China City / Little China Buffet, 2500 Decker Boulevard: January 2010 (closed again) 9 comments
I believe this Chinese restaurant on a Decker Mall outparcel has been there in one form or another ever since Decker Mall opened, making it much more durable than any of the stores inside the mall.
I'm not really sure when it closed. I was driving by today around noon and noticed that there were no cars in the lot, which I thought was odd, so I stopped to take a look. There is absolutely no indication that it is closed, other than the fact that it was not open. There was no "Sorry, Thanks for X Wonderful Years!" sign or anything like that, and all the fixtures still seem to be in place as well as third party items such as the gumball machines.
I'm saying "Jan 2010" then since that is recently enough to look fresh but far enough in the past that the phone being disconnected (which it is) makes sense.
This place is almost across the street from the old Jumbo Asian Buffet which is also defunct, but there is another Chinese restaurant just up the hill on Decker a bit, so the neighboorhood is not totally bereft.
UPDATE 19 Feb 2010: Added "China City" to the post title based on the comments.
UPDATE 5 June 2012 -- Somebody has been working inside this building recently after years of no activity at all:
UPDATE 12 July 2012 -- Open again!
UPDATE 14 November 2019: Updating the post status to "closed again". As I mention in the comments, I had taken new pictures and actually updated this post at one point to reflect the second closing, but lost it in a database crash. The pictures at least I should be able to dig up again if I remember to make an effort. Also updated the tags and added a map icon.
UPDATE 28 February 2020 -- Here are some pictures I found from 12 April 2015:
UPDATE 17 May 2024 -- It looks like this building may finally be about to meet the wrecking ball:
UPDATE 18 June 2024 -- Still no sign of demolition, I think they are just tearing the parking lot up for infrastructure work:
9 Responses to 'China City / Little China Buffet, 2500 Decker Boulevard: January 2010 (closed again)'
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Mr Bill
19 Feb 10 at 8:56 am
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OK, I'll add "China City" to the post title. As for Chinese New Year, I had forgotten about that, but the phone does seem to be disconnected.
ted
19 Feb 10 at 9:14 am
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my friends and i would eat at china city every once in while (not because we didn't like it, it's because we were kids and had to save up). they had the best teriyaki chicken and beef on sticks!
i went to the buffet a few years ago and sat my old regular seat... after eating i could see why it shut down, bleh!
i loved the dragons hold the balls. we always had jokes about them, lol.
Danny
5 May 10 at 8:49 pm
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it strikes me as odd that, given your latest update that this Chinese buffet has reopened, that the post title isn't updated to reflect that...
Andrew
15 Jul 12 at 2:17 pm
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Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug.
Fixed.
ted
15 Jul 12 at 6:26 pm
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I was born and raised in Columbia, and I know the restaurant very well. I used to live in Northeast Columbia for several years and faithfully ate here and what used to be Guangzhou (now Taste of China (?)).
From what I know, there was a death in the family that used to own Little China Buffet. They closed for a while and I'm glad to see they are open again. My mom told me about two weeks ago that it's open again and I see she's correct. I'm going to try it again in a few days when I get back home and see if it's still good. I have since moved out of state, but I sure do miss the old Little China.
And I love this site! Lots of memories (Annabelle's Lead Belly baked potato easily comes to mind).
Lyndsey
25 Jul 12 at 11:14 pm
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I remember the dragons too - at one time the interior was pretty nice, if I recall. The last time I ate there, I also seem to recall the dragons or the globes they were holding were getting a little bedraggled.
Blaine
31 Jul 12 at 5:13 pm
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Hi. I think the place closed again. I drove by it and the sign looked gutted.
John L.
23 Mar 16 at 2:55 pm
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Yes it is definitely closed again. In fact, I took some nice pix and updated the post to reflect that -- and lost it all in the database crash of a few months ago :-(
ted
24 Mar 16 at 12:54 am
I believe this place was built around 85 and opened as China City. I ate many meals there over the years. I don't live on that side of town anymore so it's been about 10 years since I went in there. I think it became Little China in the early 90s perhaps around 93 or 94. Could it be they just closed for Chinese New Year?