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2020-06-24
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I am not a daily visitor to all these expensive and renowned restaurants. However, I have been to bunch of pricy restaurants in HK, including all three stars and two stars Michelin restaurants. So I do think I have a fair benchmark for my judgement. The service is not up to my standard at all. You won't feel like you are spending HKD1500+(equiv. ~USD200) for the food. (BO has promotion season in June 2020, and you will have a discounted menu for only HKD1500 per person, which usually cost HKD 2
The service is not up to my standard at all. You won't feel like you are spending HKD1500+(equiv. ~USD200) for the food. (BO has promotion season in June 2020, and you will have a discounted menu for only HKD1500 per person, which usually cost HKD 2300 (equiv. ~USD300).
The food itself is just ok, as the chief doesn't really change its menu. It is an one time visit, and you won't want to go back again.
To begin with, the booking process was ridiculous. As I mentioned, the restaurant was having a promotion in June 2020, and I booked the promotion for 4 people to enjoy an additional 20% off. However, when I tried to increase the party size to 5 people, the fifth people can't enjoy the 20% off. You might think we are already paying a discounted price and the restaurant has ultimate explanation right for its terms and conditions. While, in my mind, the restaurant seems very stingy. It only seems fair if the restaurant has one price for all, but for one table paying different per head, I feel the restaurant is not ready to cut the price. If so, just don't provide the 20% off. As the prepaid deposit wasn't refundable, I didn’t have much choice.
(This following is a direct copy from their website
Enjoy the unbeatable price HKD 1,500 for our Remembering HK Menu (original price is HKD 2,380). Group of 4 persons can be entitled to gain extra 20% off. The promotional rate is available for prepaid booking. Teams and conditions apply.)
Going with the food, I just want to rated ordinary, although there were some extraordinary ones, like Aberdeen Flooaters, Bamboo Matrix, and Chicken Bowl. Dessert was just ok, and our whole table disliked No Shark Fin, which taste like rubber and artificial sweeteners. (60000 A Year is a two-part dish, so I eventually got 4 desserts.) However, the biggest problem for the food was that they served the food way too slow and the menu contains too little meat/carbs. The restaurant wasn’t full on that night, but the interval between dishes was long. I even told the waiter to speed up the process, but we still spent over 4 hours for this dinner. Also, there was only one dish contains carbs (not counting desserts). The portion is extremely small, so I ended up going to McD afterwards, as I was still starving.
One more thing I want mention is that I didn’t get the freshen up drink made with Maotai! Maybe because of the price, they substitute the Maotai with a locally designed GIN!!!!!! Huge disappointment for me.
Last but not least, the menu doesn’t change. For me, I like to revisit some of restaurants because of new dished created by the chief. BO almost maintained the same menu for the past 3 years. I won’t bother to visit the restaurant anymore, if there is no new dishes.
All in all, the whole experience is not good. The booking process made me mad. The whole dinning process was long and dreadful. I understand that this is a special promotion for the restaurant. However, the restaurant is still beating two Michelin stars, no matter what price point you have to pay, especially you still need to pay for more than HKD1500 for a meal.
From a customer perspective, I will still go to restaurants with similar price point with non-discounted menu. (As a matter of fact, I am going to Ta Vie tonight.) The price of the meal is not the biggest concerns for people who dine at those restaurants. The service, the uncommonly and freshness of the food, and the creativity from the chief are all important factors. In my opinion, Bo Innovation doesn’t hold up its standards, and going forward I don’t think there is a prominent future for the restaurant.
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