By Staff
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Harbor City, 2023. Wikimedia Commons.
After nearly four decades, longtime Chinatown-International District dim sum restaurant Harbor City will permanently shut its doors on Feb. 28, according to reports by Vanishing Seattle and the Seattle Times.
The restaurant’s management posted a farewell note on Harbor City’s front door last week, the Times reported yesterday. In its post two days ago about the closure, Vanishing Seattle included much of the note, and some historical background.
In the note, management said that the decision was a difficult one, and that they were “incredibly grateful for all the support, conversations, and meals we’ve shared” with the community for the last 17 years.
De Han Ma and brother Yu Han Ma bought the restaurant in 2008 from the Ngo brothers, who opened the restaurant’s original location in 1988, Vanishing Seattle said in its post. Following the purchase of the restaurant, the brothers added dim sum to the menu. Harbor City is co-owned and co-operated by the brothers and their wives, Grace Ma and Xue Na Zhu.
The family was forced to close the restaurant, because they could not agree on terms for a five-year lease with the current property owner, the Times reported. Vanishing Seattle said that the family could not reach stable lease terms with the landlord, because the landlord allegedly plans to sell the building, which houses several other retailers, in addition to Harbor City.
The Times noted that neither restaurant ownership nor the property owner could be reached for comment.
In 2022, the family opened a second location in Tacoma. According to the note, that location will remain open. Vanishing Seattle said in its post that increasing operating costs and the “strain of running two businesses … were also cited as reasons for closure.”
Despite the restaurant’s age and roots within the community, Harbor City has only in the last few years been recognized outside Seattle. In 2020, it won Tripadvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best Award. In 2024, it both won Three Best Rated’s Top Three Choices for Best Chinese Restaurants—Seattle and was included in the Restaurant Guru’s 2024 Recommended Guide.