Why is one of Chinatown's most iconic restaurants closing?

Kim Ng remembers running around the Yangtze restaurant as a child, peering into the kitchen and taking naps on a cot in the basement office while her parents worked around the clock to keep the place running.

Now, almost 40 years later, she manages the restaurant.

It sits on the corner of Somerset Street West and Cambridge Street in Ottawa's Chinatown neighbourhood, and has become a staple for dim sum and Cantonese cuisine in Ottawa.

Soon, its legacy will come to end. The Yangtze is closing its doors in mid-November, much to the disappointment of those who've loved it.

Family origins

Ng's grandfather immigrated to Ottawa from China and opened a small takeout business in 1982. She was born just three years later.

"That's kind of how it snowballed," Ng told CBC's This Is Ottawa.

"He wanted a better life for his family," she said. "My dad — he had bigger visions and wanted to do something big like this."

Soon, the restaurant became a staple for residents like Neil McCormick, who has been coming to the restaurant his entire life.

McCormick said he remembers a time before the restaurant had windows.

"My grandparents came here, and now my kids are here," he said. "It's amazing."

Hopes for the future

In March 2024, the property and the business went up for sale, with an asking price of $3.28 million.

While the sale was a family decision, Ng's father had the final say.

"I'm in the last phase of my life. I should probably enjoy some of it while I can," Ng remembered her father telling her.

And that was that.

"If he's ready, we're all ready," Ng said. She found a job at a mortgage brokerage, but her father jokes that after a year or two they'll open up a dumpling restaurant.

Staff are staying on until the restaurant closes, something Ng said speaks to the closeness of those who work there.

"We're going to stay as a family until we're done," she said.

While she said it would be ideal for the new buyers to maintain the Yangtze's legacy, she knows it's not up to her. 

Yukang Li, the executive director of the Somerset Street Chinatown Business Improvement Area, said the BIA has tried to recruit more Chinese restaurants, but he's open to change.

"Chinatown is not just for Chinese culture or Chinese people. It's the BIA's goal to build it into a culturally diverse neighbourhood," he said.

A bittersweet goodbye

For Ng and her family, the closure is bittersweet. It's a well-deserved break, she said, but also the end of an era.

"It makes me a little nervous because I don't know what's to come."

Ng said she'll miss the food, and the Christmas Day antics when crowds would swell after movie matinees.

But what she'll miss the most when the restaurant closes in November, she said, is the people.

"The really good customers have made it worthwhile to go into work every day."