Shirley Lee ran Royal China in Metairie for more than 40 years before retiring briefly in 2021 and returning to open Miss Shirley's Chinese Restaurant on Magazine Street. (Staff photo by Ian ...

The Kao family have been the sole owners of Royal China, a Chinese restaurant off Preston and Royal in Dallas. This year, they celebrate 50 years since opening.

Royal China in 1979 - Shirley Lee, Tang Lee and Donna Chick at the Metairie restaurant. (Photo by Ronald LeBoeuf from the Times-Picayune archive) Both Shirley and Tang are natives of Hong Kong.

The menu makes you wonder how such a small restaurant can deliver everything it promises. At Royal China, the job falls to the capable hands of Shirley Lee, a sometime chef and full-time hostess ...