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2009-03-10
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I have to say my Lunch experience at Dakota Prime HK wasn't very impressive at all.. even disappointing. The VOSS water for $80 was very expensive too, a bit of a rip off although I really liked this water.First of all, there had been some changes with the $198 Lunch Menu. Unlike most visitors who posted on here - the UPGRADE options to higher grade meat are now starting from +$150 for the 7Oz Filet/Fillet Mignon (no longer $100), +$200 for 7Oz Meyer's Dry Aged New York Strip (no longer $150),
First of all, there had been some changes with the $198 Lunch Menu. Unlike most visitors who posted on here - the UPGRADE options to higher grade meat are now starting from +$150 for the 7Oz Filet/Fillet Mignon (no longer $100), +$200 for 7Oz Meyer's Dry Aged New York Strip (no longer $150), and $250 for a Snake River American Kobe Ribeye.
Obviously due to recommendations here, one of us ordered the 8Oz USDA Prime Flat Iron steak. Even though everyone says 10Oz, and their internet menu says 10Oz (its not accurate with other items too), the latest lunch menu inside the restaurant writes 8Oz. Fair enough, 8Oz is plenty for lunch. But that's not where the problem lies... read below.
LUNCH ITEMS:
Bread:
Poppy Seeded Rolls with Butter - served warm, with yellow butter on the side which had a not bad lingering aftertaste, barely salted. Slightly 'cowy' in taste.
Entree:
1) Crab Cake with Crayfish Remoulade. A miniature version of the dinner crab cake without the piece of crayfish claw. Yes this was quite nice indeed and full of crab meat despite the small size. It was slightly undercooked however, the centre was a bit cold and surface not crusted. The spicy and cour sauce it came with was light yet refreshing, complimented the dish well. Where's the 'remoulade' hiding I found myself asking? Upon research after the meal, I finally understand that the US definition of remoulade is completely unrelated to its original French meaning..?
2) Beef Tartare with caramelised onions and horseradish - Very unpleasant looking and different to what another person below has posted. If 1 looks closely enough in mine, pieces of the hand chopped beef were of different colours. Half of it looked redder and fresher, other pieces look oxidised and dull red. I initially suspected that perhaps they had seasoned 1/2 of the batch with worchester sauce first and then mixed it with the rest of the un-seasoned beef, but the dull non-transparent colour tone does not correlate to that theory. Served with a piece of Crostini (?), the beef itself had little taste to be honest, perhaps a slight hint of anchovy and aforementioned sauce, no taste and signs of chopped herbs or micro-herbs whatsoever. The beef quality itself was questionable although it did have a beef taste. The horseradish also had little horseradish taste, more like a toned down horseradish cream. Halved fully cooked quail eggs did not add anything unfortunately, they're better off served raw.
MAINS:
1) 'so called' USDA PRIME Flat Iron Steak - 1stly, unlike most photos here, we did not get a separate pot of Sauce to go with the now smaller steak. (woops, my photo of it disappeared, sorry) The meat was slightly tough for a Flat Iron and had little marbling or fat taste, unlike most of the descriptions here, even though it did look pink and juicy inside. One funny thing we noticed is how HOT the inside of the steak was despite the pink interior, it was literally steaming. Cooked at only 650 Degrees here, the internal was hotter than other steaks we've had that were cooked on grills at over 1000-1600C.
A Flat Iron steak has only received more popularity globally from the 2000's onwards, finally put on the world stage when it was discovered to be the 2nd most tender piece of muscle behind the tenderloin, hiding amongst gristles and sinews, etc, and discovered by scientists at universities looking for alternative muscles for cooking and serving to customers, making the cow's 'death' more worthy because we too often only concentrate on the prime cuts of Rib eyes, Tenderloins, Sirloins, Rump, etc. Other parts are often wasted unless slow cooked.
In reality, a Flat Iron steak is exactly the same piece of muscle as that of a Top Blade steak or an Oyster Blade. As anyone who has cooked and eaten Oyster Blades know, this muscle part from the shoulder/chuck of a cow is always well marbled and tender. The Japanese have been using it for long time for Yakiniku without naming it (disguised as top quality Karubi, where other Karubis are from between ribs or from the brisket, which are also well marbled but tougher). Even in Australia the Oyster blade has been a popular cheap cut for as many years as I can remember it, the only problem with it is the middle sinew that runs in the middle. Even in HK, its now being used for hotpots.
Although the muscle is the same, the muscle cutting is vasly different in a Flat Iron Steak. Oyster blades are cut across the grain. Butchers actually cut out the Flat Iron steak along the grain to rid it of its adjoining tissues, tendons, gristles and alike. Its completely opposite to meats which are butchered across the grain, such as Ribeyes, Tenderloins, Sirloins and practically any other pieces of meat (except for Hanger, Flanks, Skirts). If one thinks about how a Rib eye muscle is 1stly cut across the grain to give u a piece of rib eye steak, and then this steak with perpendicularly run muscle/grains is cooked on the grill, when you eat the rib eye you're actually cutting along but perpendicular to the grain, and when you eat the steak, it falls apart in your mouth in the right direction.
The Flat Iron steak meanwhile, when served to the customer, must be cut by us across the grain first, opposite to other prime cuts, which makes knife work a little harder. In the mouth of course, as long as you eat it horizontally it'll still be ok tender. Which is why I'm perplexed by the usage of Laguiole style knives when eating a Flat Iron steak, to be honest, as these rather expensive and exclusive knives are sharpened manually and have no teeth to cut through the grain, unlike most other more appropriate steak knives. If I was having the New York strip, then Laguiole's will suit it perfectly.
The piece of Flat Iron I had here was tough to be honest, definitely worst than my prior experience with Flat Iron or Oyster Blade steaks. Not only that, but it wasn't well marbled/fatty in this case. Was I getting ripped off? Why is my experience different? See below.
2. Boston Lobster/Crayfish Risotto - This had a creamy buttery texture, risotto was slightly over-cooked beyond al-dente but still slightly chewy. Not the best risotto grain I've had but about average in size and textue. This was done nicely with a good taste of lobster in the stock, also presence of some kind of alcohol barely burnt off. Came with more lobster meat than I would imagine for this price, although there wasn't a lot of risotto rice. Good stuff!
DESSERT:
1. Some type of Passionfruit and cream slice with biscuit base. Not well presented but actually tasted quite good, even if a little sweet.
2. Coffee. Italian based coffee with a strong robusta kick, the cappucino was laughable to be honest as the Meringue on top might as well have been another dessert. Great coffee base but not made too well.
Due to the disappointment in many aspects, from the price upgrade changes, lack of sauce to go with steak, lack of quality of the steak and slight problems with its cooking (we actually returned it once), too much concentration on making profits but not enough attention on quality, I was curious of why my experience was so different to everyone here. In hindsight and upon further research, perhaps I headed there at the wrong time and too late, as latest but unconfirmed rumours has it that Dakota HK has piled on substantial debts and star chef Adam Levin no longer heads the kitchen, despite having barely opened for a few months. There has also been talks of the restaurant using dubious quality meat lately - which my latest experience with it certainly only substantiates this claim.
As it is now, I won't even give it another chance. The steak really wasn't very good at all and the beef tartare was a disaster. The lobster risotto was good though to be fair, so was the crab cake.
張貼
