BO Innovation

Address : UG/F, Ice House, 32-38 Ice House Street, Central.
Tel ：2850 8371

Every once in a while, a restaurant comes along that truly lives up to its name. This is the case for BO Innovation, taken from bo, which means treasure in Chinese, and "innovation", which precisely signifies the culinary experience that Demon Chef Alvin Leung Jr. brings to the table.

Two years ago, Leung, who is an engineer by day and tattooed, self-taught extreme chef by night, created BO Innovation out of his former restaurant BO Innosaki. With a new name came a new story. The chefs in the contemporary, open dining space employ old Chinese methods and ingredients with modern cooking techniques.

Each dish, which arrives in a deliberately slow manner, is a discovery that challenges diners' senses of sight, touch and taste. Dishes are deconstructed and re-created, and unexpected textures are mixed with different flavours and seasonal ingredients. For instance, the lap mei fan is a new take on a Chinese sausage, which is normally eaten with sticky rice. At BO, the preserved sausage is turned into ice cream, while crispy rice is sprinkled on top. This surprising appetizer is one of the restaurant's most famous.

Other starters are equally sensational. Based on the Shanghai dumpling, the foie gras potsticker served with Chinese vinegar is a creative twist that is more than merely East-meets-West. There is also the warm hairy crab souffl that mixes crab and souffl in an almost unimaginable, yet delicious, manner. Besides the sausage ice cream, the other stand-out appetizer has to be the trio of salads: Caesar salad foam in a Parmesan cheese cone, nicoise salad in a slice of dehydrated tuna with olive paste and waldorf in a shot glass.

The menu at BO Innovation changes every month. During CityLife's visit, Australian wagyu striploin with black truffle cheung fan was a main dish that pleased. Cheung fan is a common Chinese snack, simply made out of rolled rice noodles, but here the sheet noodles are stir-fried with truffles and soy sauce and then used as a pillow for the juicy, perfectly cooked, bite-size wagyu beef.

For a real treat, reserve a place at the chef's table, and sit back for a cascade of sensations. BO will have you talking about its culinary innovation for days.

Felix Address ：28/F, The Peninsula Hong Kong, Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. Tel ：2315 3188 The Peninsula Hong Kong has always been regarded as a legendary hotel, but up on its 28th floor, the imaginative Felix restaurant is becoming a legend on its own. Designed by the world renowned Philippe Starck, Felix is reached by its two express custom-made elevators. When the doors open, diners are immediately transported from the classic world of the hotel's elegant lobby to the avant-garde ambience that distinguishes both Felix's atmosphere and cuisine. With jaw-dropping views of Victoria Harbour, dining in Felix feels like dining in some ultra-modern spaceship on top of the city. The space is designed down to the last detail - even the cheese graters and corkscrews are by Starck.

OPIA

Address：1/F, JIA Hong Kong,
1-5 Irving Street, Causeway Bay.
Tel ：3196 9100

OPIA means 'vision' in Greek, and the concept is built around just that - a vision of lush colour palettes and intriguing combinations of ingredients that make the cuisine edgy and the atmosphere provocative.
At its simplest, the cuisine at OPIA is a play on textures and tastes. Japanese inspired oyster shooters combine Tasmanian Pacific oysters with mirin tamari, a form of soy sauce that is boiled, mixed with wasabi and frozen. Each shooter is topped with pickled ginger and accompanied by a seaweed green tea soba roll. Then there is the kingfish tataki, served with ginger, black bean, crispy shiso leaf and Asian cress salad. In one bite, you taste the soft, fresh fish, the crispy leaf and the jelly sauce.

Another innovative dish is the not-so-ordinary cauliflower soup, served with walnut oil, gorgonzola tortellini and a poached egg on top. All the ingredients run together, forming a thick, creamy soup. In addition, the seared foie gras, caviar and milk chocolate mousse actually melt in your mouth as you taste the salty caviar, sweet chocolate and distinctive foie gras.
At OPIA, each dish has a story. The wild honey that makes all the difference in the crispy skin sea perch dish is imported from Bhutan; the twice cooked red braised pork hock is unexpectedly sweet and reminiscent of Chinese cooking; the pavlova is modified and crowned with dark sour cherry sorbet; the Sichuan pepper and the sweet soy sauce transform the tempura fried quail. The list of shockers goes on and on.
All in all, everything from the cuisine to the drinks comes as a surprise. Be sure to ask for wine suggestions, point to something on the menu you haven't tried before, and eat away.