Bibo - Hong Kong's Newest, Hippest Addition to Hollywood Road

I went to check out Bibo with some girl friends on Friday night.  It is a new restaurant / bar space in Hong Kong on Hollywood Road.  It is a super hip, beautiful space with street art from the likes of Banksy and sculptures from the likes of Jeff Koons scattered all over the place.

The whole time I was there I kept thinking that Bibo would be the perfect place to have a party.  They have a good music selection, perhaps played just a little bit too loudly for my taste, but very upbeat and energetic.

The entry to the restaurant is very narrow and small.  While walking on Hollywood, watch out for a sliding gold door with just a little bit of art over the doorway as a hint of the cavernous subterranean space.  Blink and you will miss it.

Thankfully they have a man (who barely speaks) stationed as a guard/bouncer/signpost.  It was the only indication to me that I had walked past the restaurant entrance.

The little entryway

Once inside, you are greeted by the hostess.  You then immediately head down a steep set of concrete stairs.  The bar is immediately to your right, and then there is a little cocktail/lounge area, and then, down a couple more steps, the dining area.  This is a painting directly across from the bar.  This one was my favorite.


The dining area of the restaurant is encased by glass and confusingly there is an entrance here, but you can't actually enter the restaurant from here.

This provides a good panoramic picture of the dining space of the restaurant.

The menu kept with the street art / graffiti theme.

 I loved the plates.

I spent most of my dinner giggling with my friends and staring at this relief carved into the wall.

We started with an amuse bouche of foie gras topped with some kind of milk foam.  In keeping with the theme of street art, each plate that came out was stamped / tagged.  I thought that was a whimsical, fun touch.

Next up were Japanese eggs (and these eggs were completely legitimate because they had the amazing, deep, dark orange yolks) paired with a mustard mayonnaise and crumbled sourdough.  The eggs were slow cooked at 64 degrees Celsius, which meant that the yolk had a slightly congealed but still oozy and gooey consistency.  Quite delicious.  My only complaint would be that it was a bit rich, especially coming after the foie gras.

This was the pork shoulder pate.  This one did not do anything for me - I thought it lacked sufficient flavor. Or maybe the bread that the restaurant served was too doughy and weighty for the airy pate.  Maybe it would have been a little better with the thin toast that accompanied it.

 This was one of my favorite dishes of the night - a macaroni and cheese with anchovy butter and a rather strong, aged Parmesan.  For someone like me, who loves pungent cheese and adores anchovy, this was perfect.

I did not manage to take a picture of the next dish before we dug in.  This was the wagyu beef paired with mashed potatoes and topped with slices of black truffle.  The black truffle was pretty flavorless, surprisingly - to the point where I had some trouble ascertaining that it was indeed truffle.  It tasted more like a thinly sliced, watery beet.

This is the dover sole paired with a fried potato wedge and anchovy paste, topped with taro chips and micro greens.   It was the largest plate and the most expensive.  While I loved the fried potato wedge (it somehow seems wrong to call it a mere french fry), I was not otherwise impressed with this dish.  Perhaps dover is just not my type of fish - unlike the other dishes, I had one small serving and did not go back for more.

For dessert, we ordered the berry soufflé and raspberry sorbet which turned out to be quite nice.  I am so used to chocolate soufflés that at first I thought there was something wrong with this soufflé - where was the molten chocolate center and the deep chocolate flavor?  Well, duh, it was not a chocolate soufflé!

This was no wimpy soufflé.  It had a lot of rich, deep berry flavor.  The flavors sang through the light, spongy cake without any hesitation.  The depth and intensity of the raspberry sorbet was also delightful - a cold, tart and utter pop of surprise on the tongue.

The food is definitely what I consider "piled up" food - bits and pieces of fancy delicate components all piled up together into a delicate and pretty array.  The ingredients are good, the presentation very nice (if not a little bit too much foam for my taste), but one thing Bibo really, really needs to work on is the service.

I understand it has just recently opened so they are likely still working through the kinks, but man oh man, the timing was awkward.  Dishes started out in good order and then went off a cliff.  They came very quickly, then the fish did not come out for what seemed like hours.  We were asked if we were done with dishes when there was still a lot of food left on the plates, and then we were ignored as dirty, empty plates sat in front of us.  We ordered the soufflé early in the attempt to stave off the twenty minute wait, only to find out that the order had not gone in.

Not justifiable for such a fancy restaurant with food at these prices.

At the end of the meal when we ladies pulled out our wallets, we all turned out to be Kate Spade fans!  Love the colors…