Who says there ain’t no free lunch? For reasons that I won’t go into, I had an offer for a free lunch at Dakota Prime. And today I took them up on it. So, since I was getting comped, up to you if you want to factor that in to the rest of what I’ve got to say.

Their basic 3 course set lunch menu is $198 and, for what you get, appears to be quite reasonable. My friend started with black pepper prawns with sundried pineapple jicama salad and followed that with the grilled USDA prime 8 ounce flat iron steak, served with mash and veggies.

I decided I didn’t want to eat 3 courses so looked at the bottom of the menu, where the sandwiches are, and thought I’d try the reuben, as I’d read about it elsewhere. But then the hostess also insisted that I should try their lobster bisque and I can see why they’re proud of it, it was quite nice. Although the reuben wasn’t piled as high as you’d get in a New York deli and I think the corned beef might have been a little more tender, otherwise all the tastes were there and it was probably the most authentic reuben I’ve had in Hong Kong. Served with fat cut chips that were proper ones – seriously crispy on the outside, all potato-y inside. After the soup, I couldn’t finish more than half the sandwich and got the other half (and the rest of the chips) wrapped to take home. If I didn’t like it, I would not have asked to take the leftovers with me.

The dessert was mango cheesecake – a light, fluffy sort of cheesecake, not the New York variety. My friend, who is not from New York, was wishing it was New York style. Me, from New York? I practically inhaled it, it was quite nice.

I came away thinking that the lunch menu (heavier on non-beef choices) is a pretty good value for HK considering what you get. And I wanna go back and try the Kobe beef burger with cheddar cheese and applewood smoked bacon which looked pretty nice and seemed reasonable at $148.

Dinner’s probably a whole different story. At the budget end of the scale is USDA Prime grain fed beef, with a 14 ounce ribeye going for $495. There’s a 35 ounce bone-in Porterhouse Rangers Valley for $980. And at the top end of the scale, how do you feel about Japanese 100% Full Blood Wagyu Beef A-5 Kagoshima Prefecture Bms 9-12 12 ounce ribeye for $1,600?

Now, I won’t say that my palate is the best in the world. I am pretty darned sure I could tell the difference blindfolded between a $150 steak from Outback, a $300 steak from Wooloomooloo and one of the high end steaks here. Could I tell the difference between a $925 American kobe beef ribeye and the $1,600 Japanese one? I don’t know.

There’s also an oyster bar, a good selection of fish and shellfish including live Boston lobster at $85 per 100 grams (so $1,700 for a roughly 2 pounder), and the top item on the menu is Russian Caspian Golden Oscietre (wild) caviar at $2,455 for 30 grams.

But the small “chilled seafood mountain” for two, with oysters, clams, crayfish, prawn cocktail and crab & shrimp ceviche is a reasonable $288 – plus $375 if you want to add on a chilled Boston lobster or Alaskan king crab legs.

So, overall? I think if I worked in the area this could be a regular lunch spot for me (regular meaning once a week or so). Emphasis on the word “work” because I won’t be having dinner there until my employment future is more certain. But I did enjoy it and will happily return.