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 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 <br>
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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 <br>
<br>
under £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 <br>
<br>
Gavin Rankin (who used to be the boss), and transformed into the brilliant <br>
<br>
Bellamy's. 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 <br>
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the doors were opened to the great unwashed.<br>
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Which is how we find ourselves sitting in a rather handsome - albeit near empty - dining room, lusciously lavish, under the stern gaze <br>
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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 <br>
<br>
lamps, indecorously bright, while a loud soundtrack <br>
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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, clad in diaphanous <br>
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couture. They don't speak, rather communicate entirely via camera phone.<br>
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Pose, click, check, filter, post. Immaculate <br>
<br>
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>
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charm and charisma that had she burst into 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 <br>
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hard with butter and sour cream, are a study in tuber art.<br>
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A cool jet-black splodge of oscietra caviar, gently saline, <br>
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raises them to the sublime. Only the price,<br>
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at just under £150 each, is ridiculous. But there are few <br>
<br>
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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<i><u>About £200 per head. Caviar Kaspia, 1a Chesterfield Street, <br>
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London W1; caviarkaspialondon.com</u></i><br>
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<u><strong>★★★★✩</strong></u><br>
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<b>My favourite luxury dishes</b><br>
<br>
Tom's pick of the best places to splash the <br>
<br>
culinary cash in LondonTom's pick of the best places to <br>
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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 suzette flambéed <br>
<br>
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 <br>
<br>
person); stay for beef tartare (£42), foie gras (£22) and poulet de bresse rôti (£190,<br>
<br>
two courses).<br>
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<br>
<b>ottos-restaurant.com</b><br>
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<strong>Sushi Kanesaka</strong><br>
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Piscine perfection comes at an eye-watering £420 per person, sans <br>
<br>
booze. But this 13-seat sushi bar shows omakase dining at its very finest.<br>
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<br>
<u><i>dorchestercollection.com</i></u><br>
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<br>
Min Jiang<br>
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The dim sum is some of the best in town. <br>
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But don't miss the wood-fired Beijing duck (£98) - <br>
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crisp skin first, then two servings of the meat.<br>
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Superb.<br>
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minjiang.co.uk<br>
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An invitation to lunch at