Lunch at Bo Innovation

A good friend from out of town was here and because she had heard sooo much about 2-Michelin star restaurant Bo Innovation, we went there for lunch earlier this week.

My last trip to Bo Innovation was some years back, when the whole Michelin star business hadn't yet happened. Back then, it already had a robust reputation for being, well...innovative in its cuisine, thanks to its infamous Demon Chef.

We had the 8-course degustation menu, and every dish was accompanied by the waiter giving operating instructions on how to eat the dish. Ahhh molecular food - when did eating become so complicated?

We started off with Dead Garden, which was really good and by far my favorite dish. It resembled a little garden, with the 'dirt' made up of air-dried morel mushrooms, and a mixture of green onions and lime making up the rest of the dish. 

The molecular Xiao Long Bao followed, which was a different take on the usual xiao long bao. It took me by surprise because I hadn't expected so much liquid inside - the skin is kind of gelatinous and when I bit into it, the broth inside did a mighty explosion and because I kind of had my mouth slightly agape, it was uh...kind of messy. The overall taste was more strange than awesome.

Then it was the Har Meen (prawn noodles), which was served with a raw prawn on the side. Finding raw prawn gross, we (being suitably contrite at the power of the Michelin stars) very apologetically sent the prawns back to the kitchen and asked for them to be cooked. I liked the cooked prawn that came back, it actually tasted lightly seasoned and succulent. Apart from that though, the dish was just average.

Next came the cod, which was made with saffron miso. It looked so pretty, like a delicate Japanese dessert, and it kind of tasted like that - distinctively Japanese but sweet. In fact, too sweet. It felt like eating a dessert but with a fish texture. Eeeew.

Then it was the Iberico, wrapped with vermicelli, with a cucumber gazpacho on the side. Strange bed-fellows, and it didn't taste particularly great. It wasn't at all bad, but it's a dish that I'll just shrug my shoulders at.

Next up was the beef with black truffle, soy and cheong fun. Having not learnt our lesson, we once again sent the beef back to the kitchen because it looked so rare. This time, we got some withering looks. The cheong fun accompaniment was an interesting touch but the cheong fun itself didn't taste like anything special. The beef was pretty good though. In the excitement of sending our dish back to the kitchen, I forgot to take photos so we shall remain photo-less here.

Then it was dessert, which had two parts - the first being the more 'traditional' dish - crispy pastry drizzled with honey (much like those served at Chinese restaurants, but of course more refined). I'm not sure what they did with those gingko nuts but it was something that after biting into it, we had to take a moment to try and recall what this familiar taste was before we went 'oh, gingko nuts!'

The second dessert was what we kept seeing the other tables get served, and our interest was definitely piqued. It's brought out to your table and then the waiter fans it to life - you'll see white smoke emanating, with the scent of incense. Which sounds magical but actually the scent was like joss sticks in a temple, so it was kind of heavy and smothering. These were chocolates which had a joss-stick aftertaste - not great.

Our conclusion was that the fusion cuisine here is fused, but not quite fine enough. It didn't quite feel like really really fine dining, but it certainly felt fusion.