Yami Buffet is preparing to open in mid-October at Medford’s Bear Creek Plaza, giving the former Big Lots at 1070 Biddle Road an all-you-can-eat second act. Medford Alert reported October 10 that the operators had announced the opening window for a restaurant featuring sushi, seafood and hibachi.
The address is near East McAndrews Road, in the shopping center that also houses Bi-Mart and Dollar Tree. The restaurant is being developed in a renovated space, with broader plans for the site encompassing an Asian market and an arcade as well as the buffet.
The buffet has the newly reported mid-October opening window; dates for the other components remain unconfirmed. Dinner and a grocery haul may eventually share an address with arcade games, but the restaurant is the part with an announced target.
There is some history behind the vacant retail space. Brown Retail Group’s 2023 property materials identify Big Lots as a tenant since 2000 and describe a five-year lease renewal that February. Medford Alert connects the store’s later departure to the retailer’s bankruptcy-related closures. Yami is changing the use of premises that spent more than two decades in discount retail.
The approximately 189,000-square-foot Bear Creek Plaza dates to 1977 and was renovated in 2022, according to the broker’s materials. Bi-Mart has been there since 1977; Dollar Tree arrived in 2000. A buffet and an Asian market at one address would give one-stop shopping a rather generous interpretation.
Medford Alert also cites Oregon records showing Yami Buffet Inc. registered July 14, 2026, with 1070 Biddle Road as its principal business address.
An exact opening day, service hours and prices have yet to be announced. The available food description names sushi, seafood and hibachi; a detailed lineup or selection count is still pending.
