Bo Innovation is the award winning restaurant of Alvin Leung in Hong Kong (three Michelin stars). I had already tried Bo Innovation in Shanghai and found it impressive. But I was not ready for a twenty-something tasting menu that characterize the dinner experience. Luckily the restaurant offered an abridged tasting menu for lunch that looked ideal. So by email I made a reservation for my June 2019 trip to Hong Kong.
The visit
The restaurant is located in Wan Chai (incidentally, above Five Guys) and the dining room was spacious with a modern touch.
The professional waiter pointed out that the dishes were antiques collected by the chef.
There was a spectacular welcome dish: an egglet pancake filled with spring onions and other herbs. As you may know, egglet pancakes are a fixture in Hong Kong street food. This was the right start.
The first dish featured a corn mousse and crackers, Japanese cauliflower, pinenut, and Pat Chun sweetened vinegar. Pat Chun was founded in 1932 by Mr Ng Wai Sum. The words Pat Chun「八珍」refers to a phrase in the ancient Chinese Book of Rites that described precious ingredients used in concocting hundreds of sauces with different flavors. The sweetened vinegar is their flagship product and a quintessential Hong Kong ingredient. The waiter proudly showed me the bottle of the vinegar that helped to fuse the dish elements together. Most of the dishes to come would feature such ingredients linked to the history of Hong Kong.
The second dish featured a lobster tartare, black truffle, and the signature ingredient, an oil called har mi (dried baby shrimps). It is obtained infusing the dried baby shrimps in the oil for 3 days before distilling it. It is Alvin’s invention once again using a popular Hong Kong ingredient. I was even offered a couple of jars of the juice to add to the dish at my discretion.
The third dish consisted of a meaty Hokkaido scallop, Shanghainese jolo sauce (a type of red rice fermented vinegar), sugar snap peas, and some “woba” (the name the crispy burnt rice that was the leftover in rice pots in olden days before the invention of rice-cooker). Bonus: here you can find the recipe. This was one of my favorite dishes.
The next dish was the celebrated molecular xiao long bao (soup dumpling). To be eaten all at once, it did recreate the flavor of a soup dumpling on the palate.
It was now time for the foie gras that came with bamboo shoots.
The foie gras was sprayed (literally, using a perfume dispenser) with Chu Yen Ching liquor. I do not like liquor and this was not a great add on form me.
The foie gras was accompanied by a charcoal mantou.
The palate cleanser was a green concoction with the prized Chinese wine Moutai (its bottle looks like a detergent, doesn’t it?), calamansi, and butterfly pea flower. It was offered on an imperial Chinese implement. Sorry, maybe it is me that does not like alcohol, but it tasted like a detergent. I just had a sip.
For main I could choose among suckling pig leg, cod, or beef. I went for the suckling leg with crispy skin and it was great. The plate was sprinkled with Pat Chun vinaigrette, some Sichuan peppercorns and a piece of pineapple. There were also some baby greens on the side.
To finish up, I was offered a bowl of Bo’s signature fried rice.
What made it special, was that the waiter shaved on it sun-dried abalone (very Hong Kong) and dried foie gras (made by Alvin). Delicious.
The final dish was Alvin’s “no shark fin”. Alvin is opposed to the use of shark fin in Chinese cuisine (it is still commonplace I can tell you) given the detrimental effects on the shark population. The dish is meant to resemble a shark fin bowl and is presented in a traditional implement specifically used for shark fin dishes in wedding and ceremonies. I once had a shark fin soup and it is just another of those Chinese delicacies like bird’s nest and sea cucumbers that my palate cannot understand: it is mostly tasteless. This dish was not tasteless at all. It was a refreshing dessert made with yuzu, osmanthus, peach resin, and dried persimmon.
The check
After adding a bottle of water, the check was 1,078 HKD (or 137 USD). The full degustation menu served for dinner was around twice as much. There were also some lighter lunch options. Overall, I found this ten course menu the perfect size and very satisfying. There was a little bit too much alcohol for my taste, but I enjoyed all the references to traditional Hong Kong dishes throughout the meal. I could really see that the chef loves his city and has used his creativity to celebrate it.
Where in Hong Kong:
60 Johnston Rd, 60, Shop 8, J Senses. Entrance on Ship Street J Residence.
Website: http://www.boinnovation.com.