Star-powered burgers

Celebrity Chinese chef Kenny Fu opens a eatery in Beijing's Sanlitun area, offering fast food that includes gourmet-style burgers, salads and desserts accompanied by a wide selection of fruit juices.[Photo by Liu Zhihua/China Daily]

A new eatery at Beijing's Nali Patio beefs up the standard for meaty meals, Liu Zhihua finds.

I am generally wary of hamburgers, which I find to be greasy and unhealthy, but a newly opened burger restaurant makes a convincing case that burgers can be tasty and good for you at the same time.

Kenny's Burgers is the brainchild of its eponymous owner, celebrity Chinese chef Kenny Fu, who kicked things off quietly last month with a trial opening in Beijing's chic Sanlitun area. The restaurant, on the first floor of Nali Patio, already stands out in that Mediterranean-eatery hub with its stylish setting and foray into gourmet-style burgers.

"I want to build a kitchen that provides fast food, but where people can eat slowly and enjoy the stay," Fu says, adding that he's confident his offerings measure up to the fare at five-star hotels.

The 36-year-old has a track record as head chef with high-end eateries. He now caters events for luxury brands, such as Louis Vuitton, and also heads a pan-Asian casual fine-dining restaurant in the capital, My Humble House.

Facing the garden courtyard, his bright new eatery has an open kitchen in the rear, studded with high-tech kitchen devices in black, including an expensive Miele oven and refrigerator that together cost more than 100,000 yuan ($16,000).

The counter nearby shows off a compact spread of fruits, beverage, cakes and ornaments, while the dining area of about 100 square meters sports blonde wood walls, white tables and stools, and hemispheric pearly lanterns swinging from the black ceiling to create a casual dining atmosphere, with some seating built into the broad windowsills. The music is rather loud, while beautiful fresh flowers delight the eyes.