A touch of gold flake and a drizzling of truffle oil is all it seems to take for a restaurant to advertise a new luxury dish, but these seven sumptuous foods found around the world are over the over-the-top both in creativity and price.
The £1,500 pizza: Industry Kitchen, New York
Assuming it takes you 40 bites to consume the entire, $2,000 (£1,540) pizza at Industry Kitchen in Manhattan’s South Street Seaport neighbourhood, you’ll be paying $50 per bite. Chew through a wood-fired, thin-crust pizza topped with white Stilton, foie gras, French truffles, Osetra caviar, and sheets of gold flake garnished with edible flower petals. Introduced at the end of last year, the pizza requires a two-day advance reservation and, to help you cut your losses, we recommend a posse of four more friends to split the price among the $400 slices.
The £600 burger: Burger Brasserie, Las Vegas
Although the Guinness World Record for most expensive burger goes to a £3,800 meat monster created by Juicy’s Outlaw Grill in Corvallis, Oregon, its 350-kilo weight makes it suitable only for the likes of Godzilla. So to enjoy the priciest burger that can comfortably be consumed by one person, head to Las Vegas’ Le Burger Brasserie for the $777 (£600) burger (triple seven is the luckiest number combination in Sin City). Wannabe high rollers are in for a burger of Kobe beef and Maine lobster topped with prosciutto, caramelised sweet onion, triple-cream brie straight from France, and a drizzle of 100-year balsamic vinegar between fresh-baked buns crusted with aged parmesan cheese. A bottle of Dom Perignon Rosé (included) helps to wash down such a big burger (and the big bill).
The £130 hot dog: Tokyo Dog, Seattle
Available by pre-ordering a minimum of two weeks in advance, Tokyo Dog’s $169 (£130) Juuni Ban dog furthers the restaurant’s focus on Japanese flavours by topping a foot-long smoked cheese bratwurst on a brioche bun with slices of wagyu beef, teriyaki-grilled onions, maitake mushrooms, foie gras, shaved black truffles, caviar, and Japanese mayonnaise. After two weeks of waiting, diners shouldn’t feel too bad for not being able to finish it during the five-minute meal; all proceeds from the sale of the Juuni Ban go to the American Red Cross.
The £775 ice cream: Serendipity 3, New York
It’s a dessert so infamous that it gets its own Wikipedia entry. You’ll need to pre-order at least 48 hours in advance for the Golden Opulence Sundae: a $1,000 treat of Tahitian vanilla ice cream infused with Madagascar vanilla, blanketed in 24-karat (edible) gold leaf, and topped by Amedei Porcelana chocolate syrup and chunks of Chuao chocolate from Venezuela. Parisian candied fruits, gilded almonds, truffles, and marzipan cherries decorate the sundae, and it all sits in a Baccarat crystal bowl goblet that you can take home after. Oh, and don’t forget the caviar! A dainty glass bowl of American Golden caviar is topped with yet more gold leaf and added to the ensemble.
The £19,000 taco: Grand Velas Los Cabos Resort, Mexico
It’s not a headline-making dish unless gold flakes and caviar are involved, and the world’s most expensive taco doesn’t disappoint. Available from the Frida restaurant at this five-star resort on Mexico’s Pacific coast, the $25,000 (£19,300) taco features Kobe beef, langoustine, Almas beluga caviar (the most expensive in the world), black truffle brie cheese, and a salsa of dried Morita chile peppers, civet coffee, and Ley .925 añejo tequila. Gold flakes infuse both the corn tortilla and garnish the finished taco and yes, that five-figure price tag is for a single taco. Not even a night in a room at the resort is included.
source: independent.co.uk
