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 potatoes, sure didn't come cheap.<br>
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There may have been other things on the menu, but no one paid them much heed.<br>
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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 £150,<br>
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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 transformed into the brilliant Bellamy's.<br>
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It prospers to this 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 <br>
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the great unwashed.<br>
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Which is how we find ourselves sitting in a rather handsome - albeit near empty - dining room,<br>
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lusciously lavish, under the stern gaze of a stern painting of a very stern man. The soft, crepuscular gloom is broken up by the glare of <br>
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table lamps, indecorously bright, 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,<br>
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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 <br>
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tastes far better than it ought to. Next door, a large table fills with a glut of the noisily, glossily <br>
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confident.<br>
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We're looked after by a wonderful French lady of such effervescent charm and charisma that had she burst into <br>
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an impromptu performance of ‘Willkommen', we would have barely <br>
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blinked. Baked potatoes, skin as crisp as parchment, insides whipped savagely hard with butter and sour cream, are <br>
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a study in tuber art. A cool jet-black splodge <br>
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of oscietra caviar, gently saline, raises them to the sublime.<br>
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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 every day if I could.<br>
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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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<b>About £200 per head. Caviar Kaspia, 1a Chesterfield Street, London W1; caviarkaspialondon.com</b><br>
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<u><strong>★★★★✩</strong></u><br>
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<strong><u>My favourite luxury dishes</u></strong><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 in London<br>
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The Ritz<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 delectable.<br>
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<b>theritzlondon.com</b><br>
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Otto's<br>
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Come to this classic French restaurant for the canard or homard à la presse (£150-£220 per person); stay for beef tartare <br>
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(£42), foie gras (£22) and poulet de bresse rôti (£190, <br>
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two courses).<br>
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<strong>ottos-restaurant.com</strong><br>
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<u><b>Sushi Kanesaka</b></u><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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<strong><u>dorchestercollection.com</u></strong><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 miss <br>
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the wood-fired Beijing duck (£98) - crisp skin first, then two servings of <br>
<br>
the meat. Superb.<br>
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minjiang.co.uk<br>
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An invitation to lunch at