For many New Yorkers, Sunday evening has long meant dining out with the family at a favorite Chinese restaurant, indulging the love of egg rolls, spare ribs, and wonton soup. But a growing number of the city’s more popular Chinese dining spots have fallen by the wayside in recent years, and some restaurant experts tell me that trend is likely to continue, if not accelerate.

The latest fatality is the Sichuan Pavilion at 310 E. 44th St., a favorite of the United Nations crowd. While many New Yorkers celebrated the Fourth of July by attending barbecues and watching fireworks, the restaurant quietly closed its doors, 25 years after being opened by the People’s Republic of China.

Civilized, quiet, and staffed by a group of captains and waiters in black tie who were well-schooled in the art of providing good service, Sichuan Pavilion featured reasonably priced cuisine from the Sichuan region — hot, spicy, and heavy on the garlic. The restaurant also drew its fair share of celebrities, such as Frank Sinatra, Madonna, and Ted Turner, who once ordered three bottles of Opus One and was saddled with a check of more than $3,000. The restaurant was also a favorite of Mao Zedong when the Communist Chinese chairman came to America.

The closing of Sichuan Pavilion comes on the heels of the shuttering of a slew of popular Chinese eateries, such as 66 (a spin-off of Jean Georges), Bill Hong, Jimmy Sung’s, Mainland, Ollie’s Times Square location, Flower Drum, Bruce Ho’s Four Seas, and David K’s.

One of the four owners who closed the Sichuan Pavilion, Albert Chee — his group bought the restaurant about 10 years ago — blames the closing chiefly on high rental costs ($25,000 a month) and the landlord’s insistence on a 10% increase. In fact, things got so bad that the restaurant — which will be replaced by an Italian eatery — didn’t pay its rent in recent months. Mr. Chee believes the combination of spiraling rental and labor costs will most certainly lead to the closing of other Chinese restaurants in the city.

A good part of the problem for Chinese restaurants is said to be the current surge in Japanese and Asian-fusion dining spots, whose key appeal is an image of lighter eating than their Chinese counterparts.

The president of Newcorn Realty, Warren Newcorn, a real estate broker specializing in restaurant leasing, echoes that sentiment. “Chinese food is out of vogue,” he said. “It contains a lot of sugar, and more and more health-minded and calorie-conscious New Yorkers are looking to alternative dining.” He told me he no longer has any Chinese restaurateurs looking to open new restaurants.

A captain at one of the city’s most popular Chinese restaurants, Shun Lee Palace, told me that “business is still good, but it’s now more of a senior citizens crowd with fewer and fewer younger customers.”

A 27-year-old hedge fund trader who asked not to be identified agrees: “Shun Lee is good for my mother and father, but give me Nobu or Philippe,” he said, referring to the famous sushi restaurant of chef Nobu Matsuhisa and a trendy, noisy, and pricey Midtown Chinese restaurant opened by a former chef of Mr. Chow that draws a youthful crowd and a host of celebrities.

Alan Chan, the general manager of Tse Yang, one of the city’s most elegant Chinese dining places, tells me such restaurants are caught in a real squeeze. “Margins are low, while rent, labor, and food costs are high,” he says. “The demand for commercial space in the city is very strong and that’s causing rents to go through the roof.” Mr. Chan says he’s heard of instances, as far-fetched as it seems, where landlords were asking for 50% and 75% increases on renewal leases.

“The gossip is that more restaurants will be going out in the near future,” Mr. Chan says, though he was reluctant to name any names. “That’s not just Chinese restaurants, but restaurants in general,” he said. “Survival is just a lot tougher.”

A former owner of a popular Chinese restaurant that closed its doors several years ago told me he’s been invited a number of times to invest in restaurants run by two well-known former rivals, one of them quite pricey.

“I wouldn’t do it because they’re both on borrowed time,” he said, noting that their price and cost structures have gotten out of line. “I told them to enjoy life while they still can because, like the dinosaur, they’ll soon be extinct.”

The bottom line, I guess, is that it’s ciao to chow mein.

dandordan@aol.com