An invitation to lunch at Caviar Kaspia was, once upon a time, an offer <br>
<br>
you simply didn't refuse. Providing, of course, that the <br>
<br>
bill was on someone else. Because caviar, smeared on blinis or <br>
<br>
piled high on baked potatoes, sure didn't come cheap.<br>
<br>
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>
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Caviar Kaspia's signature baked potato and caviar: ‘there are few better dishes on earth…only the <br>
<br>
price, at just under £150, is ridiculous'<br>
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Caviar Kaspia popped her final tin about two decades <br>
<br>
back. And that site, hidden down a smart Mayfair mews,<br>
<br>
was taken over by Gavin Rankin (who used to be the boss), and transformed into <br>
<br>
the brilliant Bellamy's. It prospers to this day. Kaspia, on the other hand,<br>
<br>
went quiet. Until last year, when she reopened as a <br>
<br>
members' club in another Mayfair backstreet. But a £2,000 a year <br>
<br>
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>
<br>
- albeit near empty - dining room, lusciously lavish, <br>
<br>
under the stern gaze of a stern painting of a very stern man. The soft, crepuscular gloom is broken up by the glare of 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, luminescent beauty, <br>
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clad in diaphanous couture. They don't speak, rather communicate entirely via camera phone.<br>
<br>
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 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>
<br>
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 savagely hard with butter <br>
<br>
and sour cream, are a study in tuber art. A <br>
<br>
cool jet-black splodge of oscietra caviar, gently saline, raises <br>
<br>
them to the sublime. Only the price, at just under £150 <br>
<br>
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. That's the problem <br>
<br>
with caviar. 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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<b>My favourite luxury dishes</b><br>
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Beef wellington sliced and sauced at the table (£150) and crêpes suzette flambéed with aplomb (£62): Arts de la Table is edible theatre at its <br>
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<b><u>theritzlondon.com</u></b><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 (£42), foie gras (£22) and poulet de bresse rôti (£190, <br>
<br>
two courses).<br>
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<u><i>ottos-restaurant.com</i></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>dorchestercollection.com</strong><br>
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Min Jiang<br>
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The dim sum is some of the best in town. But <br>
<br>
don't miss the wood-fired Beijing duck (£98) - crisp skin first, then two servings of <br>
<br>
the meat. Superb.<br>
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<br>
minjiang.co.uk<br>
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An invitation to lunch at