New Restaurant Open in Southwest Rochester

It's been vacant for nearly a year, but a new restaurant was slated to open Thursday in a familiar location in southwest Rochester.

It's the brand new Star Ocean Buffet, and it's in the building that formerly housed the Old Country Buffet, in the TJ Maxx & More Plaza along Salem Road Southwest. The Old Country Buffet closed suddenly in March of last year.

According to this Post-Bulletin story, a sign in new restaurant's window earlier this week said the new restuarant was opening on February 16th.

The story said the restaurant is owned by Mike Xie, who's also involved with the Super Moon Buffets in the Twin Cities.

Interestingly, the story noted how the new signs on the building are using the leftover 'buffet' sign from the Old Country Buffet days -- only the new words 'Star' and 'Ocean' have been added.

But, the story also indicated that the signs were originally installed with the two new words reversed -- saying 'Ocean Star Buffet,' instead of how they read now (which, as the picture I took on Wednesday afternoon notes, is 'Star Ocean Buffet.')

Which, I'm guessing, probably means it'll be a seafood buffet. Anybody up for some grouper?