Bo Innovation

With menu items ‘steamed foie gras siu mai’ and ‘crispy garlic wonton, salty duck egg curry foam, escargot ragout’ reflect all the signs a modern fusion Chinese restaurant. Its name, Bo innovation, has some history. The original restaurant that Chef Alvin Leung aka the Demon Chef took over was called Bo and having enjoyed positive publicity over the years, it was hard to shake off the name Bo that had been associated with him, eventually adopted it as it to mean BO-ld innovation. Alvin Leung’s BO is his interpretation of innovative modern Chinese cooking has been wowing international and local audiences with his ‘extreme Chinese cuisine’ and has even been hailed as Hong Kong’s most innovative chef.

All these promised an out of this world experience, one that will shock and awe and induce inspiration and will be something that I remember and talk about for a long time. Did it? No. Was it terrible? No. Most of the dishes were ok-good but there was nothing that moved to the next level and met my expectations of this talked about restaurant.



Duet of french chicken - slow cooked in lotus leaf & served with ponzu sauce; smoked quail egg, taro crust, caviar; steamed foie gras "siu mai"; Macau crab souffle

The cooking is tasty but lacks a certain level of elegance. My biggest let down was the smoked suckling pig, slow cooked 20 hours with Sichuan apple chutney because I’m in Hong Kong, the land of glorious roasted goose and pork, and the pork that I was served had a tough and chewy skin and it had too much fat that I could hardly eat it.

There are some good showings. The Macau crab soufflé was wonderful served with the homemade vinegar and so was the slow cooked French chicken in lotus leaf that was tender and fragrantly perfumed. The highlight for me ironically was an item that was not on the present menu, the Caesar in a cone - a parmesan cone filled with an espuma of romaine lettuce, onion and other common Caesar ingredients.

At Bo Innovation, experiencing the food is only one half. If you can, sit at the chef’s table and experience Chef Alvin. He cooked for Anthony Bourdain with a cigar in mouth and has told a friend of mine “I’m going to cook for you and you are going to like it!” You’ll either like him or hate him.

Bo Innovation can be fun on occasion. Maybe I’ll go back to see what the Demon Chef has been experimenting with but with managed expectations.


Caesar in a cone

* view the meal in photos here .

Bo Innovation
Upper Ground Floor
32-38 Ice House Street
Central, HK
Tel: 852-2850-8373
http://www.boinnovation.com/
* They are moving in the next few months, check the website for their new address