The second floor of Lincoln Square South has a new tenant in its most visible corner. MEAN Sandwich, the Ballard shop on Leary Way NW, opened its second location there in October. It took the space Great State Burger and King Leroy had shared since August 2024. That corner is now on its third concept since the food hall reopened in June 2023. Across the sky bridge, the Level 2 space Din Tai Fung used for 14 years is waiting on its next restaurant. The furniture brand Article has opened a showroom a few doors away on the same level.
The changes follow a pattern. The small counters in Lincoln South Food Hall, the coffee and tacos and rice bowls, have stayed put. The larger, more destination-style spaces upstairs are where brands rotate in, and several of them chose Bellevue for a first location. If you use this building on a weeknight, it helps to know which places are fixtures and which ones are new.
The corner that keeps changing hands
The food hall closed in March 2022 for a refresh, and ownership passed from Ascend Hospitality Group to Kemper Development Company. Downtown Bellevue Network reported that it reopened in June 2023 with Drip Tea, Seoul Bowl, West Coast Tacos, Wonderbowl and Burbs Burgers. Since then, the corner next to DOTE Coffee Bar has gone through three concepts:
- Burbs Burgers, part of the June 2023 reopening lineup.
- Great State Burger and King Leroy, open together from August 2024. Guests could order from either menu. King Leroy was a 21-and-over Northwest-style bar that served breakfast all day, and this was its second location after the original on Seventh Avenue in Seattle.
- MEAN Sandwich, which opened in October 2026. Seattle magazine covered its opening day on the second floor of Lincoln Square in a sponsored post.
The space keeps the role King Leroy gave it, a sit-down room with a bar. Seattle magazine described a full bar and a warm, moody room, and called it a natural stop before a movie or a round of shopping at Bellevue Square. The menu still has the seven original sandwiches. The new ownership added two: the Hama Hama Oyster Po'Boy and a dry-aged double smashburger called the D.A.M.burger.
The signature MEAN costs $20. It's thick-cut corned beef brisket, braised and then griddled to order, with house yellow mustard, pickled red cabbage and fresh mint on a butter-griddled challah bun. The WTK? is a $20 fried chicken po'boy made with buttermilk-brined thighs, Calabrian chili relish, house pickles and hot lemon-pepper mayo. Sandwiches run $16 to $22. There are sides and dipping sauces, a grilled cheese for kids and bread pudding for dessert.
The counters that have held
Two names from the 2023 reopening, Seoul Bowl and West Coast Tacos, are still in The Bellevue Collection's food hall directory. DOTE Coffee Bar has been there longer than anyone, since the food hall first opened. These counters cover the whole day, and their hours are close to each other, which is what makes the hall work for an unplanned dinner.
Here is the current lineup, with hours as posted on each tenant's Bellevue Collection page. The directory's daily "open today" hours don't always match these pages, so call ahead if you're cutting it close.
| Counter | What it serves | Weekday hours | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOTE Coffee Bar | Coffee, handmade chocolate, ice cream, drinks with alcohol | 7 a.m.–9 p.m. | 8 a.m.–9 p.m. | 8 a.m.–7 p.m. |
| OAKBERRY | Açaí bowls and smoothies | 8:30 a.m.–9 p.m. | 11 a.m.–9 p.m. | 11 a.m.–7 p.m. |
| MEAN Sandwich | Sandwiches, salads, full bar | 11 a.m.–9 p.m. | 11 a.m.–9 p.m. | 11 a.m.–9 p.m. |
| Mix Sushi Bar | Rolls, nigiri, inari, bowls | 11 a.m.–9 p.m. | 11 a.m.–9 p.m. | 11 a.m.–7 p.m. |
| Seoul Bowl | Korean BBQ bowls | 11 a.m.–9 p.m. | 11 a.m.–9 p.m. | 11 a.m.–7 p.m. |
| West Coast Tacos | Street tacos | 11 a.m.–9 p.m. | 11 a.m.–9 p.m. | 11 a.m.–7 p.m. |
On weekdays, every counter is open at 6 p.m. on a Tuesday and closes at 9. On Sundays, everything except MEAN Sandwich closes at 7 p.m. MEAN's posted hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, so on a Sunday evening it's the one food hall option still serving after 7.
OAKBERRY is the newest of the steady counters. It opened in July 2026. The global açaí brand has more than 900 stores in over 40 countries, and this is its first in Washington. Bowls come with unlimited toppings. Its 8:30 a.m. weekday opening also makes it, along with DOTE, one of only two places in the hall serving before lunch.
Across the sky bridge, Level 2 of Lincoln Square North
The same pattern carries across to Lincoln Square North, at a larger scale. Din Tai Fung opened on the second floor near the sky bridge in November 2010. On April 16, 2024, it moved downstairs to a 17,000-square-foot space at 10455 NE 8th Street, the former Maggiano's. If you still head upstairs out of habit for xiao long bao, go to the ground floor instead.
The old Din Tai Fung space at 700 Bellevue Way NE, Suite 280, is going to Wagyu House. It's an all-you-can-eat yakiniku restaurant where guests grill American and Australian wagyu and Japanese A5 at the table. According to KIRO 7, parent company Chubby Group has confirmed an opening by the end of 2026 or in the first quarter of 2027. The group already runs Mama Xita BBQ in Bellevue and Wagyu Factory in North Seattle, and Wagyu House currently operates in Atlanta, Chicago and Houston.
A few doors away, Article has opened an 8,241-square-foot showroom on the second level of Lincoln Square North. The Bellevue Beacon reported that it has curated room displays and free interior-design services. Article is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and launched in 2013 as an online-only seller of mid-century, Scandinavian and contemporary furniture. Bellevue is its third physical store, after a Vancouver showroom that opened in August 2024. It's also one of its first in the U.S., with San Francisco and Toronto announced as well. If you've only seen the brand's sofas on a screen, the room settings let you sit on them, check the fabrics and see the scale in person.
These upper floors have attracted brand debuts: OAKBERRY's first Washington shop in the food hall, Article's first U.S. showroom across the bridge, and Wagyu House still to come. Most rotating tenants are on the second floors. The counters people use for an everyday meal are the ones that have stayed.
A weeknight on the upper floors
Because the fixtures and the new arrivals sit on the same level, one evening can cover both:
- Late afternoon at Article. The showroom is on Level 2 of Lincoln Square North, an easy walk across the sky bridge from the food hall. If a room needs rethinking, come with measurements and a few photos for the free design services.
- Dinner in Lincoln South Food Hall. On weekdays, every counter is open until 9 p.m. A table can mix tacos, sushi and a Korean BBQ bowl, and everyone eats at the same time.
- A drink or a later bite at MEAN Sandwich. The bar is in the corner space, and MEAN's posted hours run until 9 p.m. every day of the week.
- Something sweet at DOTE Coffee Bar. It's the hall's original tenant, with handmade chocolate, ice cream and drinks with alcohol, and it's open until 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
For bigger plans, Din Tai Fung is downstairs on NE 8th Street. Wagyu House's tabletop grills will take the old space upstairs once Chubby Group's opening window arrives.
At Mary Nelson, I keep track of downtown Bellevue's changes block by block, down to which stall just turned over and which spaces are waiting on new tenants, because that's part of knowing a place well. If you'd like to talk about what's changing near your own address, I'd be glad to hear from you. Let's Connect.
