Two Wichita Chinese restaurants are now closed

If you delayed checking out two Wichita Chinese restaurants, you may have lost your chance.

I told you earlier this month that Hong Kong Restaurant, a Wichita Chinese food tradition for 41 years, would be closed by the end of the month.

It turns out that the restaurant at 3028 S. Seneca, owned by Julie and Kan Yip and Julie’s brother, Jimmy Chu, closed for good at the end of business on Sunday. Jimmy’s and Julie’s late mother opened the restaurant with the Yips in the late 1970s in the space at 1625 S. Seneca, where Ming’s operates today. They later moved it to 3028 S. Seneca.

When longtime fans found out the restaurant was closing, they flooded it with business, eager for one last taste of its famous Mandarin chicken. That caused the restaurant to run out of food earlier than expected, said Chu’s son, Aaron. They decided to go ahead and close, and now his parents are looking forward to a vacation.

Also, west-siders may be missing Ming Moon Chinese Restaurant, which Dragon City owner Jimmy Liu opened in the Crossroads Shopping Center 7011 W. Central in 2016 (originally calling it Kimono.)

The restaurant has been closed for several weeks. A sign on the door reads “We will be closed until further notice” and instructs people to order their food at Dragon City, which is at 3008 W. Central. Many of the same dishes are on the menu there.

Liu recently said that his wife, who oversaw the restaurant, had been ill and that he was looking for someone else to take over. If he finds someone, he said, Ming Moon may reopen. A neighboring restaurant owner, however, reports that the contents of Ming Moon have been auctioned.

This story was originally published September 26, 2018 at 9:07 AM.