Redding’s former Red Lobster is being remade as Sushi Kingdom, a new all-you-can-eat restaurant whose owners say they plan to serve sushi alongside a broader lineup of Asian food.
Owner Jian Hui Wang told the Redding Record Searchlight that he and his partners hope to open the restaurant at 1345 Dana Drive within roughly three months of the Sept. 14 report, putting the current target sometime in December. Wang said Sushi Kingdom also plans to serve beer and wine.
The Redding restaurant will not be the group’s first buffet. Wang said he and his partners operate King Buffet in Carson City, Nevada, and that the success of that restaurant prompted the move into Redding. Carson City tourism listings describe King Buffet as a casual Chinese buffet, while local dining guides note a broader Chinese-and-Japanese spread that includes chow mein, soups, Mongolian barbecue and sushi.
That provides a useful clue to the operators’ buffet background, but not a menu preview. Wang has confirmed that Sushi Kingdom will go beyond sushi; pricing, hours and the exact lineup of stations or dishes have not yet been announced.
The Dana Drive building has been without an operating restaurant since Red Lobster closed there in May 2024 during the chain’s large round of restaurant shutdowns. By the time Sushi Kingdom was publicly identified this month, the site had been dark for about 28 months, although crews had already been working on the redevelopment for several months.
For Redding diners, that makes this more than a new sign on an old restaurant box: a long-vacant national-chain location is returning to food service as a locally operated all-you-can-eat concept. The address is changing cuisines, but apparently not its appetite for abundance.
December remains a target rather than a firm opening date. Until Sushi Kingdom releases a menu and pricing, the biggest questions are exactly how broad the Asian buffet will be and how closely the new restaurant will resemble the group’s Carson City operation.
