Gaia, London: ‘Nosebleedingly expensive’ – restaurant review

Greek odyssey: Gaia’s dining room, with its warm clusters of globe lights and tasteful objets d’art. Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer

Gaia, 50 Dover Street, London W1S 4NY (gaia-restaurants.com). Starters £10-£55; mains £32-£230; desserts £14-£36; wines from £45

Oliver Putnam, the washed-up Broadway director played by Martin Short in Only Murders in the Building, would adore Gaia, named after the goddess earth mother. Famously, Putnam lives on dips and Gaia is a veritable dip heaven. It starts with a dollop of soft, whipped, herb-flecked feta. That is followed by an indecently luscious taramasalata, like a savoury Chantilly, just begging to be scooped away with the accompanying hoop of still-warm sesame-crusted koulouri bread. There’s a fava bean dip, and a smoked aubergine dip and a tzatziki. Dip, my darlings. Dip like the wind. Mind you, the notoriously skint Putnam wouldn’t be able to access that which he so desires. For this is also dip heaven in that it can only be afforded by the gods; by those who can carelessly spend £12 on a thumb-high whorl of whipped cod’s roe.