Longtime Chinese restaurant makes a much-anticipated return to Fayetteville

After a year away, a beloved Fayetteville Chinese restaurant made a much-anticipated return to the city recently.

China 1 reopened Monday at 957 Strickland Bridge Road, at the former Osaka Jr. Japanese Express in the Raeford Road Center shopping center.

While Osaka Jr.’s sign was still up on Wednesday, don’t let that fool you — China 1 is once again serving dishes based on recipes from the Chinese provinces of Hunan and Szechuan that locals love. The new sign arrives in a few weeks, an employee said.

The new spot is about 2 miles from the Strickland Bridge Shopping Center, where China 1 operated for 30 years until it lost its lease last April, restaurant owner Kao Chen told The Fayetteville Observer at the time.

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His son Brandon Chen, who works at the restaurant, told The Observer last year that property owner Harvest Family Church terminated the restaurant lease because of plans to build a daycare and a church. The shopping center is still standing on the property, but tenants have been vacated. The county geographic information system does not show any plans to renovate the existing building or new construction.

The details

Address: 957 Strickland Bridge Road

Business hours: 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, noon to 9:30 p.m. Sunday and closed Monday.

Phone: 910-849-3232

On the web: china1fay.com and facebook.com/fay.china.1

Food, dining and culture reporter Taylor Shook can be reached at tshook@gannett.com or on Facebook. Want weekly food news delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the Fayetteville Foodies newsletter.