The best dining experience in Hong Kong I've had so far!

Caution: Foodies will love this, others may get bored.

I am going to be extremely detailed about my meal because it was so delicious and complex and I don't want to forget the awesomeness of it! Plus, I know several readers that will appreciate it :) You know who you are...

Someone had told Elaine that the meal at Bo Innovation was the best he had ever had. We were sold. Apparently, the restaurant has been awarded two Michelin stars, but really, who cares? We decided to let the food speak for itself, and believe me it did!

Bo Innovation is in Wan Chai and although the address is 60 Johnston Street, the restaurant there didn't look like Bo Innovation. Funny side story - so we walk into this restaurant and give them our names (we had a reservation). They seated us, gave us these starter drinks and some type of seafood chips along with our menus. We realized quickly that we were in the wrong restaurant! We were in OVO Logue. Not sure how that happened, but even though the restaurant looked really nice, we did not give up on Bo Innovation. We finally found a sign on a side street that indicated it was upstairs. We made our way up and again gave our name to a host at a different restaurant, finally on the third floor we made it! We must have looked so dumb!

Even though it was a chilly night by Hong Kong standards, there were heaters outside and we decided to enjoy an al fresco dinner. The picture you see on the side of the building is the Chef and Owner, Alvin. You can read all about him online http://www.boinnovation.com/. Unlike restaurants that I usually go to in Boston, the chef was there in the kitchen that night (as I suspect he is every night) and later enjoyed himself near us with some wine and friends. Side note - he's pretty badass looking.

At Bo Innovation you choose from either the Tasting Menu or the Chef's Menu and since the Chef's Menu was over our work per diem we opted for the Tasting Menu. The decor, like the food, is very modern and unique, but clean and simple. The staff were extremely nice and hospitable and we knew right away we were going to love this dining experience.

Our first course on the tasting menu was an oyster with spring onion, lime and ginger snow. What's ginger snow? It was literally just that - ginger shaved ice. It was really incredible. It added such a dimension to the sweet oyster and acid and smoothness of the lime sauce. A really great start to our meal!

Next, Elaine and I had two different second courses because of my shrimp allergy :( Elaine enjoyed the sea urchin with ink noodles, "har mi" chili oil, and I believe there was some dried shrimp crumbles on there or in the oil which is why they brought me something else. It looked amazing and I was jealous!

I was given something else from the Chef's Menu - Iberico with morel, vermicelli and onion foam. Iberico is a type of Spanish ham, inside there was the noodles and morel and you can see the onion foam on top. It was also recommended I eat it in one bite, which I did with no trouble! The prominent flavor was the saltiness of the ham and a hint of the mushroom. The texture was the most interesting because the ham and outside were soft while their were noodles inside and foam on the outside. I know it probably doesn't look colorful and appealing, but it was a real treat.

Our next course was one of our favorites - a scallop carpaccio, mandarin, "yu lo", crispy woba and peas. The scallops were so fresh and I have no idea what yu lo is, but it was awesome. The crispy noodles contrasted with the soft scallop and the peas were so sweet and perfectly cooked, but still fresh. I must admit that after eating one pea at a time with my chopsticks I finally just picked up my fork!

So, the chef is an engineer and so I think he's really into molecular gastronomy. Our third course was called Molecular "xiao long bao." It was interesting. Not amazing or bad, just interesting. It reminded me of how in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Violet eats the gum with the full course meal in it. As you can see it's a litte bite size piece of broth. It's soft skin is held together ont he outside and inside is the beef broth. The red is fleck is ginger. It was like eating a whole meal in one bite. The only thing that made it weird for me was that it was lukewarm.

 Our last of the 5 course starter was this ocean trout fermented in black bean and honey miso with pickled bok choy and ginger pellets. OMG, so delicious! The fish was amazing, it was cooked on a very low heat (40 degrees maybe) for only a few minutes. The flavor combinations were sweet, sour, spicy from the ginger, just a great last course before our main entree.

For our main course we both chose the Wagyu M9+ steak with black truffle soy cheung fun. Wagyu beef is from a certain breed of cattle that have great marbeling and naturally have higher percentages of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids (think Kobe beef). The steak was truly phenomenal. I'm a sucker for a good piece of meat cooked medium rare with a lot of flavor and no sauces. I love the natural flavor of beef and this was a good cut! The line on the plate is the truffle and the noodles under the meat are the cheung fun, which were awesome! These are thick rice noodles rolled up and covered in the truffle soy. The dish was amazing; I finished every bite.

After our steak we enjoyed some signature Bo fried rice. It was simple and clean with some type of roe in it that gave it a nice texture and crunch.

It's hard to believe, but we were ready for dessert. We were given a shui jing fang poached carmelized banana with dark chocolate ganache. I'm not usually a big dessert person, but this was incredible. The ganache by itself is extremely rich, dark, and just melts in your mouth. I could never eat the entire thing alone, however the banana really helped balance the intensity of the chocolate.

I don't know if we were supposed to get this or not, but we were also brought some assorted petit fours. On the left you can see sesame balls and inside there was gooey dark chocolate. Amazing! The other three all have the flavor of a certain berry and for the life of me I can't remember what it is. It's not something common that we use in the US, but on the left that's a macaroon. It wasn't flaky and crunchy like a traditional one, but the filling was almost like a cheesecake. On the right the white blocks are homemade marshmallows. If you've never had a real marshmallow you need to try one. Nothing like the puffs you buy in the store! The last petit four is like a jelly candy. Very yummy!

Just when you think we've come to the end there is a special treat. We saw this happening at another table and asked about it so they came and did it for us too. This is generally done to cleanse the palate, but I think more importantly it balances the temperature of your palate as you move between hot and cold courses. The taste, texture, and temperature of the 'meringue' (that's what I'm going to call it) was exciting! It was freezing cold, shattered in your mouth and the ginger taste was so intense but refreshing. Plus, it was just awesome to watch and smoke came out of our mouth. What's more fun than that?





Overall, our meal at Bo Innovation was a treat I will never forget. The service, ambience, cuisine, and the pure excitement and curiosity of our meal was fabulous! We would recommend this adventure to everyone!