Chi's Chinese Cuisine has served its last plate at 17200 Chenal Parkway in Little Rock, closing the doors on a restaurant that anchored the corridor for almost 30 years. The closure came after Saturday's final service, and the family behind it says the goodbye is not permanent — just a prelude to something bigger.
According to The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the restaurant plans to relocate to a larger space, though the new address has not yet been disclosed. The move was first announced in a Facebook post from the restaurant itself, the paper reports, leaving regulars with confirmation that Chi's is coming back somewhere — just not yet where.
The Chenal location opened in 1997, per the same report, becoming a fixture for Little Rock diners craving Chinese food in a part of town that has grown considerably busier since the restaurant first opened its doors. Its closure also marks something more significant for the Chi family's broader restaurant business: Chi's Chinese Cuisine was the last remaining Chinese restaurant left in the Chi Restaurant Group's lineup, the Democrat-Gazette notes.
A Family Restaurant Legacy Stretching Back Decades
The Chi's name has deep roots in Little Rock dining well before the Chenal Parkway storefront existed. The original Chi's restaurant was located at the intersection of West Markham Street and Shackleford Road, according to the seed reporting, part of a family operation that predates the current concept by years.
That earlier chapter traces back even further, according to the Arkansas Times, which reported that the current Chi's concept was born in 1993 after the family's earlier restaurant, Cuisine of China, spent 12 years operating on Geyer Springs Road. The Chi's brand that diners came to know was owned by I-kang “Bill” Chi and his wife, Lu-Lu, according to arkansasbusiness.com, which described the family's restaurant as a 200-seat operation featuring an open kitchen, a full bar and an indoor pond filled with live koi.
The family's ambitions didn't stop at Chinese food. The Arkansas Times also reported that the Chis expanded into hibachi and sushi, opening a new restaurant on Shackleford in late 1999 — a sign of the diversification that would eventually define the Chi Restaurant Group.
What's Left Standing Under the Chi Restaurant Group
Lulu Chi died in 2018, and the family's businesses have since been managed by her sons, Jacob Chi and Jasen Chi, according to the Arkansas Times. As of October 2021, AY Magazine reported that Dr. Jasen Chi and Jacob Chi were serving as managing members of the Chi Restaurant Group, which at the time had six restaurants under its umbrella: Chi's Chinese Cuisine, Chi's Asian Cafe, Sushi Cafe, Sushi Cafe West, Prospect Bar & Grill and Lulu's Seafood Kitchen.
Chi's Asian Cafe was located in Riverdale, according to the seed report, while the group also operates Sushi Cafe West on Cantrell Road and Prospect Sports Bar & Grill in the Heights neighborhood, per the same Democrat-Gazette account. Not every concept has survived intact, though. Lulu's Seafood Kitchen permanently closed in 2024 after its landlord declined to renew the lease at its R Street address, the Arkansas Times reported, though the family said at the time that its other restaurants would continue operating as normal.
With Chi's Chinese Cuisine now gone from Chenal Parkway and no new address confirmed, Little Rock diners are left waiting to see where the family's signature concept resurfaces next.
