Last Updated on January 4, 2025
Living the Caviar and Champagne Lifestyle in Piccadilly
4.5 out of 5.0 stars
I love eating caviar, preferably off a mother-of-pearl spoon, with either a glass of champagne or a chilled vodka shot. If I could do it every day, I would. So, when the opportunity came up to review Caviar House, Piccadilly, a stone’s throw from The Ritz and just down from Green Park, it would have been ill-mannered to refuse.
Caviar House is an international luxury brand with restaurants, boutiques, sandwich houses and seafood bars the world over. You will probably have noticed their bars in an airport or posh shopping arcades.
They also are a retail destination specialising in fine caviars and smoked Balik salmon, a wide range of vodkas and champagnes as well as all the necessary accessories — yes, including the aforementioned spoons (hint, hint, they’d make a great gift!). After all, who says the spirit of Christmas can’t last all year?
Going back to Caviar House, they also have their very own brand of farmed caviar – Prunier. Founded over 100 years ago, Prunier was the ‘first producer to obtain caviar from farmed sturgeons (in 1994), creating a sustainable and safe alternative for endangered species in the Caspian Sea.’ This seems like a very laudable venture and with seven Prunier caviars available providing a wide spectrum of flavour, including three new Osciètre varieties that are well worth investigating.
The menu at Caviar House is suitably decadent. There are ‘Breakfast-inspired cocktails’ that accompany a brunch menu of staples made chichi with the addition of caviar. Dishes include Eggs Royale and Smashed Avocado on toast. There are soups and salads, a Balik smoked salmon menu, a bespoke caviar menu featuring the finest Almas albino beluga caviar, Oscietra and Kaluga caviars as well as the Prunier farmed brand. There are caviar experiences and seafood bar classics to choose from; however, we will try the classic Prunier caviar with a seafood platter.
The restaurant is light and airy with high ceilings. There’s a bar with high stools and a retail area for those essential take-home caviar purchases. The dining area has art-deco styled lights, marble tables with dining chairs and banquettes in an oat-coloured fabric.
We started with a glass of Caviar House Brut champagne with its light fresh acidity and invigorating mousse.
It was the perfect way to prepare for our classic Prunier Tradition caviar, served with the traditional accompaniments of blinis, slices of multigrain toast, egg white, red onion and creme fraiche. The delicious eggs come from farmed Siberian sturgeon, Acipenser Baerii, which can ‘grow up to three metres long and weigh up to several hundred kilos.’ They have a nutty, buttery note with a gentle mouthfeel.
Our Seafood Platter was a generous portion of Balik smoked salmon and Gravad Lax, Balik salmon tartare, shrimps, king prawns, caviar, oysters, green and potato salads with accompanying breads. For a seafood lover like me, it made for a perfect lunch. The salmon products were excellent and I’m a sucker for a good Marie-Rose sauce.
The citrus blast of a lime sorbet was drenched with a shot of chilled Beluga vodka with, of course, more caviar creating a luxe take on the classic Le Colonel dessert.
Why should you go to the Caviar House? Let’s face it, eating caviar and drinking champagne is fun and we all need some of that these days!
Caviar House & Prunier
Piccadilly,
161 Piccadilly,
St James Street,
London
W1J 9EA
020 8191 2208
We are currently putting together our recommendations for the top fish restaurants in London. Find out more about our most recent visits to Scott’s and Sheekey’s, two fine and historic seafood establishments you need to know about!
