New restaurants coming to Jacksonville, FL in 2025
Dozens of new restaurants are in the works for Jacksonville and Northeast Florida in 2025. Here are 10 to watch for.
- Lotte Plaza Market, an Asian supermarket, is opening its first Jacksonville location on September 12.
- The store will feature a food court with seven restaurants, including an artisan French-Asian bakery cafe.
- It will offer a wide range of Asian foods, fresh produce, meats, and household products.
- This opening marks the chain’s continued expansion in Florida, with plans for more stores in the state.
An artisan French-Asian bakery cafe tops the menu of seven restaurants serving up desserts, roasted meats, and other international fare as a highly anticipated Asian supermarket opens its first Northeast Florida grocery in Jacksonville.
Lotte Plaza Market debuts with a grand opening at 10 a.m. Sept. 12 at 9355 Atlantic Blvd., after renovating the 45,985-square-foot former Best Buy store for an estimated $8.99 million.
The mega-grocery offers Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Thai and Indian foods, including snacks and deli items. It focuses on fresh produce, meats and seafood. In addition, it offers household products, cosmetics and unique items.
At centerstage is an indoor food court, tempting shoppers with freshly made foods ranging from Asian pastries and desserts to roasted meats, Japanese street food and popular Korean cuisine.
Jacksonville is the gateway to northern Florida as Lotte Plaza Market continues its ongoing expansion into Florida, where it already has stores in Orlando and Tampa, Calvin Yang, head of marketing, told the Times-Union on Sept. 8.
“Jacksonville, being in the more northern part of Florida, obviously has a different demographic makeup. But when we’re looking at a new city or a new location to expand to, it’s about the best opportunities, the diversity of the community, and how well we can serve that community. Jacksonville fits that description,” Yang said.
Yang also said “If everything goes right and to plan, Jacksonville shouldn’t be the last stop for us in Florida.
“Jacksonville will sort of be our flagship in the northern part of the state. … We do have plans for much more aggressive expansions in Florida and beyond in the next several years,” Yang said, declining to detail the timeline.
Lotte Plaza Market is the newest, as well as the largest, Asian grocery store in Jacksonville.
Other stores include RD International Market, 7534 Beach Blvd.; Dragon Asian Supermarket, 10771 Beach Blvd. #405; Jax Oriental Market, 10584 Old St Augustine Road #2; and Dinosaur Asian Supermarket, 2932 University Blvd. W.
Jacksonville is the newest Lotte Plaza Market location. The grocery chain has a combined total of 17 stores in four states: Maryland, which is its home state; Florida, New Jersey and Virginia.
All share a similar selection of foods, products, and floor plan, so Jacksonville will resemble the Tampa and Orlando stores, Yang said.
No passport needed to explore Asian food and culture
No passport is needed to get a taste of the Asian flavors and cultures forming the heart and soul of the supermarket.
Lotte Plaza Market offers everything from kimchi to bao buns, from Pocky to Pani Puri, and from salmon steaks to pompano, ramen noodles and more.
Seafood options include fresh shrimp, crab, lobster, scallops and a variety of fish. The store has specialty sauces, spices, teas and snacks.
The shelves are stocked with grocery items from Korea, China, Japan, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, and the Middle East. In addition, the supermarket also has housewares and decorative items.
Its produce is stocked fresh daily. Its selection of meats includes natural Berkshire pork; halal-certified beef and chicken; premium Kobe, Wagyu and Angus beef; thin cuts of beef, pork and lamb for hot pot or shabu-shabu; Korean BBQ sets; and marinated pork belly, and boneless short ribs, according to its website.
Yang said they partnered with a diverse group of Asian restaurants for the store’s food court. The Jacksonville store features restaurants also found at other Lotte Plaza Market locations, he said.
He said they chose those brands “because they are so popular within our community and within our customer base.”
“We try to strive … to serve the diversity of our community as well. Obviously, we’re an Asian-focused supermarket with Korean roots, but we try to be much more than just a Korean supermarket, Chinese market, or what have you,” said Yang, noting their goal to serve “everybody who is interested in discovering and trying out Asian cuisine and Asian products.”
So, they are trying to make it easy and friendly for everybody who may not be as familiar with those products, to experience them and have a good time, he said.
The food court restaurants, he said, are a good step toward that goal.
‘Bonjour.’ French-Asian bakery cafe at forefront of Lotte Plaza Market food court
Tous les Jours is at the forefront of the Lotte Plaza Market food court in Jacksonville.
Reflecting its name, which means “every day” in French, the bakery cafe offers fresh breads, pastries, gourmet cakes and other desserts made fresh from scratch daily. It also features handcrafted beverages, according to its menu.
Each Tous les Jours store generally offers at least 100 menu items at any given time from an overall selection of 300, Restaurant Business, a well-known restaurant industry trade publication, reported in May.
Its signature cloud cake — known for its light, fluffy texture is offered in 15 flavors such as strawberry lychee, green tea, mocha, mango and Earl Grey. All cakes can be customized, according to the bakery’s website
Pastries include Yuzu pie, sweet or savory croissants like chocolate or garlic and cheese, and fruit danishes. Breads range from Multi-grain Pan Bread to Buttercream, Honey Cheese Mochi Pancake and Purple Sweet Potato, the website shows.
The bakery cafe — founded in 1997 in South Korea — debuted in the United States in 2004. It is owned by CJ Foodville based in Seoul, South Korea. Its American corporate headquarters is in Commerce, Calif., just south of Los Angeles.
The Jacksonville bakery cafe is among five in Florida. Tous les Jours has more than 110 locations nationwide and more than 1,740 worldwide, its website says.
The supermarket’s food court’s other six restaurants also highlight popular Asian cuisine. They offer boba, classic Korean fried chicken, Hong Kong-style roasted meats, Japanese street food, and Korean barbecue, Yang noted.
- HKS (Hong Kong Station Roasted Meat): Favorite Chinese staples including roasted duck, pork, chicken, and beef, as well as Lo Mein noodles, Wonton noodle soups, fried rice, and more
- BB.Q Chicken: Korean fried chicken. A nationwide leading brand, the chicken restaurant has more than 250 locations in the United States
- Tori Hana: Japanese street food
- Seoul Fine Korean Cuisine & BBQ: Classic Korean barbecue and other mainstays
- Bunsik Heaven: Korean street food
- Da Bang: Boba tea and desserts
In addition, Lotte Plaza Market has a retail liquor license, Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulations online records show.
From Maryland beginnings to Jacksonville market
Lotte Plaza Market is among the Readers’ Choice nominees for a 2025 USA TODAY 10Best award — as best international grocery market.
Sungwon Distributor LLC, headquartered in Jessup, Md., is the corporate parent company of Lotte Plaza Market, according to the Dun & Bradstreet Business Directory.
Lotte Plaza Market opened its first grocery store in 1989 in Rockville, Md. Since then, the supermarket chain has steadily grown its footprint along the East Coast.
In March 2021, Best Buy permanently closed its Atlantic Boulevard store — near the former Regency Square Mall — as part of the company’s continuing consolidation of locations nationwide. The consumer electronics and appliances store had been open for about 22 years when it shut its doors.
Duval County property records show SW Jacksonville LLC, an affiliate of Sungwon Distributor LLC, bought the store on Jan. 13, 2022.
Lotte Plaza Market philosophy: ‘This can be a friendly place for anybody’
“Our strategy/philosophy with our stores is that we want to be a welcoming space, not only to the Asian communities in all of our locations, but also to be that gateway to experience Asian cuisine and Asian products for non-Asians,” Yang said.
Lotte Plaza Market “can be a friendly place for anybody” curious about Korean snacks or other Asian foods and wants to try them.
“If you don’t speak Korean and you’re not Asian, our doors are always open and you can come in and try everything. … It’s a good way for you to experience and discover that culture,” Yang said.
The Jacksonville store is directly across Atlantic Boulevard from Chick-fil-A, Panda Express and Chili’s Grill & Bar in a restaurant and retail neighborhood area that also includes Aldi and Panera Bread.
Lotte Plaza Market will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, all year, its front door sign shows.
(This story was updated to fix a typo)
Teresa Stepzinski is the dining reporter for the Times-Union. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @TeresaStepz or reach her via email at [email protected].
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