We don't normally write individually about restaurants we visit, but we thought it was worth highlighting our recent experience at Bo Innovation in Hong Kong - a very much talked about molecular gastronomy restaurant. We already have quite a fair amount of general Hong Kong photos on this blog to cover the rest of our trip and secondly, our experiences here gave us something to write about - especially as our criticisms of non-European Michelin guides has been made clear a few times in the past..
Without wanting to make this post a rant about the inconsistency in the Michelin guides lately, you know something is wrong when you see restaurants like Yung Kee getting a Michelin star. Let us assume for a moment that there is some validity to the London or Paris guides (something which is more often agreed than not it seems), and noting that two Michelin stars signifies that a restaurant has "Excellent cooking" and is "Worth a Detour". Having two stars also suggests that a restaurant is at the same calibre as that of Le Gavroche in London or Michel Rostang in Paris - two establishments which are legendary in their own right and have had consistently good reviews.
Now, take Bo Innovation, a restaurant which is sometimes to be the El Bulli of Asia by bringing molecular gastronomy to Hong Kong and made even more interesting a tattoo sporting, sunglass wielding engineer turned chef Alvin Leung. The restaurant unfortunately falls flat for us; and to compare it to the aforementioned restaurants from the perspective of food, service, value or experience would be quite ridiculous. One could also argue that it is impossible to compare guides across different countries, but since Michelin uses the same definitions to rate their restaurants, I do not see why it would be wrong to make such a comparison.
We opted for the chef's table, and was presented with a 10+ course tasting menu at a little over US200 per person. The 1st appetiser was a dollop of liquid nitrogen frozen cotton candy puff which was a little different and a little unexpected...
The 2nd appetiser, was some kind of combination of oyster, caviar and some duck (??) chip which was supposed to be shared amongst the three of us - all on 1 plate mind.... didn't taste too bad, but it seemed a little strange that the 3 of us were eating from 1 plate at this point. Anyway, since we weren't entirely sure of what the idea was, we played along...
Next up, a duo of duck. A duck tartare and what I remember to be duck breast and foie gras. The foie gras was done pretty good, but the tartare was quite plain and uninteresting. We don't remember what the jelly was..
Probably the best dish of all the courses, was the deconstructed Xiao Long Bao. The egg yolk surrounded by thin membrane (a technique which all molecular gastronomists have been incorporating) and a black vinegar chip which was simple yet innovative. This was also served alongside the in house specialty "Lap Mei Fan", a deconstructed version of the Chinese dish, which while admitedly different, was uninteresting as a dish and made us wonder why people have been so excited about this dish.
Some dumplings/dim sum followed next:
A quick seared Wagyu beef:
Both of the above were as uninspiring as the Lap Mei Fan, but things got a little better with the mushroom truffle soup and then the truffle cheung fun, both of which seemed to have more thought put in the most of the previous dishes.
The 1st dessert chocolate cake was so-so, but the sampler pastry plate which came after was a bit of a shambles to be honest. Themeless, odd-tasting, uninspiring and plain - it seemed like it was a last minute plug to our course.
The ladies got a hot cinnamon tea and Kevin got a single malt whisky and a cigar to end our thoroughly boring meal.
By the end of it, the table next to us was also frustrated at the small 'sharing' size plates and even though the restaurant was indeed fully booked for the evening, I couldn't help but to share the frustration and disappointment.Obviously no guide is perfect nor complete and perhaps the large crowds for Valentine's day meant that things were just not optimal, but one would have expected a restaurant with 2 Michelin stars to pull through regardless of the circumstances. To complete this rant, while there are substantially more restaurants in Tokyo than Hong Kong to consider, the world of molecular gastronomy in Asia is distinct - with very few restaurants in this realm. If Michelin chose Bo Innovation because of its innovative style, then I can't help to ask why there is no sign of Tapas Molecular Bar (Tokyo) - a restaurant which in our opinion is light years ahead in terms of food, location, experience, all at an exceptional value.
After voicing our discontent with the meal to the restaurant, the communications manager of Bo Innovation did offer to compensate us for part of the meal and she was very nice about it - but unfortunately that was the positive note about our meal here.This blog post may strike as being a little harsh and is actually intended to be more of a challenge to the folks at the Michelin guide. Naturally, our disclaimer is that we merely write about our own experiences at this restaurant (and others) - I am sure that many hundred or thousands of other patrons have enjoyed their food at Bo. Furthermore, the remaining 364 days of the year may be at a far higher standard than the one day that we were there, so do take the review with a pinch of salt.
Meal for 3 with 2 glasses of wine at US$700.
http://www.boinnovation.com
