CHINA COAST

In 1982, General Mills Restaurant Group Inc., a subsidiary of General Mills and owner of Red Lobster, launched Olive Garden, a chain of Italian food restaurants in their hometown of Orlando, and it was a huge success, with over 300 restaurants within a decade. With about 150 restaurants by 1990, General Mills decided to launch China Coast in Orlando, which would be a sister chain to Olive Garden, except focused on Chinese cuisine, and expected to do just as well. After the pilot location in Orlando did well, plans quickly developed for a nationwide expansion of the concept.

China Coast was relatively progressive for its time, in one 1993 newspaper classified, it reads "We support a culturally diverse workforce, and encourage women and minorities to apply."

However, problems soon came up. Unlike Olive Garden, which had practically no competition in the Italian food sector (especially in smaller towns without a heavy Italian presence), China Coast competed with locally-operated Chinese restaurants, and cooking with a wok was an art rather than flipping a hamburger. Restaurants were oversized for the Chinese food concept, and by 1994 General Mills put expansion to a halt. Shortly after General Mills spun off their restaurant group (with the newly-renamed Darden Restaurants Inc. being a separate company), Darden closed restaurants, and a result after August 21, 1995, 51 restaurants were closed for good, putting about 3,000 employees nationwide out of work.

Every location I've come across (except for the original) has the exact same décor, likely renovated out of the original turquoise "pagoda" style to come closer to the nautical décor of Red Lobster. Supposedly, many were also converted to Olive Garden or closed entirely but I have yet to come across them. List is arranged by state alphabetically, then city.

The restaurants were only in Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Texas and Arizona, with a few more states shortly afterward (including Oklahoma and Kentucky, see below). At the time of its closure, some restaurants were planned or under construction. Despite being small, this list (along with the Michigan locations linked) covers almost all of the chain, with many empty spots helped by South Texas Retail filling in the spots. (If you know more, please contact me). Michigan locations of the chain can be seen here (not my site, though I'm pretty sure that page did not exist when I started this page).