You may know him from Masterchef Canada or his restaurants in Hong Kong and Toronto. Alvin Leung is the Demon Chef and I’ve wanted to eat at his 3 Michelin Starred Restaurant, Bo Innovation in Hong Kong for a while. Lucky for me, my sis treated me to this X-Treme Chinese cuisine for my birthday!
Food
To start, the amuse bouche was a scallion and lap cheong (Chinese sausage) Hong Kong waffle with hollow centres. This was presented in a cute paper bag that was ripped open in front of us. The little bites of salty lap cheong whet my palette for the rest of the meal. What followed, was molecular gastronomy at its finest!
Scallop | Shanghainese “jolo”, woba, sugar snap peas, avocado, lemon
The Scallop was like a ceviche having been cured in the Shanghainese “jolo” and lemon.
Umami | Kitimat spot prawn, har mi oil, “wok air” powder
The Chinese refer to the essence of stir-frying in a wok as “wok air” and has a hint of charcoal flavour
Molecular | Xiao long bao
The shell of the xiao long bao is made from an algae seaweed jelly. Ordered à la carte, this tiny morsel commands $20 CAD alone!
Foie Gras | “Mui choy” caramel ice-cream, green apple, gingerbread
The flavours of this dish was a party in my mouth! It was salty + sweet + warm + cold + tart + cinnamon-y + soft + crispy. BOOM.
Mao Tai | Hawthorn, lemongrass, passion fruit
Wild Black Cod | Lotus
The Wild Black Cod was on top of a lotus paste in a dry squid lotus root broth.
Langoustine | Black Truffle, cauliflower risotto, salty duck egg sauce, pickled cauliflower, English mustard foam, duck jus
This was my favourite dish of all. I really liked the salty duck egg sauce since it reminded me of eating a mooncake with salty egg. It made me want to scrape the last bits of the sauce.
Caramel | Banana, coffee, chocolate, walnuts
The Other Stuff
Bo Innovation is located on the second floor and is actually a small restaurant with super sleek decor. There was a torrential downpour the day we went and the path from the elevator to the main door was open to the sky; it wasn’t worth us opening an umbrella, so we got drenched.
The restaurant has an open concept kitchen and I really liked our table and seats within the mirrored room. Upon sitting down, we were given purse hooks to use, which was a good thing since I haven’t seen mine in ages.
I think the language barrier at Chinese Michelin-Starred restaurants is the main difference between service in Hong Kong Michelin-starred restaurants I’ve been to and those in the US. The servers at Bo Innovation, though attentive, did not always explain in detail what was served. Our server mostly just stated the name of the dish and for certain dishes showed us the original bottle of the ingredient used (i.e., har mi oil) but anything beyond that, I had to ask.
The restaurant has a sliding door controlled by a button (it really should be on automatic sensors) and if the hostess doesn’t hit the button in time, the door could close on you. Luckily, I prevented that from happening since I pushed the button myself in the nick of time. I thought it was funny when the maitre’d blatantly reminded the hostess to retrieve our umbrellas. Just little details I tend to notice, especially at 3-starred restaurants!
Bo Innovation
Lunch: Chef’s Menu $730 HKD per person + 10% Service Charge
Rating: 3 Michelin Stars
Location: 60 Johnston Rd, 2nd Floor, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
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