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An invitation to lunch at Caviar Kaspia was, once upon a time, an offer you simply didn't refuse.<br> <br> Providing, of course, that the bill was on someone else.<br> <br> Because caviar, smeared on blinis or piled high on baked potatoes, sure didn't come cheap.<br> <br> <br> <br> There may have been other things on the menu, but no one paid them much heed.<br> <br> This was all about lashings of the black stuff.<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 £150,<br> <br> 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 transformed into the brilliant Bellamy's.<br> <br> It prospers to this 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> <br> <br> But a £2,000 a year membership fee proved hard to swallow, meaning the doors were opened to <br> <br> the great unwashed.<br> <br> <br> <br> Which is how we find ourselves sitting in a rather handsome - albeit near empty - dining room,<br> <br> 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> <br> table lamps, indecorously bright, while a loud soundtrack of indolent, indeterminate beats throbs in the background.<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,<br> <br> luminescent beauty, clad in diaphanous couture.<br> <br> They don't speak, rather communicate entirely via camera phone.<br> <br> Pose, click, check, filter, post. Immaculate waiters hover in the shadows.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> We sip ice-cold vodka, and eat a £77 caviar and smoked-salmon Kaspia croque monsieur that <br> <br> tastes far better than it ought to. 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 she burst into <br> <br> an impromptu performance of ‘Willkommen', we would have barely <br> <br> blinked. Baked potatoes, skin as crisp as parchment, insides whipped savagely hard with butter and sour cream, are <br> <br> a study in tuber art. A cool jet-black splodge <br> <br> of oscietra caviar, gently saline, raises them to the sublime.<br> <br> Only the price, at just under £150 each, is ridiculous.<br> <br> <br> <br> But there are few better 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> <br> <br> <br> One taste is never enough.<br> <br> <br> <br> <b>About £200 per head. Caviar Kaspia, 1a Chesterfield Street, London W1; caviarkaspialondon.com</b><br> <br> <br> <br> <u><strong>★★★★✩</strong></u><br> <br> <br> <br>  <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <strong><u>My favourite luxury dishes</u></strong><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 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 delectable.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <b>theritzlondon.com</b><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 <br> <br> (£42), foie gras (£22) and poulet de bresse rôti (£190, <br> <br> two courses).<br> <br> <br> <br> <strong>ottos-restaurant.com</strong><br> <br> <br> <br> <u><b>Sushi Kanesaka</b></u><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 very finest.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <strong><u>dorchestercollection.com</u></strong><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 <br> <br> the wood-fired Beijing duck (£98) - crisp skin first, then two servings of <br> <br> the meat. Superb.<br> <br> <br> <br> minjiang.co.uk<br> <br> <br> <br> Stop by my web blog: <a href="http://09Vodostok.ru/user/AmadoKyq2781067/">ดอกไม้แสดงความเสียใจ</a>
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