This is going to be a posthumous review of the now closed Bo Shanghai at Five on the Bund (an announcement suggests that the restaurant may be relocating). The restaurant is part of my Shanghai Michelin Scramble as it got a star in the 2018 and 2019 editions. I dined at Bo Shanghai with two friends in May 2017, before starting this blog and before the restaurant got its Michelin star. The photos have been made available to me by one of the friends at the dinner.
The restaurant was run by two close collaborators of Alvin Leung, the chef at the helm of the original Bo Innovation in Hong Kong: Simon Wong and Tam DeAille, both of whom were born in Hong Kong but raised in Canada where they met Alvin.
The visit
I met my two friends on the sixth floor of Bund 5. Bo Shanghai was concealed behind a hidden door accessible through Daimon Bistro, a eatery also set up by Alvin that was also closed.
The menu was not a replica of the Hong Kong’s menu. The chef had their freedom to create an original menu whose main idea was a culinary journey across China, but, of course, with a twist. Chinese traditional dishes were re-created using Western cooking techniques and ingredients. From what I can see online, the chefs would change the menu quite often.
Since it was a long time ago, I am not going to pretend to remember how the dishes tasted. They were all explained by the waitress. It was fun, there was a lot of creativity. My favorite was probably the “stinky tofu” that was not real stinky tofu, but blue cheese wrapped in fried tofu. You got the idea. Below the pics from the evening, I left the caption blank for some dishes that I was not sure how to cross-reference with the menu.
Hunan: panna cotta with orange blossom, blood orange, and almonds
The check
The cost per person was 1848 RMB after service charge (around 275 USD). Wine pairings were available at a steep price (825 RMB for three glasses and 1045 RMB for five glasses). Wow, that was a handsome amount of cash. Once was enough, while I might consider visiting the original Bo Innovation in Hong Kong.