Diner’s Diary | From Penthouse to basement: Hong Kong chef Harlan Goldstein opens fast-food kiosk selling US$10 burgers
Hong Kong’s celebrity chef, he liked to call himself. His name was on restaurants selling top-quality food in upscale properties, and a couple had Michelin stars. So what’s the New Yorker doing flipping burgers in Mong Kok?
Harlan Goldstein liked to call himself “Hong Kong’s celebrity chef”, used to serve truffle pappardelle and Hokkaido scallop carpaccio, and boasted of selling a HK$150,000 (US$19,000) bottle of wine.
He had a 30th-floor restaurant in Causeway Bay’s Midtown called Penthouse by Harlan Goldstein. And he had a Michelin star apiece for Gold by Harlan Goldstein, and Strip House, both in Hong Kong’s Lan Kwai Fong entertainment quarter.
Now he’s put his name on a fast-food kiosk in a basement in Mong Kok selling burgers, coffee and soy smoothies.
Iconoclast chef of Hong Kong is back – in Pattaya, with new restaurant in Thai party town
Cornerstone Cafe by Harlan Goldstein is in the new T.O.P mall, converted by operator the Link Reit from an office building into yet another retail destination geared towards millennials, with stores such as Korean fashion retailer Aland and a frozen yogurt shop called Smile.