BO Innovation, Hong Kong

Every time I visit Hong Kong, I always look forward to the food. YUM!!!! Most of the places are good; the street stalls, the hole-in-the wall restaurants, and the food courts. I've been here so many times, but I've never gotten a chance to eat in a fine dining restaurant.

The first night, we went to BO Innovation. It's a two Michelin star restaurant opened by Chinese Canadian Alvin Leung. His food is labeled "X-treme Chinese" because he takes Chinese dishes and deconstructs, re-cononstructs, and transforms them into something so creative by using different techniques with new ingredients not found in traditional cooking.

They had a vegeterian menu prepared which was a pleasant surprise. We ordered the Chef's Tasting Menu, which was a 12 course meal.

Amuse Bouche: Pomelo Foam frozen in Nirogen; done table side.

First Course: Tomato Jelly
Second course: Tofu with spring onion and lime sauce.
Third Course: BO's version of Dan Dan Noodles (Sesame and Peanut Sauce)....delicious and not too spicy.
Fourth Course: Spring Roll of Bamboo Shoots.
Fifth Course: Sweet Potato Lettuce Wrap with miso sauce.

Sixth Course: Mushroom Dumpling. (Didn't really enjoy this one)
Seventh Course: Lettuce salad with kumquat sauce. (I'm not a kamquat person, so I didn't care for this dish much.)

One thing that really bothered me was that the menu first presented to me was completely incorrect. While I was eating the dishes, I noticed that it wasn't what I was supposed to get or something that was not on the menu. Finally, at the salad course, I asked where it was on the menu and the server pointed out that it was the lettuce wrap, which I had a couple courses before. It turns out that there was a new vegetarian menu and they presented and gave me the old one! They gave me a copy of the menu during dinner and as they were explaining each dish, they could see that I was looking at the menu as well. It seems that they were trying to pass it and see if I didn't notice or that the servers are just completely clueless with the food. They finally gave me the correct menu which was newly printed. I was so bothered by this incident, considering it's a two Michelin star restaurant.

Eigth Course: Crispy rice with peas and Sichuan SauceNinth: Mushroom with vermicelli noodles.
Tenth: Cauliflower with black truffle

Eleventh: Rice noodles with black truffles. (My favorite of all the dishes.)
Black Sesame Soda
During the dessert course, I liked the dessert wine that went with it and ordered a glass. As compensation for their "stupid mistake," as the server put it, the glass was complementary.

Dessert: Poached banana with fried banana ice cream.

The menu was a little heavy on the starches, but most of the dishes were still quite delightful. There were a couple things that I wasn't too fond of, but with such a risky concept, it's really quite impossible to be completely satisfied.It was a very unique and interesting experience; one that was definitely worth a try.