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An invitation to lunch at Caviar Kaspia was, once upon a time,<br> <br> an offer 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. There <br> <br> 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 <br> <br> by Gavin Rankin (who used to be the boss), and transformed into the <br> <br> brilliant Bellamy's. 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 <br> <br> doors were opened to the great unwashed.<br> <br> <br> <br> Which is how we find ourselves sitting in a rather handsome - albeit <br> <br> near empty - dining room, lusciously lavish, <br> <br> under the stern gaze of a stern painting of a very stern man. The soft, <br> <br> crepuscular gloom is broken up by the glare of table lamps, indecorously bright, while a loud <br> <br> 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 <br> <br> pale, luminescent beauty, clad in diaphanous couture.<br> <br> <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 tastes far better than it ought to.<br> <br> Next door, a large table fills with a glut <br> <br> of the noisily, glossily confident.<br> <br> <br> <br> We're looked after by a wonderful French lady of such effervescent charm and charisma that had <br> <br> she burst into an impromptu performance of ‘Willkommen', we would <br> <br> have barely blinked. Baked potatoes, skin as crisp as parchment, insides whipped savagely <br> <br> hard with butter and sour cream, are a study in tuber art.<br> <br> A cool jet-black splodge of oscietra caviar, gently <br> <br> saline, raises them to the sublime. Only the price, at just under £150 each, is <br> <br> ridiculous. But there are few better dishes <br> <br> on earth. I'd eat this every day if I could. But I can't.<br> <br> Obviously. That's the problem with caviar. One taste is never enough.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <u>About £200 per head. Caviar Kaspia, 1a Chesterfield <br> <br> Street, London W1; caviarkaspialondon.com</u><br> <br> <br> <br> <u><strong>★★★★✩</strong></u><br> <br> <br> <br>  <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <b>My favourite luxury dishes</b><br> <br> Tom's pick of the best places to splash the culinary cash in LondonTom's pick of the best places to <br> <br> 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 suzette flambéed with aplomb (£62): Arts de la Table <br> <br> is edible theatre at its most delectable.<br> <br> <br> <br> <strong>theritzlondon.com</strong><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 <br> <br> or homard à la presse (£150-£220 per person); stay for <br> <br> beef tartare (£42), foie gras (£22) and poulet de bresse rôti (£190, two courses).<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <b><u>ottos-restaurant.com</u></b><br> <br> <br> <br> <i><u>Sushi Kanesaka</u></i><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 <br> <br> booze. But this 13-seat sushi bar shows omakase dining at its very <br> <br> finest.<br> <br> <br> <br> <b>dorchestercollection.com</b><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 the wood-fired Beijing duck (£98) - crisp skin first, then two <br> <br> servings of the meat. Superb.<br> <br> <br> <br> minjiang.co.uk<br> <br> <br> <br> Check out my blog: <a href="http://autotek.lv/user/ToniaChauvel/">แพ็คเกจ ลาดบัวขาว</a>
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