Did you know? At Sortir à Paris, professionals and creators never pay to meet our journalists. Our mission is to help our readers build lasting memories with their loved ones: this week, discover Edouard's story, with Hong-Kongese restaurant Bolo Bolo, in the 2nd arrondissement, to celebrate and preserve Hong-Kongese gastronomy in all its originality.
"At first, it was journalists from Sortir à Paris who organically discovered us (editor's note: two months after opening). Then, thanks to the article, we got offers from other media who wanted to work with us."
Bolo-Bolo is a restaurant serving Hong Kong cuisine, located in the heart of Paris's 2nd arrondissement. Edouard has been the restaurant's founder and manager for over a year, and describes the success of this style of cuisine, with its very precise products and recipes, which is not commonly found in other restaurants of its kind, notably due to the lack of transmission of know-how in the kitchen.
"The Hong Kong chef (whom they recruited at the opening) explained to me that the first chefs to arrive in France were currently in their 60s and 70s and were retiring. That's one of the reasons why restaurants that try to do this style of cooking lose their clientele, because the chefs have left and haven't had the time, or the people, to take over and pass on the baton."
A mission to pass on the baton and ensure that the taste for Hong Kong cuisine, both universal and so specific to this region whose history is reflected in the dishes, lives on.
Edouard is the Founder-Manager of Bolo Bolo: this is the first venture into the restaurant business for this son of Chinese immigrants from the WenZhou region.
A generational connection to the entrepreneurial adventure
"I loved cooking and gastronomy. I decided to become an entrepreneur because I didn't like the jobs I'd done before . Thanks to my parents, I had the means, so I thought why not open a restaurant, and start an entrepreneurial adventure. At first, it wasn't easy to convince them. I had to explain to them, convince them that the concept was going to be different, not like the classic Asian caterers they knew."
"I was lucky because a lot of young restaurateurs, with their innovative concepts, were launching at the same time. I managed to show them that I could do the same, that I was capable of it, and that they could trust me."
This adventure is also the story of our family.
The concept: celebrating Hong Kong in Paris
After 5 years living in mainland China and elsewhere, experimenting with all types of Asian cuisine, but particularly that of Hong Kong, Edouard noticed that Hong Kong gastronomy in the purest tradition (from the choice of produce to the recipes...) was not authentically enough represented in Paris.
"I'm not Hong-Kongese, but I've lived and studied there. I have relatives who married Hong Kongers, who live there and are restaurateurs. In China, there are a lot of different cooking and gastronomy and catering families... Personally, I prefer Hong Kong cuisine."
"With my schooling, I spent 5 years in China and the region, and when I came back to Paris I didn't find the same cuisine at all. So I called my aunt, She was a restaurateur in Hong Kong and in mainland China in Wen Zhu, where she offers very good, worked, authentic dishes." I simply asked her "could you help me make something?" and she agreed to share a few recipes.
What really surprised me was when I'd go to the 13th arrondissement and restaurants were serving Cantonese Chinese cuisine, close to Hong Kong: I'd go there once and find it good, then go back and the taste was different . I don't know what was going on in the kitchen or with the chefs , but it wasn't consistent in terms of quality."
Flagship dishes, representative of Hong Kong culinary culture: Milk Tea, Bolo Bao, Beef Chowfun
"It all started with the fact that I'd never found Hong Kong Milk Tea in Paris, as I knew it there, which is part of the country's cultural heritage. Those served in Cantonese restaurants, in Paris for example, are more in the Taiwanese soft family, lighter, with more sugar, in fruity or brown sugar flavors."
"At Bolo Bolo, Hong Kong Tea is very simple: very strong black tea, each restaurant has its own very precise mix blend of black tea, at our place it's a blend of 3 black teas."
"These teas are stronger in taste, stronger in scent, and it's the mix of everything that makes the quality of the final tea: here we use a recipe from my aunt: it's the most classic blend, and our tea is delivered directly from China. For the milk, we found a substitute supplier who is 90% the same as the original: the milk used in HK is very specific, produced in the Netherlands, and not available in Paris. We brew the tea in a teapot ten times and filter it, every day, then put the mixture in small bottles with labels designed by us."
"It's this authenticity, this attention to detail, that gives Hong Kong cuisine, this tea, that special taste that you can't always find elsewhere."
Adherence to the recipe has proved a real hit with connoisseurs of local cuisine: "When we opened, we had a host of customers from the Chinese community or local Hong Kongers, because they couldn't find any restaurant that made this kind of tea."
The restaurant's name, Bolo Bolo, as a standard of Hong Kong culinary differentiation
"The restaurant is called Bolo Bolo because we sell Bolo Bao - that's what comes out phonetically when you switch from Chinese to French: it means pineapple brioche. It's a pineapple-shaped bun, lightly brioche-baked with a sweet cracker on top. Hong Kongers eat it all day long: with butter, sweet-salty and hot-cold at the same time.
"Here we've derived it as a burger, with Peking pork, Peking duck, fried chicken. Even if over there it's made with breaded pork, we've adapted it a little."
"We also feature wok dishes, thanks to our very good Hong Kong chef who does the work. Our best-seller is the Beef Chowfun, which accounts for 50 of the 100 dishes we sell.
The same goes for product quality: we have our rice paste delivered every morning, and we work with a very special production plant in Paris. They've been working for top restaurants for 40 years, in the 13th arrondissement. They make very good rice paste from glutinous rice, which is different from the rice paste you find in supermarkets: it comes in sheets, folded and laid one on top of the other, and you have to cut them, spread them...
All this takes time and a very good mastery of the wok by our Chef and our entire kitchen team. "
The good fortune of having a Hong Kong chef: a culinary know-how lacking transmission in France
"We had two chefs in total: the first a real Hong Kong chef, he was elderly: he explained to me that the first chefs to arrive in France were 60, 70 years old and were retiring. This is one of the reasons why restaurants in the 13th arrondissement are losing their clientele, because the chefs have left and haven't had the time, or the people, to take over and pass on the baton.
So the first one was 56 years old, he said he was the youngest of his generation, but was really tired: he introduced me to a very well-trained young man, who had learned a lot alongside chefs, and given his youth, we changed some very classic recipes, because there are things to adapt for local customers, so we were lucky to find him, which made the kitchen a success too."
"It's also been noticed by customers in terms of quality, when a hometown corner restaurant comes, Hong Kongers who are in France, we get positive feedback which gives us the strength to keep going."
Le Quartier: A few steps from the Opéra, renewing the representation of Asian cuisine, to diversify it
"I spent a long time looking for premises: I didn't want to move to the 13th arrondissement, because I'd have drowned in the mass. So I looked elsewhere, in the 11th and 5th arrondissements, where there's a younger clientele, and then I thought about this neighborhood with this space: a neighborhood where there were a lot of Japanese and Korean restaurants, and I thought why not Hong Kongese, because it's still Asian while diversifying. We have more and more neighbors and fellow restaurateurs who offer Asian cuisine in all its diversity."
"I knew this district (the 2nd arrondissement ed.) well from eating in the restaurants next door. There was potential and, above all, a mixed clientele: lots of offices so that at lunchtime we could fill to capacity over 100 covers."
"Tourists too, for the Opera side, so we're going to work these two clientele there, which works well: in the evenings with our communication on the Karaoke room in the basement, and at weekends local residents, families. We're closed on Mondays because a lot of people were asking us why we were closed on Sundays, so we open on Sundays!"
Communication and the media: when and how to talk about it, how to talk to them?
"In the beginning, I didn't want to do too much communication, I knew there were points to improve. The first month we worked on the menu, we imagined that certain dishes would please but in fact were too traditional: chicken feet for example were removed: we were less traditional but we kept the basics, the fundamentals . The current menu is our 4th or 5th version. We adapted as we went along, and in the beginning we made all the changes we could."
"When we felt ready, it was Sortir à Paris who came to us, 2 months after opening, we had the new chef and the final menu. The journalists from Sortir à Paris came, it went very well, the team liked it, they sent the article and people who weren't from the area started coming!
For the Chinese and Hong Kong clientele, it took off on its own, by sharing in their network. Going out in Paris gave us a wider clientele who came from further afield."
"In the beginning, journalists from Sortir à Paris discovered us organically ( editor's note: without advertising) two months after we opened.Thanks to the article, we got offers from other media who wanted to work with us."
In a way, different local or culinary guides asked us to pay to be referenced, unlike Sortir à Paris. It was very superficial, and Asian restaurants aren't usually highlighted on these other sites.
We tried at first with an influencer agency too, but the content delivered didn't change too much from customers who came and posted themselves. We realized that this wasn't what we wanted and cut out 3/4 months later. In the end, thanks to Sortir à Paris and word-of-mouth, we were well on our way!
And now... Establishing the "Bolo" brand to represent the full range of Hong Kong tastes
"I managed to prove to my parents that it worked, because the first month of opening without communication worried them... But from August onwards, it worked with the Chinese clientele. I'm delighted with the restaurant's mixed clientele, both regulars and newcomers, thanks to you".
"I've got another business in the pipeline, a second location still in the neighborhood I like, and I see the restaurant as a destination for people who come from further afield. I'm not going to make the concept always around Hong Kong cuisine, but there are many things (wok, rotisserie) in this cuisine.
"Our second restaurant is under construction, to open at the end of the 1st quarter of 2024, still specializing in the traditions of Hong Kong cuisine, which offers many options!"
Any final message for Parisians?
"If you want to eat authentic Hong-Kongese cuisine, with fast, friendly service and above all homemade, made-to-order dishes, come and feast at Bolo Bolo!"
Discover the original Sortir à Paris article
Bolo Bolo Paris, the Chinese restaurant that takes you to Hong Kong
Bolo Bolo Paris, the Chinese restaurant that takes you to Hong Kong
