Closed Chinese Restaurants in Atlanta:
The Places We Still Miss

The short answer: Some of metro Atlanta's best-loved Chinese restaurants are gone or have moved. Yen Jing (Doraville, 1991–2022) and Pyng Ho (Decatur, 1979–2024) closed after decades. Chef Liu (Doraville) closed in 2018, and Hong Kong Harbour (Cheshire Bridge) closed in 2019. Royal China left Chamblee for Duluth in 2019, and the Gu family's Gu's Bistro became Gu's Dumplings and Gu's Kitchen. Below is what each place was known for and where to find something like it today.

Royal China:
from Chamblee to Duluth

For years Royal China was the dim sum hall a lot of Atlanta families grew up with, on Chamblee Dunwoody Road just off the Buford Highway corridor. Carts brought around har gow, shrimp on sugarcane and fried shrimp rolls, and Peking duck was carved at the table. In spring 2019 the owners closed the Chamblee dining room and reopened about 18 miles north in a much larger space on Venture Drive in Duluth. They said the move had been planned for a long time.

Today: Royal China in Duluth still serves dim sum and Peking duck. See also our dim sum guide.

Yen Jing:
Buford Highway's Korean-Chinese standard (1991–2022)

Shu and Hsiu Hsia opened Yen Jing in the Korean Town Shopping Center in 1991, and their children later ran the kitchen and dining room. Meals started with house kimchi and pickled cabbage, then moved on to handmade noodles, dumplings and spicy beef with pickled mustard greens, the Korean-Chinese style that is hard to find elsewhere in Atlanta. The family closed it at the end of June 2022, a few years after Shu's death, saying it was time to retire.

Today: for Korean-Chinese dishes like jjajangmyeon and jjamppong, try Man Chun Hong or J-Bistro in Doraville.

Pyng Ho:
45 years on Clairmont Road (1979–2024)

Pyng Ho sat in a Clairmont Road strip in Decatur, two doors from Athens Pizza, from December 1979. The Jou family traced the restaurant back to one their family opened in South Korea in 1934, and the menu mixed Korean-Chinese and Chinese-American dishes: dumplings, har gow, crispy soft-shell crab, ginger-garlic prawns and beef short ribs. Owner Steve Jou closed it on New Year's Day 2024, pointing to his father's death, staffing problems and a business that never fully recovered from the pandemic.

Today: the same address is now home to Canton Kitchen, a dim sum restaurant.

Chef Liu:
dumplings and northern breakfast (closed 2018)

Chef Liu was a Doraville dumpling-and-breakfast house in Pinetree Plaza that diners remember from at least the mid-1990s. It was the place for fried crullers, Taiwanese-style buns, handmade lamb and soup dumplings, leek pies, cold noodles and cumin lamb. It moved across the parking lot to 5283 Buford Highway, closed in March 2018 and never reopened; a new Chinese restaurant took over the space that summer.

Today: for handmade dumplings nearby, try Northern China Eatery or Crazy Skewers for lamb skewers.

Little Szechuan

Chef-owner Kong Ko's small Sichuan restaurant in a Doraville strip mall was a regular on local best-Chinese lists, remembered for pork belly with preserved mustard greens, dry-shrimp green beans, cold sesame noodles and eggplant in brown sauce. Diners reported a move down Buford Highway into the city around 2014, and that location has since closed. We haven't found a reliable closing date; if you know it, tell us.

Today: see our Sichuan food guide.

Gu's Bistro:
the start of the Gu family's story (2010–2015)

Chef Yiquan Gu, Qiongyao Zhang and their daughter Yvonne Gu Khan built Gu's Bistro on Buford Highway in Doraville into one of the most talked-about Sichuan kitchens in town, with a menu of well over 100 dishes. When the lease came up in 2015 they moved their famous Zhong-style dumplings intown to Krog Street Market, and later returned to the corridor with a full restaurant in Chamblee.

Today: Gu's Kitchen in Chamblee and Gu's Dumplings at Krog Street Market.

Hong Kong Harbour:
intown dim sum on Cheshire Bridge (closed 2019)

For decades Hong Kong Harbour was the Cantonese restaurant intown diners didn't have to drive to Buford Highway for: weekend dim sum with black-bean chicken feet, clay-pot dishes and a big dining room with its own parking lot. It closed in 2019 when the property was sold.

Today: see our dim sum guide.

Tasty China's Franklin Road original, and Tasty China II

Tasty China's small dining room on Franklin Road in Marietta became nationally known in 2006, when chef Peter Chang's Sichuan cooking drew food lovers from across the region for dishes like dan dan noodles, dry-fried eggplant, cumin lamb and scallion bubble pancakes. Chang moved on within a year, but owner Dahe Yang kept the restaurant going and moved it into a new building on Powers Ferry Road in 2023. A Sandy Springs spin-off, Tasty China II, opened with Chang in 2010 and closed in 2014.

Today: Tasty China on Powers Ferry Road. In Sandy Springs, Sho Spicy carries on the Sichuan tradition.

J's Mini Hot Pot Deluxe, Chamblee (2004–2025)

When it opened in 2004, this Buford Highway shop introduced individual Chinese hot pot to metro Atlanta: your own pot, a choice of broths and a build-your-own sauce bar. The Chamblee location closed in spring 2025 after 21 years, as rising rents and food costs squeezed restaurants on the corridor.

Today: J's Mini Hot Pot in Duluth is still open. See our hot pot guide for more.

The Canton Cooks family tree, and other moves

China Cooks was a small 1990s spot at 215 Northwood Drive, a side street off Roswell Road just south of the I-285 exit; its listings now show it as closed. Our editor remembers that its cook went on to start Canton Cooks, which has been a few minutes up Roswell Road in Sandy Springs since 1997. Canton Cooks in turn trained the family behind Canton Cook II, which served Cantonese seafood late into the night in Sandy Springs from 2011 before moving to East Cobb in 2021; find it today as Canton Cook in Marietta. Grand China spent decades at 2975 Peachtree Road in Buckhead until the building was sold in 2015; after a long renovation it reopened down the street as Grand China at 2905 Peachtree.

Neighborhood favorites we lost

Real Mandarin House was a Sandy Springs family regular on Roswell Road, next to Trader Joe's, from at least the mid-1980s until it closed without notice in early 2015. Golden Buddha in Smyrna's Promenade center on Cobb Parkway closed in spring 2017 after decades as a suburban mainstay.

Where it all started

Restaurateur Frank Ma opened Hunan Restaurant in Sandy Springs in 1975, which the Southern Foodways Alliance describes as Atlanta's first restaurant devoted to Peking-style northern Chinese cooking. He went on to open and close several more over the following decades, including Frank Ma's in Chamblee.

Frequently asked questions

Did Royal China close?

No. Royal China closed its Chamblee location in 2019 and reopened in Duluth at 3960 Venture Drive, where it still serves dim sum.

When did Yen Jing close?

Yen Jing on Buford Highway in Doraville closed at the end of June 2022, after more than 30 years.

What happened to Pyng Ho in Decatur?

Pyng Ho closed on January 1, 2024, after 45 years on Clairmont Road. Canton Kitchen, a dim sum restaurant, now uses the address.

Where did Gu's Bistro go?

The Gu family closed Gu's Bistro in Doraville in 2015 and now runs Gu's Kitchen in Chamblee and Gu's Dumplings at Krog Street Market.

Is Chef Liu still open?

No. Chef Liu on Buford Highway in Doraville closed in March 2018.

Remember a place we missed?

We'd like this page to be a record of the restaurants that shaped how Atlanta eats Chinese food. If you remember one that's gone, or know a closing date we're missing, send us a note. We only add details we can confirm.

Sources

Royal China: Atlanta Magazine. Yen Jing: AJC. Pyng Ho: AJC, Decaturish. Chef Liu: AJC. Gu's Bistro: Atlanta Magazine. Hong Kong Harbour: ToNeTo Atlanta. Tasty China: ToNeTo Atlanta. J's Mini Hot Pot: Rough Draft Atlanta. Canton Cook II: ToNeTo Atlanta. Grand China: ToNeTo Atlanta. Real Mandarin House: ToNeTo Atlanta. Golden Buddha: ToNeTo Atlanta. Frank Ma: Southern Foodways Alliance.