Royal Garden Chinese Restaurant will close its doors after service Oct. 31, ending 33 years of serving dim sum and Hong Kong-style dishes at the Ala Moana Hotel.

Owned and operated by brothers Calvin, Johnny and King Man Wong, the restaurant is popular for its Hong Kong-style cuisine — classic dim sum served from rolling carts at lunchtime; the best-selling lobster, Royal Garden style; stuffed top shell; crisp, succulent shrimp with honey-glazed walnuts; and order-ahead specialties of the house like rock-salt chicken.

Royal Garden opened in 1984, the second restaurant owned by the brothers.

Before they became restaurateurs, Calvin owned a muumuu shop at the former Hotel Miramar in Waikiki. Johnny worked at the high-end Mandarin Palace restaurant in the hotel, Calvin said.

The Mandarin’s owner also owned many first-class restaurants in Hong Kong, and brought his top chef to Hawaii to run the kitchen.

Johnny was trained by that exacting Hong Kong chef, and after four or five years, Calvin suggested to Johnny, “How about we open our own restaurant?”

Their Capital Chinese restaurant opened in 1979 or 1980, Calvin said, in the former Jade Garden restaurant site on Keeaumoku Street. They later moved across the street.

Their restaurant quickly became popular with locals, from regular folks to well-heeled Chinese families and businessmen of all sorts, Calvin said.

One of those businessmen, the general manager of the Ala Moana Hotel, invited Calvin to open a restaurant on the hotel’s third floor. The space had been vacated by the Plantation Cafe when it moved to the ground floor.

“I want a good deal,” Calvin told him. “I got everything free, the furniture, everything … and he gave me a good lease.”

The sprawling, 7,000-square-foot restaurant can seat 350 guests, with five private rooms that can accommodate 10 to 50.

A who’s who of Hawaii’s Chinese community leaders frequented the restaurant, often more than once a month, and now their grown children bring their own families, which also is true of families who are not in the news. Calvin considers all of them “Royalty Customers.”

International business leaders also have frequented Royal Garden, even treating hundreds of staff members to feasts there. In one case the global president of a world-famous company wanted to stay on the down-low while picking up a takeout order. He used the restaurant kitchen’s delivery elevator.

Chef Johnny Wong retired last year and moved to California to be with his adult children, but the kitchen staff maintains the standards he established, as brother King Man is now the chef.

Regulars tell Calvin the food at other Chinese restaurants tastes different, so they come back to Royal Garden.

“The way we cook, no other restaurant in town can copy,” Calvin said.

Royal Garden will not be succeeded by another restaurant, said Craig Smith, area general manager for Hawaii Mantra Group. Its parent company, Australia- based Mantra Group, is one of that country’s largest hotel operators and acquired management and partial ownership of the Ala Moana Hotel last year.

The swimming pool and gym are on the third floor, and the hotel plans to build on “the wellness and well-being part of the property,” Smith said.

“We’ve been unbelievably thankful for the long run of Calvin and his wife and business partner,” Smith said. “We are right behind Calvin up until the day he closes … and we look forward to give him the support for what he’s brought to the property for such a long period of time.”

Wong, 69, wants to keep the Royal Garden name going. He hopes someone will buy the name and recipes to keep the beloved dishes coming out of a kitchen somewhere.

In the meantime Royal Garden’s beloved moon cakes, prepared for the upcoming Moon Festival, are already flying out the door. They are sold in boxes of eight small and four regular starting at $20.95. Call the restaurant to reserve moon cakes, or just walk in during lunch or dinner service.

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