China Fun, Beloved Upper East Side Chinese Restaurant, Closes Abruptly

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — China Fun, a go-to for Chinese food on the Upper East Side, has shuttered after more than two decades in business, according to a representative of the restaurant. The restaurant on the corner of 2nd Avenue and East 64th Street — which opened way back in 1991 — was seen boarded up Tuesday, with "public auction" signs posted in its windows.

The restaurant is closing due to the rising costs of doing business including the upcoming raise in the minimum wage, Albert Wu, a representative of China Fun, told Patch.

"The cost of doing business became too prohibitive in the city and the rise in the minimum wage was the last nail in the coffin," Wu told Patch. "The closure of China Fun was the by-product of the increase in wages and onerous regulations without proportionate improvement in the economy. Small businesses are not hedge funds or private equity firms; the career politicians who make our laws but at the same time have zero business experience have to realize that restaurants operate on razor thin margins and cannot withstand overnight wage increases of 30 percent."

The closure came as a surprise to neighborhood residents who will miss the Upper East Side mainstay.

"Abrupt closure; neighborhood is shocked," travel blogger Liz Borod Wright wrote on Twitter.

Various attempts to reach China Fun's management Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Oren S., a Yelp reviewer based in Manhattan, uploaded a photo of a highly political goodbye note he saw posted at China Fun. The note blames the city, state and federal government for "stifling" rules that made it impossible to run a small business on the Upper East Side:

China Fun has closed after 25 years in business. We want to thank all of our loyal customers who have been with us — whether for a day or for generations. It has been a great run serving you our delicious soup dumplings, scallion pancakes and General T'sao Chicken, but the climate for small businesses like ours in New York have become such that it's difficult to justify taking risks and running — nevermind starting — a legitimate 'mom-and-pop' business. The state and municipal governments, with their punishing rules and regulations, seem to believe that we should be their cash machine to pay for all that ails us in society, even though we suffer just like everyone else from an economy in flux. Our only wish for 2017 and beyond is for our career lawmakers and politicians, local and national alike, to take a mandatory 'Undercover Boss' challenge and live in the shoes of a small business owner for a week. Maybe then they will better understand the economically stifling environment they have created, and, dare we say, change their ways for the betterment of everyone, and not just pander to the populace that garner the most votes?

Happy New Year Everyone!

China Fun is owned by Dorothea and Felix Wu, according to various restaurant reviews from over the years. Its Upper West Side location closed in 2013, months after a fire broke out in the restaurant's kitchen, the West Side Rag reported. (According to the report, the Upper West Side location had received a lowly C grade on its city health inspection. China Fun's Upper East Side location, on the other hand, received an A grade on its most recent inspection in March, according to the NYC Department of Health.)

China Fun fans mourned its sudden demise on social media Tuesday.

A recent China Fun review in Time Out New York called the restaurant "an Upper East Side institution" and "a jack-of-all-trades neighborhood eatery with an impossibly long menu and a dizzying number of options."

"It’s no surprise that its strength is in Cantonese-style cuisine given that owner Dorothea Wu — grandniece of General Chiang Kai-Shek and a Taiwanese immigrant herself — has a personal affinity for soup dumplings," the review said.

China Fun's deliveryman, Yang Yu Bao, would sing "one complimentary piece of Beijing opera per hour, nightly," except on Wednesdays and Sundays, according to the restaurant's website. Video below.

Lead photo courtesy of Liz Borod Wright/Twitter