Trvalý odkaz Pridané používateľom Anonymný (bez overenia) dňa So, 12/14/2024 - 12:55
An invitation to lunch at Caviar Kaspia was, once upon a time, an offer <br>
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you simply didn't refuse. Providing, of course, that <br>
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the bill was on someone else. Because caviar, smeared on blinis or piled high on baked potatoes, <br>
<br>
sure didn't come cheap. There may have been other things on the menu, but no one paid them much <br>
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heed. This was all about lashings of the black stuff.<br>
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Caviar Kaspia's signature baked potato and caviar:<br>
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‘there are few better dishes on earth…only the price, <br>
<br>
at just 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 Gavin Rankin (who used <br>
<br>
to be the boss), and transformed into the <br>
<br>
brilliant Bellamy's. It prospers to this day.<br>
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Kaspia, on the other hand, went quiet. Until last year, when she reopened <br>
<br>
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 <br>
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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 <br>
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empty - dining room, lusciously lavish, under the stern gaze of a stern painting of a very stern man. The soft, crepuscular gloom <br>
<br>
is broken up by the glare of table lamps, indecorously bright, while <br>
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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, 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 tastes far better than it ought to.<br>
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Next door, a large table fills with a glut of the noisily,<br>
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glossily 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 an impromptu <br>
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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 and <br>
<br>
sour cream, are a study in tuber art. A cool jet-black splodge of oscietra caviar, gently saline, raises them to <br>
<br>
the sublime. Only the price, at just under £150 each, is ridiculous.<br>
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<br>
<br>
But there are few better dishes on earth.<br>
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I'd eat this every day if I could. But I can't. Obviously.<br>
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That's the problem with caviar. One taste is never enough.<br>
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<u>About £200 per head. Caviar Kaspia, 1a Chesterfield Street, London W1; caviarkaspialondon.com</u><br>
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<b>★★★★✩</b><br>
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<u>My favourite luxury dishes</u><br>
<br>
Tom's pick of the best places to splash the culinary cash in LondonTom's pick of the <br>
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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 <br>
<br>
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 <br>
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la presse (£150-£220 per person); stay for beef tartare (£42), foie gras (£22) and poulet de bresse rôti (£190, two courses).<br>
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<b><u>ottos-restaurant.com</u></b><br>
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<b>Sushi Kanesaka</b><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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<b>dorchestercollection.com</b><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 the wood-fired <br>
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Beijing duck (£98) - 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