Bo Innovation tries to play around with traditional Cantonese cooking and mix in some modern European influences. Finding it is tricky. Our taxi driver got completely lost finding the small side-street in Wan Chai where it is located, and even finding the street was only part of the battle. An eccentric numbering system meant that having the correct street number was merely mildly amusing to the locals, but eventually we located a silver sign at street level which leads up some steps to an entirely different restaurant and from there a lift to Bo Innovation itself.
There is an open-air sun deck on which we dined, as well as a modern dining room under cover. Waiters wear smart black uniforms, and the menu ranges from a tasting menu at HK$ 680 to very fair lunch menu at HK$ 178, which is the way we went. The eight page wine list has some superb growers. Examples are Verget Chassagne Montrachet 2004 at HK$ 1180 for a wine that will set you back about HK$ 390 in the shops, Antinori Tignanello 1998 at a costly HK$ 2,380 for a wine that only costs about $700 retail, while Zind Humbrecht Grand Cru Riesling 2002 is HK$ 1000 for a wine you can buy on the shops for around HK$ 300 or so.
Har gau prawn dumpling was enlivened with a little black truffle, and was light and with good prawn taste, the little truffle a nice touch (14/20). Deep fried scallops balls were tasty, served with a kaffir lime sauce whose flavour came through well and whose acidity was a nice balance to the inherent sweetness of the scallops (15/20). Porcini fun gor was another steamed dumpling, again well made, the porcini not the very best but a novel idea (13/20). Chicken, pesto and bamboo shoot spring rolls were crispy, though were in themselves a little dry and for me needed a dip or sauce (14/20).
The one off note was monkfish with crispy toffee and caramelised salsify in a “yun nam” ham sauce. Unfortunately the monkfish was seriously overcooked, while the ham sauce was oddly restrained; this was a basic cooking error that should not have left the kitchen (8/20). Roasted scallop was cooked carefully and served with woba (rice ball) and tasty baby peas (14/20). Rice with fried fish roe was fine in itself but had been allowed to get tepid before serving (11/20). A dessert of raspberry sherbet was refreshing (14/20) and a sensible contrast to the ultra-sweet sweets usually found in Cantonese cuisine.
The bill was just HK$ 303 per person with good jasmine tea rather than alcohol. It was a pity that the kitchen let out the poor monkfish and the lukewarm rice (which pulls down the overall score), as I otherwise found the cooking here very good, and certainly a change from the norm here. Service was friendly and fairly efficient, though no one seemed to care that we barely touched the monkfish.
The chef was not around today; ironically he was in London, where he was apparently looking into opening a restaurant (editor's note; this came to pass in December 2012).
Further reviews: 14th Jul 2016
Edinburgh
Interesting to read your review - I had a very different experience. Sure, the chef loves himself a bit too much, but who doesn't? Dishes were very well cooked and in some cases exceptional. Service was discrete, relaxed, and kept to good time. There is good mix of Chinese and French approaches, ingredients and textures. The "baby food" dish - a mix of foams and mouses in a jar, with a milk top-type foil lid, was carried off excellently, with form following function: the presentation added to the dish and wasn't corralled into it. It's a restaurant that is doing something a bit different, but in my estimation it works. Overall, I'd give it 16/20 - maybe an inch more.
David W
Had a surprisingly good lunch here. Was it 3* level? No way. But I have had many worse 1* meals in my time.
No Name
Mixed emotions on my meal tonight: -Some highlights where Alvin managed to fuse subtle flavors and traditional combinations of Chiense flavors into molecular gastronomy -- I have lived in SH now for 15+ years, and I think he actually did a neat job with SOME of the dishes (lobster with huajiao hollondaise; Chinese 'chicken and dumplings'; the desserts and pettit fours were an equally wonderful riff on the component flavors of babao tea -Other lowlights where Bo totally missed the mark: a play on korean sushi with miso -- the flavors where completely off, the fish improperly cut = the dish was basically flawed; a few others in the same vein -Alvin compared himself to 'Beethoven', as his taste memory allows him to compose dishes in his mind without tasting/experimentation -- this seems like a stretch, but perhaps explains some of the flops -Have dinned at 5 3-star establishments in the last 2 weeks: including Crissier, Pic and Flocon del Sel...and I sort of have trouble understanding how Michelin saw fit to accord Bo the same 3 stars
Name unavailable
Here's my ''Asian'' comment. Visited on December 2009, it was surely hard to observe Johnston road at Wan Chai and moreover BO Innovation which is hidden. A pretty simplistic dining room with a chef's table desk in which you see the chefs preparing their creations and in which i sat. I kept chatting with the head chef, Mr Alvin Leung who has adopted ideas from the previous restaurant in which he worked, The Fat Duck UK. So innovative, Alvin Leung is the stylish ''demon chef'' who has created ''Xtreme Chinese cuisine'' as he calls it, which is well translated as chinese molecular cuisine that combines traditional chinese recipes with European ingredients all of which is prepared with unusual technique. I tried the chefs lunch menu e.g. Molecular Sushi. Interesting for food innovation seekers!
Vasin
I did a review of Bo Innovation a while back. Had totally different experience. It was very positive. Here is the review http://www.at-bangkok.com/detail_page.php?sub_id=612
Lukas
Andy, It seems that either you got lucky during your visit, or you are being generous to a fault. My dinner at Bo Innovation was without a doubt the worst Michelin starred meal I have ever had in my life, with the possible exception of Hamadaya in Tokyo (irrespective of number of stars - any one star place was better). The dinner consisted of something like 11 courses, and they ranged from reasonably original and edible to simply bad. Since my dinner companion (an old friend I was visiting who lives in Hong Kong and had been looking forward to try the restaurant for ages) and I have done our best to forget about the experience, I can no longer remember many of the individual dishes. I do remember though that they tried to be original for the sake of being original, and got quite a few of the flavour combinations wrong. More criminal was the fact that the ingredients were just not that great. One fish dish involving tuna sashimi was simply not fresh; the fish smelled, well, fishy and tasted metallic and off. Surely the one thing you should be able to rely on in a 2** restaurant is the freshness of all ingredients. They also used gimmicks they did not quite pull off. For example, the first "course" was a blob of flavoured liquid nitrogen (too forgettable to remember what the actual ingredient was). Not a terrible idea in principle, though hardly original. But the blob was about three times the size it should have been, and you had to put it all into your mouth at the same time. I think I may have lost half the enamel that used to protect my teeth. The wine pairings they came up with were largely uninspired, with one or two serious howlers. I enjoyed the boisterous, but friendly atmosphere of the place. I really wanted to like it. But sadly, the food (and the bill) did not allow that to happen. It would have been an interesting hit-and-miss meal if it had cost half the price. But at nearly GBP500 for two (including rather mediocre wine), I think we were entitled to expect something better. Afterwards, my mate and I discussed the dinner and tried to come up with reasons for Bo Innovation's 2 star status. We could only think of two reasons - 1. Michelin wants to make it big on the HK market, and for that reason needs to be awarding more stars than it should, and/or 2. It awarded the stars purely for originality in the sense that unlike in many other countries, that sort of modern/innovative/experimental take on local cuisine is virtually unheard of in HK. Whatever the reasons, Michelin got it wrong if my dinner was indeed representative of the usual level of Bo Innovation. Lukas
Mike
I agree with you Andy, I had more or less same items as you did, and believe me, as an Asian, I felt even worse than you! I really disappointed with the food and 2 star that Michelin gave...
Beatrice Huang
I had even worse experience than Andy. I had to wait for the main dishes for more than 1hour after the starters.... and they were cold, old(over cooked), and tasteless. Being a Chinese/learning Chef in French Cuisine, I couldn't think of worse fusion than this.
Steve Norledge
Andy, your experience certainly sounds disappointing compared with my visit last summer. We had booked the "Chef's Table": two seats at the kitchen pass. Alvin Leung then proceeded to personally present to us his tasting menu, taking a lot of time to convey his intentions with each dish. I have to say that the cooking accuracy for each dish was spot on; its sad to hear that this precision is not maintained in Alvin's absence. Alvin proved to be a hugely entertaining and generous host; I would certainly welcome him opening up in London.
Food Snob
I am disappointed after reading your review. I had seen this place reviewed elsewhere recently and was impressed by the presentation and thought the combinations would be interesting...I was even happy to hear he would be coming to London! Oh well.