To me, dining at Bo Innovation was one of the best attractions in Hong Kong. I would skip Victoria Peak or Avenue of Stars for this if I had to because I am always fascinated by molecular gastronomy and I’ve never tried a Chinese cuisine influenced version before. (Honestly, I don’t think many Chinese fusion cuisines actually could taste better than traditional cooking, but I have confidence in Alvin Leung.)

I made a lunch reservation via email a few weeks in advanced but I suppose for weekday lunches they aren’t always full so it isn’t hard to secure a seat, despite being recently upgraded to 3 stars on the Michelin red guide.

For lunch they offered a set lunch menu where you get to choose 2 dim sum items from the list, 1 main course and the dessert of the day starting from $288+ with supplements for certain options, as well as a chef menu. I went for the chef menu which cost HK$780+ because I wanted to try a little of everything.

DEAD GARDEN

morel, green onion and avocado, ginger, caterpillar fungus, enoki

The soil is made from dried morel mushrooms. Usually stuff like this only excels in the presentation but this tasted good especially when everything is being mixed up and you’ll have various textures in each bite.

SCALLOP

shanghainese “jolo” sauce, crispy woba, sugar snap peas

Among all courses I think this was the most forgettable one. It wasn’t bad but just wasn’t anything really special. I do like the varying textures though.

FOIE GRAS

“mui choy”

The foie gras is just a typical pan seared foie gras (done correct), but what’s interesting is the side of crispy mui choy and savoury ice cream.

HAR MI

“lo mein”, chili, kaniko

This looks just like ordinary noodles but I think it’s going to be unforgettable for some time. Noodles like this may look simple but to make it distinctly different from the rest is not easy. Somehow extraordinary noodles always leave a lasting impression. This tasted even better when some shrimp infused chilli oil was added to it. The feeling I get from eating this noodles was somewhat like how I felt when I had noodles at Fujiya1935 in Osaka, another 3 star restaurant.

MOLECULAR

“xiao long bao”

This is one of the signature creations from Bo Innovation. It looks like an egg yolk but it tastes like xiao long bao, complete with ginger and bursting soup. In fact, the skin of this molecular version is stronger than the traditional kind which are way too delicate tends to break easily.

LANGOUSTINE

English mustard, salty egg, cauliflower, black truffle

This should be my other favourite dish of the meal. Even though the main item here should be the langoustine and it was really good, I was more interested in the cauliflower “risotto” below. Instead of rice, chopped cauliflower is used instead to create the grain like feeling. It was the best cauliflower in my life.

SAGA-GYU BEEF

black truffle, soy, “cheung fun”

Saga beef is known to be a really good type of wagyu but what blew me away here was the cheung fun. Cheung fun is a commonly used everywhere in Hong Kong in dim sum or street food but I think this is the best cheung fun I ever had in my life. Sorry to those who believes street and cheap food is always better but I really think this was the best. Not only was the texture of the rice rolls made to the right kind of chewiness, but the sauce with truffle was just made to a perfect balance too. As for the beef, yes it was good but the cheung fun got all my attention in this case.

DESSERT

Today’s dessert consisted of matcha ice cream, fig sponge, roselle mousse with strawberry centre and meringue.

Overall I think this place deserves 3 stars and is on par with my experience at Fujiya1935 in Osaka, the only other Asian 3 star restaurant I’ve tried. It didn’t disappoint and was one of the best meals I’ve had on this trip.