A new Mexican buffet has opened along North Carolina’s I-95 corridor, and this one is considerably more ambitious than the occasional weekday taco-and-enchilada lunch spread.
Paradise Mexican Buffet opened Sept. 15 at 67 J.R. Road in Selma, taking over the approximately 15,000-square-foot former Old North State Food Hall. Developer AdVenture Development says the restaurant offers rotating Mexican buffet selections for breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with live cooking stations, a full-service bar, weekly specials and made-to-order American dishes through a separate Paradise Grill.
Paradise’s current buffet page lists lunch at $18.99 and dinner at $23.99, with the evening spread expanding to include additional entrées and specialties.
The rotating lineup may include tacos, fajitas, burritos, quesadillas, gorditas and carnitas, along with chicken, beef and pork dishes, shrimp and other seafood, soups, Mexican rice, beans, fresh tortillas, chips and salsa, fruit and desserts. The Paradise Grill adds made-to-order American options including burgers, wings and sandwiches, as well as breakfast staples.
The format itself makes Paradise worth watching. Dedicated Mexican buffets have become a relatively uncommon corner of the all-you-can-eat world, particularly restaurants built around the buffet as their primary identity rather than offering it for a limited lunch period or occasional brunch. Paradise is going in the opposite direction: a large restaurant, multiple meal periods, rotating regional dishes, seafood, live stations and an expanded dinner selection.
That does not make Paradise the first Mexican buffet the area has ever seen. An earlier Pancho’s Mexican Buffet operated in nearby Clayton, and scattered restaurants around the Triangle have offered Mexican lunch buffets at various points. But a new restaurant committing 15,000 square feet to the format—and carrying it from breakfast into dinner—is unusual enough to command attention.
Owner Miguel Orozco is a Triangle-area entrepreneur whose businesses include Friday 445 Grill, Elisa’s Commissary Kitchen, Gran Gala Event Center and a custom food-truck and trailer operation. Johnston NOW Magazine named him its 2026 Dynamic Entrepreneur.
The location also gives Paradise an audience beyond Selma. The restaurant sits within the Eastfield development along the I-95 corridor, and Orozco has specifically identified interstate travelers alongside Johnston County residents as part of the intended market. In that sense, the oversized buffet inherits part of the mission of its predecessor: Old North State Food Hall was also conceived as a place that could serve the local community while catching travelers moving through one of the East Coast’s major north-south routes.
Old North State Food Hall opened in 2022 but closed earlier this year. Paradise has now converted the space from a collection of individual food vendors into one sprawling restaurant, while retaining the idea that a highway stop can be something more substantial than grabbing a sandwich and getting back in the car.
Paradise is also promoting live entertainment, seasonal farmers markets and other community events. Whether those pieces ultimately make it a local gathering place, an I-95 buffet destination, or some combination of the two remains to be seen. For now, simply opening a large restaurant devoted to Mexican buffet dining in 2026 is the part that makes us look twice.
