An Eleven Madison Park Chef Just Opened a Hong Kong BBQ Joint in Paramus

There is a moment in every great Hong Kong barbecue shop when the cleaver comes down. One clean chop through lacquered roast duck, the skin shattering, the meat still juicy underneath, and the whole counter goes quiet for half a second. That is the sound Canton Rodeo is chasing. And they just brought it to a mall in Paramus.

Canton Rodeo just opened its flagship location at Bergen Town Center, at 605 Bergen Town Center in Paramus, and it is the kind of opening that makes you do a double take. Hong Kong style barbecue, slow roasted and hand carved, inside a Route 4 shopping center. Honey roast duck with that glassy, mahogany skin. Char siu pork with caramelized edges and that sweet, smoky char you can only get from a real roaster. This is not mall food as you know it.

Here is the part that should make every food person in Bergen County pay attention. Canton Rodeo was founded by Chef Connie Chung, who cooked at Eleven Madison Park, Fung Lam from the Hillstone Restaurant Group, and Matthew Kann, an investor with Banza, Cocojune, and Playa Bowls on his resume. Read that lineup again. An Eleven Madison Park chef doing roast duck in a Paramus mall. The fine dining world and the food court just collided, and honestly, it was about time.

The inspiration, according to the team, comes from the cuisine of Hong Kong, Chinatowns across the globe, and the traditional Cantonese barbecue shops where roast meats hang in the window and the menu is about ten items done perfectly. That is the energy they are bottling. Slow roasting meats meant to be served fast. No white tablecloths, no tasting menu, just the good stuff at speed.

So what do you actually order? The menu centers on the slow roasted meats, with the Char Siu Pork and Honey Roast Duck as the headliners. Then you build your own Canto Box: your choice of meat with white or fried rice, or lo mein noodles, plus a vegetable side. Think of it as the Hong Kong barbecue version of a bowl concept, except the protein was hanging in a roaster instead of sitting in a steam tray. Or go for the Canton Rodeo Special, a selection of slow roasted proteins served on top of vegetables and sauce, for when you cannot decide and do not want to. The sides run from fried rice to yuzu broccoli to scallion lo mein, and there is even a dessert menu with soft serve in flavors like matcha strawberry and cream lychee, because no great meal should end without something sweet.

The format is the smartest thing about this place. Hong Kong barbecue has always been fast food in the best sense. In Hong Kong, siu mei shops are where you go for lunch when you want something incredible in fifteen minutes. Canton Rodeo takes that spirit and runs it through a modern, build your own box model that fits exactly how Bergen County eats right now. Quick, customizable, genuinely exciting. The mall location stops being weird the second you understand the concept. This is grab and go food that happens to be made by people who trained at the highest level.

And Bergen Town Center is quietly becoming one of the more interesting food plays on Route 4. Canton Rodeo was announced back in April as part of a wave of seven new tenants, alongside Tatte Bakery and Cafe, a Josh Capon burger joint called Capons, Elev8tion Fitness, and more. The mall, which has been standing since 1957, is in the middle of a real glow up under Urban Edge Properties, and the tenant mix tells you exactly who they are chasing. Younger, food obsessed, willing to drive for something good. That is Bergen County in 2026.

There is a bigger trend underneath this opening too. The most exciting restaurant launches in New Jersey right now are not coming from one lane. They are collisions. Fine dining chefs doing fast casual. Mall spaces getting serious food. Cuisines that used to require a trip to Manhattan showing up on Route 4. Canton Rodeo sits right at the center of all three. A chef who learned precision at Eleven Madison Park, applying it to char siu in Paramus. That is not a gimmick. That is the future of how good food spreads.

If you have never had proper Hong Kong barbecue, here is your crash course. The duck should have skin like glass and meat that falls apart. The char siu should be sticky, smoky, and just sweet enough. The rice underneath should be catching all the drippings. Order the Canto Box, get the duck, thank me later.

Canton Rodeo is open now at Bergen Town Center. Go watch the cleaver come down.