refuse. Providing, of course, that the bill was on someone else.<br>
<br>
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 <br>
<br>
one 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:<br>
<br>
‘there are few better dishes on earth…only the price, at just under £150, is ridiculous'<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Caviar Kaspia popped her final tin about two decades back. And that site, hidden down a <br>
<br>
smart Mayfair mews, was taken over by Gavin Rankin (who used to be the boss), and transformed into the brilliant Bellamy's.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
It prospers to this day. Kaspia, on the other hand, went <br>
<br>
quiet. 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 the doors were opened to the <br>
<br>
great unwashed.<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 soft, crepuscular <br>
<br>
gloom is broken up by the glare of table lamps, indecorously <br>
<br>
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 <br>
<br>
beauty, clad in diaphanous couture. They don't speak, rather communicate <br>
<br>
entirely via 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 noisily, glossily <br>
<br>
confident.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
We're looked after by a wonderful French lady of such effervescent charm and charisma that had <br>
<br>
she burst into an impromptu performance of ‘Willkommen', we would <br>
<br>
have barely blinked. Baked potatoes, skin as crisp as <br>
<br>
parchment, insides whipped savagely hard with butter and sour cream, are a study in tuber art.<br>
<br>
A cool jet-black splodge of oscietra caviar, gently saline, raises <br>
<br>
them to the sublime. Only the price, at just under £150 each, is ridiculous.<br>
<br>
But there are few better dishes on earth. I'd eat <br>
<br>
this every day if I could. But I can't. Obviously. That's the <br>
<br>
problem with caviar. One taste is never enough.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
About £200 per head. Caviar Kaspia, 1a Chesterfield Street, 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 <br>
<br>
pick of the best places to splash the culinary cash 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 suzette flambéed with aplomb (£62):<br>
<br>
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 or homard à la presse (£150-£220 per person); stay for beef tartare (£42), foie <br>
<br>
gras (£22) and poulet de bresse rôti (£190, two courses).<br>
<br>
<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>
But this 13-seat sushi bar shows omakase dining at its <br>
<br>
very finest.<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 miss the wood-fired Beijing <br>
<br>
duck (£98) - crisp skin first, then two servings of the meat.<br>
<br>
Superb.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
minjiang.co.uk<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Check out my page :: ขาย wine - http://hsecotour.co.kr/bbs/board.php?bo_table=free&wr_id=159819
An invitation to lunch at