CaliBurger makes waves even before opening — Fish Leong’s husband, Winston Yeh, is one of the owners

▲Double Cheese Beef Burger.

Reported and photographed by Huang Shiyuan / Taipei

The California-style American burger joint CaliBurger has set its opening date for April 20, and one of its co-owners is Winston Yeh, husband of singer Fish Leong, generating major buzz before the launch. Yeh revealed that there was indeed a previous brand dispute between CaliBurger’s parent company and another burger chain, In-N-Out, in China, but it has now been resolved. As a big fan of American burgers himself, he wanted to bring them to Taiwan and pledged to run the business well while offering top-quality products and service to Taiwanese consumers.

Yeh explained that although the parent company’s products take inspiration from In-N-Out and the lawsuit in China remains an unchangeable fact, once the decision was made to bring the brand to Taiwan, they were committed to operating it properly and providing the best service to customers. He said that in Taiwan, aside from fast food chains, the only other option for burgers is American-style restaurants — where individual burgers often cost NT$200–300 and are getting larger, making them feel more like steak than burgers. On the other hand, fast-food burgers don’t satisfy his cravings. That’s when he thought: could there be a burger of decent quality within this price range? And CaliBurger, he felt, was the perfect fit.

▲CaliBurger fries are made from whole potatoes cut into strips. They’re topped with a special homemade mayonnaise sauce.

To deliver the best taste, they put a lot of effort into sourcing ingredients — for the beef, they tested products from all importers before finally choosing beef from New Zealand and Australia. For vegetables, they use locally sourced Taiwanese produce, which Yeh says are of very high quality. As for the fries, Yeh disclosed that frozen potatoes imported from the U.S. didn’t yield good results, but after consulting experts, they started using native Taiwanese potatoes — and were pleasantly surprised to find their taste and texture rival those from the U.S.

Yeh emphasized that CaliBurger uses only the freshest ingredients, with potatoes being cut and fried on the spot. To ensure the highest quality, the team has been taste-testing extensively these past few days, and the American head chef has been fine-tuning the recipes continuously. He explained that at CaliBurger, cheese is placed on the burger patties while they’re being cooked, so the beef and cheese meld together perfectly. Additionally, the patties aren’t overly compressed, resulting in a juicy, tender bite.

The menu at CaliBurger features just four types of burgers: two beef options (the Double Cheese Beef Burger and the regular Cheese Beef Burger), and two chicken options (the Avocado Chicken Burger and the Spicy Mexican Chicken Burger). Yeh said he aimed to keep operations simple so the team can focus more on quality and delivering the best service possible.


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