by TM Petaccia

Sun’s Kitchen will be expanding its menu when it opens its LoSo location later this year. Kristen Wile/UP

Sun’s Kitchen was never meant to be a ghost kitchen, but the pandemic lockdown had other plans. Three years after its initial launch, owner Brian Sun is back to his original plan of opening a full-service restaurant. Plans are underway to open a 60-seat space at The Platform in LoSo.

“That was always a part of the plan,” Sun says. “We were always planning to build something bigger than a ghost kitchen.”

Now operating at City Kitch, a ghost kitchen hub in West Charlotte providing commercial kitchen space and related services for takeout and delivery businesses, Sun’s Kitchen offers a range of Chinese cuisine representing a number of Chinese provinces, including a wide variety dumpling and noodle dishes – as well as an array of Chinese street food and authentic ma-la (hot Sichuan) options.

“The menu we serve is a little different than a typical Chinese restaurant,” Sun says. “What we serve is more of the real Chinese food. It’s been very well received, particularly with the Chinese community. Some people have driven from Raleigh and Durham just to have our food.”

Sun’s Kitchen owner Brian Sun. Photo courtesy

The new space will feature a larger kitchen, which will allow Sun to expand his menu. “There’s a lot more we can do, but right now we’re just limited by the space,” he says. “Having the ghost kitchen did allow us to do a lot of testing. There are a lot of different types of Chinese cuisine that are not well represented. Most Chinese food here is Cantonese or westernized Chinese food because the Cantonese people were among the first to come to America, but in reality Cantonese Chinese is probably less than 5% of the entire population.”

“The new space is an opportunity for us to present more diverse regional dishes to share with our customers,” he says.

When open in LoSo, Sun’s Kitchen will have both indoor and outdoor patio seating.

The Platform is a new commercial space currently in development on South Boulevard between Remount and Clanton Roads. When complete, the two-building project will offer approximately 46,000 square feet of indoor, patio, and rooftop space to a variety of retail, restaurant, and entertainment venues.

“Our customers kept asking us to have a bigger space,” Sun says. “We kind of already have the product. My hope is to now offer the experience. I’m hoping to share some of the real Chinese culture and the story behind the food.”