New Yangtze Restaurant is expected to open in Chinatown this fall

A sign went up Monday night on the door of 700 Somerset St. W., announcing that "Yangtze - Modern Chinese Dining" was "coming soon." Photo by Jean Levac /POSTMEDIA

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The empty dining room that for more than 40 years was the Yangtze Restaurant, a landmark in Ottawa’s Chinatown, is expected to be open and serving dim sum again this fall.

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A sign went up Monday night on the door of 700 Somerset St. W., announcing that “Yangtze – Modern Chinese Dining” was “coming soon.”

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“Much of the menu will remain very similar to the original Yangtze, while adding some additional styles and offerings,” said Yukang Li, executive director of the Somerset Street Chinatown BIA, who has talked with the new business’s owner.

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That owner did not want to speak to media, Li said.

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The original Yangtze was famous for its cart-service dim sum. Li said its successor will also serve dim sum, adding, “a lot of people have asked me this question.”

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Ottawa’s dim sum scene has seen more regrettable closures than openings in recent years, with not only the Yangtze shutting down, but also the 36-year-old Mandarin Ogilvie in Ottawa’s east end, Palais Imperial on Dalhousie Street, and the well-regarded à la carte dim sum eatery Hung Sum in Chinatown.

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The Mandarin Ogilvie closed in June. Photo by Jean Levac /POSTMEDIA

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The original Yangtze was among Ottawa’s largest Chinese restaurants, seating as many as 250 people in its heyday and 190 people post-COVID. For years, its downstairs banquet room was a popular choice for Chinese wedding receptions and other parties.

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Li said he expected the new Yangtze to open in September or October, ending nearly two years of speculation by Ottawa’s Chinese food-lovers about what would replace one of their favourite haunts.

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The original Yangtze served its last meals in mid-November 2024. It had been owned and operated by the Ng family for 42 years. But after owner Ricky Ng, then 73, decided to retire, the building was put up for sale for $3.28 million in March 2024. It was sold two months later.

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Chinatown’s largest restaurant, the Yangtze, which has offered trolley-service dim sum and hosted wedding receptions and Chinese community celebrations since 1982, served up their last lunch Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. Photo by Ashley Fraser /POSTMEDIA

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The original Yangtze specialized in Cantonese cuisine, which has been supplanted to a degree by other Chinese cuisines, typically brought to Ottawa in the last decade or so by Chinese students remaining in Canada and launching eateries specializing in the dishes of their home regions.

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Some of those regional Chinese restaurants include Takumi BBQ on Merivale Road, which specializes in tabletop Northeastern Chinese tabletop grilled meats, Bite & Bite Shanghai Fried Bun, also on Merivale Road, and the Meat Noodle eateries and other businesses focused on hand-pulled noodle dishes representing Northwestern China’s Gansu province.

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