It was my beautiful friend Abigail’s birthday (whom you might recognise from my recent Spanish adventures) not long ago, so I decided to treat her to a lavish birthday dinner to celebrate at none other than Kaspar’s Seafood Bar & Grill at the regal Savoy hotel.

Bookatable seems to have a continuous stream of amazing value offers going of late, enabling us ordinary folk to dine at plush & expensive restaurants for a fraction of the usual cost.

So it was without hesitation that I nabbed the Bookatable London Restaurant Festival (LRF) deal to enjoy a 3-course meal and a glass of champagne at the famed Savoy, at just £49.50pp. Although LRF is now over, Bookatable are still offering their equally awesome star deals, which I test-drove at M Raw in September.

Thankfully I arrived a little early (total shocker!), so took myself on a tour of the stunning hotel lobby, complete with oversized chandeliers, beautiful flower arrangements and checkerboard flooring.

The history & luxury of this grand establishment is hard to miss, with a well-dressed man on hand to serve the ladies returning from a hard day’s labour of visiting Chanel, Prada and Gucci with an aperitif, should they wish to click their fingers.

To reach Kaspar’s one must pass through the beautiful Thames Foyer, where families dressed in their Sunday best sit & enjoy delicious afternoon teas, all lovingly hand-crafted in the Savoy’s on-site patisserie.

The room centres around what I can only describe as an ornate and eye-catching bird cage feature, topped with a gorgeous glittering stained glass dome.

With such an unavoidable route to the restaurant itself, it would be easy for the décor of Kaspar’s to disappoint, but that it most certainly does not.

The dining room is the epitome of extravagant, with a stunning white-marble centre-piece crustacean bar, with a jagged glass structure suspended above it that is reminiscent of falling shards of ice.

Expensive bubbly sits poised to pop.

Whilst teal leather banquettes & stools, and dark, solid woods, dominate the rest of the room.

The room was totally abuzz with well-dressed diners enjoying their evening meal.

And it didn’t take us long to join in on the fun.

A generous basket of French baguette hot straight outta the oven (observed with my own two eyes) was served with a real, rich butter.

We took our time perusing the menu, mostly due to the overwhelming number of excellent options to choose from.

Seriously, there were FOUR starters that I wanted. I can assure you that that does not happen often.

All that thinking resulted in empty glasses, and so without further ado, a bottle of Portenova dry & crisp white wine (£36.00) was ordered to accompany our impending fish extravaganza, which we gleefully guzzled with our delightful dishes.

In the end, Abi opted for the snails (1 of my 4), which arrived as six large, shell-less beauties, swimming in a dangerously moreish herb garlic butter, which I gladly helped mop up the remnants of with some French stick.

After MUCH deliberation, I chose the crab cake with watercress salad and sweet mustard dressing. Generous in size, packed full of supremely fresh crab and with a terrific fried crust, I was in absolute heaven. The dressing was the perfect tangy accompaniment.

For mains, Abi had the seafood laksa served with rice noodles, pak choi and crispy tofu. The seafood consisted of salmon fillet, a white fish, prawns and small scallops, all cooked to perfection and waiting to be unconventionally but tastefully bathed in the laksa sauce.

It would be fair to say that this was not your usual laksa, with the half-Malaysian beauty sitting across from me bewildered albeit unmoved by the complete lack of spice, and intriguing presentation style.

In short, it was a very tasty seafood noodle dish, but a laksa it probably was not.

I opted for Kaspar’s catch of the day, which happened to be monkfish served with a fine squash courgetti and sprinkling of pumpkin seeds.

The fish was well-cooked, but was unfortunately a little bland for my taste, with the “delicate flavours of the fish” left to be the star of the show. No one’s fault, but I personally prefer bold flavours in my food, so politely asked our ever-attentive waiter if he would mind switching it for the laksa, which was no problem at all.

We decided to go off LRF menu with a side order of sweet potato fries (£5.00), which were FAB.

The perfect ratio of crisp to fluff, and served with a delicious homemade chili mayo to dunk in to my heart’s content, I was in heaven.

They were on par with those at Hotbox and Mildred’s, and even my own, which is high praise indeed!

Totally & utterly satisfied, but with our second sweet stomachs revving up ready, we let our hungry eyes roam the dessert menu.

Once more, we were spoilt for choice, with no less than 8 equally mouth-watering options to choose from.

Since Abi was the birthday girl I let her have first dibs on pud (instant regret), with her settling on the dark chocolate fondant with vanilla ice-cream and crunchy chocolate soil. Coz that’s what friends are for………. right?

At the first incision a rich chocolate sauce began to spill, although the separation of butter was a slight mistake, but thankfully a tasty one nonetheless.

FOR THE BLOG (I love you blog, but I’m not doing that again), I chose a different dessert, in the form of the caramel crémeux with milk chocolate mousse and caramelised pecans.

It was a perfectly adequate dessert, but a little light for my taste (the heavier, the better, in my book) with the airy chocolate demolished in seconds, although the crunchy sweet pecans were a treat to be savoured.

Plates polished, we were each given a passionfruit marshmallow to end our meal on a crystallised sugary high.

We had an absolutely excellent evening from start to finish, with the food almost flawless, the selection overwhelmingly attractive, the staff & surroundings a resounding 10/10, and the LRF deal providing excellent value.

With happy stomachs plastering big smiles on our faces, we strolled back through the hotel, making a little pit-stop to peek into the patisserie.

I’ll have you know that there are some very accommodating dapper Gentlemen waiting outside the main doors to assist you into your carriage home.

But, unfortunately, I am not quite a Princess yet, and so it was off to the corner for an Uber for me.

8/10

I dined as a guest of Bookatable, but all opinions are my own.