Is decades-old downtown Kansas City restaurant closed? It once had a loyal following

A “for lease” sign is posted at downtown’s decades-old Red Dragon House restaurant.

Evan Warwick, senior vice president with Colliers International, said it is marketing the space. But he declined further comment, directing Red Dragon House questions to the restaurant’s owners. They could not be reached for comment.

Calls to the restaurant result in a recorded: “We’re sorry, your call did not go through. Please try your call later.”

Red Dragon House has operated in the corner space, at 312 W. Eighth St., since 1988, building a loyal following of office workers, downtown residents and others.

An early review described it as a Hunan-Szechwan-Peking place (with some Cantonese cooking thrown in for good measure).

Recent Yelp reviews have been mixed.

“The worst egg drop soup I’ve ever had. Don’t order it my fellow egg drop soup lovers.” And: “I need to change to one star horrible egg foo burnt egg gravy was thin no taste.”

But an early 2020 reviewer said: “The Orange, Lemon, General Tso & Sesame Chicken are all Excellent.”

In 2012, Red Dragon House was temporarily closed by the Kansas City Health Department when officials tried to do a follow-up inspection. A “hostile reaction resulted in an unsafe environment for the inspector,” and police were called, according to the report.

During the pandemic, many of the surrounding office employees worked at home, cutting into the restaurant’s sales.

The health department lists an emergency inspection on May 20, but no details were available.