Bo Innovation

Bo Innovation was the 65th best restaurant in the world, voted by World's Best 50 Restaurants by Restaurant magazine, in 2010. It holds one Michelin star in 2011.

Chef Alvin Leung looks like a Chinese rock singer. He wears a black t-shirt that says "The Maverick Chef" under his highlighted blue hair. He spends most of the time in the open kitchen, overlooking line cooks and the service in the dining room, as well as explains the dishes proudly to the customers who choose to sit at the bar in front of the kitchen.

The restaurant has a Chinese name, 厨魔, which literally means kitchen demon. It serves Chinese cuisine in molecular gastronomy. It sits in a semi-residential building, on the second floor. The dining room isn't big, there is patio seating.

I had the 13 course Chef's dinner menu. Food was more interesting than tasty. It was definitely more of a playful experience, by learning how Chef Leung reconstructed the traditional Chinese ingredients into the creative dishes.

For example, instead of bread, they serve egglets (the egg-shaped pancake) with a blend of Iberico ham.

Tomato cooked in the traditional soy vinager.

"Xiao Long Bao", the famous Chinese steamed dumpling with meat inside, has turned into this warm gello in Leung's hand. Same ingredients are used: flour, meat, vinager, ginger, but totally in different form. Funnily, after I put it in my mouth and crush the thin skin, the thick sauce inside is indeed the same taste of Xiao Long Bao.

Century Egg is the traditional Chinese pickled egg with pickled ginger. The presentation is the ginger liquid with dry ice, that generates the bubbles and foam.

Chef Leung must be the pioneer of molecular gastronomy in the Chinese world. I admire his creativity. Some of the dishes are nicely crafted and are very fun to eat, others need some polishing. Dessert (Chinese petit four) needs more thinking - what is served is the chinese candies bought from supermarket.

I had chosen the wrong season to be there, a night of temperature of 95 degree. The dining room itself isn't the most comfortable one, especially under the extreme weather, it has negatively impacted my appetite.

However, it's a fun and eye-opening restaurant. If you travel to Hong Kong, be sure to try it.

Here are some other pictures: