Hidden dragon – Ugly Award

For a time, China Dragon Chinese Buffet was a hot lunch spot for the working hungry on and around Airline Highway, with its sprawling buffet feeding diners in multiple rooms.

But today, the building at 9716 Airline Highway is vacant, and, the grounds are an overgrown mess of waist-high grass.

Sources tell 225 it’s become popular with people who sneak onto the premises to get high.

The business is registered to Shih C. Hu under “Lin’s Taste of China, Inc.” (also a former name of the restaurant). But the owners haven’t filed an annual report since Dec. 22, 2009, according to the Louisiana Secretary of State. The phone number listed on the restaurant’s billboard has been disconnected, and according to employees at some nearby establishments, business had slacked off and the restaurant closed about a year ago. Only once in that time has the city come out to cut the grass. We couldn’t track down the owners; it’s believed they moved back to their home country, and the property’s future is uncertain.