Beloved Wichita restaurant closing after four decades. Take a look back at its start.
The news started spreading through Wichita on Thursday after owner Ray Chan posted a sign on the door.
Ming’s — a reliable throwback Chinese restaurant that has been operating at 1625 S. Seneca since at least 1980 — is closing by June 30 or “until the food is sold out.”
I’ve left messages for Chan, but haven’t heard back yet. On Friday morning, an employee who answered the door said that Chan was planning to retire. (The employee said he wasn’t sad, either. He’s tired of working so many hours.)
Ming’s, which has one of Wichita’s best retro signs posted out front, operates out of a mid-century masterpiece of a building, complete with slate walls on both the inside and outside. Many families made Ming’s their destination Chinese restaurant, and those are hard to find in a city where most are either take-out places or super buffets.
I was first introduced to the restaurant about 15 years ago, when my friend Kim started including me in her family outings. We dined with her very pregnant cousin, Jocelyn, there on Christmas Eve 2011, and her daughter Vada was born the next day. I later learned that Jocelyn’s sister, Kasey, also dined at Ming’s the night before her daughter Kendall was born a year earlier. We always gave Ming’s credit for possessing magical powers to induce labor.
Though the sign on the door announcing the closure said the restaurant has been operating for 47 years, mentions of it first appeared in Wichita newspapers in 1980. One of them said that the restaurant was “specializing in traditional Chinese food brought from China Town in San Francisco.”
The building dates back at least to 1956, when a new Kings-X restaurant called J-Bar-X opened at the address. In old advertisements, it’s easy to see the outline of the future Ming’s in the photos of Jay-Bar-X. That restaurant lasted until 1963, when the building became Skaets Steak Shop specializing in charcoal broiled steaks. Its owners may have been the ones to install Ming’s future sign.
In 1966, the restaurant became Anthony’s, a restaurant serving pan-fried chicken and T-bone steaks that lasted until 1970. In 1971, The Egg Roll Restaurant operated there, and the address was also the first location for Hong Kong restaurant, the Wichita favorite that operated for most of its life at 3028 S. Seneca before closing in 2018. Its first year operating in the Ming’s building was 1977.
The food at Ming’s has never been known for its elegance, but the plates always come out piled high and steaming hot. When my daughter was little, she loved that Ming’s would give customers a free sweet roll before their meals. Kim’s go-to order was Hong Shew Har, featuring fried shrimp. Jocelyn loved the sweet and sour chicken. I always got the cashew chicken and an egg roll.
If you loved Ming’s and want to dine there one last time — or if you’ve never been there and want to check it out before it’s gone — now’s the time. The vigil has already started: On Friday morning, a bag of flowers had been placed at the base of the iconic Ming’s sign.
Ming’s hours are 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and noon to 8:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. It’s closed Mondays through Wednesdays.
