There’s a new bar in Pioneer Square near the sports stadiums, a Capitol Hill haunt that’s open 18 hours a day, and a highly anticipated restaurant opening in Tacoma. Meanwhile, a cherished Greek fast-food restaurant has reopened in the Greenwood neighborhood almost a decade after a devastating fire.

Here’s a quick list of some of the region’s newest and most exciting restaurant/bar openings.

La Loba

South Lake Union

On the ground floor of the brand-new 1 Hotel in South Lake Union, Barcelona-born and Las Vegas-based star chef Oscar Amador will open La Loba this spring. Coming from Le Cirque at the Bellagio, Amador amalgamates Pacific Northwestern seafood with Catalan dishes at La Loba (“The She-Wolf”), such as salmon candy smoked-montadito and octopus al olivo with masa fritters, avocado, pickled red onion, and lime.

Amador is best known for his work in Spain at the Michelin-starred El Bulli and El Raco de Can Fabes, both now closed — but FYI, since landing in the United States, he’s also been a 2023 James Beard Award finalist and a semifinalist in 2024.

Led by Chef Oscar Amador, a Barcelona native, La Loba pushes the boundaries of traditional Catalan cuisine.

Photo courtesy of La Loba

The Dandy of King Street Crossing

Pioneer Square/Lumen Field

This pioneer square wine-and-cocktail bar opened in Pioneer Square in mid-March, sharing a building with Il Terrazzo Carmine and General Porpoise doughnuts. From the owners of The Coupe & Flute on Beacon Hill, The Dandy also does small plates with Asian and Middle Eastern influences such as meatballs vindaloo, lemongrass steamed clams, and an elaborate hummus strewn with garlicky oil, herbs, and crispy bits — among tall ferns, dark tones, and cool geometric wallpaper. It’s also just one short block from Lumen Field and T-Mobile Park, making for a perfect pre- or post-Seahawks or Mariners game respite.

The Wayland Mill

Northlake

From the owner of James Beard Award-nominated Saint Bread (Best Bakery, 2025), The Wayland Mill is slated to open along the northern shore of Lake Union this spring. The Northlake bistro will serve yōshoku cuisine, which interprets Western dishes like spaghetti Bolognese or biscuits and gravy with Japanese style and flair.

Owner Yasuaki Saito also owns and operates Tivoli in Fremont and Post Alley Pizza in downtown Seattle, and he was previously on the team at the now-closed London Plane, so you know this guy knows how to throw (dough) down. He’s also one of Seattle magazine’s Most Influential People, not for nothing.

Peanut butter shoyu icebox pie from The Wayland Mill.

Photo courtesy of The Wayland Mill

Mr. Gyros

Greenwood

After literally exploding in 2016 due to a natural gas leak, Mr. Gyros has at last reopened at North 84th Street and Phinney Avenue North, nine years later. What may seem like a run-of-the-mill fast food stop to some has special importance to Greenwoodites, as many hold vivid memories of the massive blast, which leveled the building that once housed Neptune Coffee, G&O Family Cyclery, and the Quik Stop convenience store as well as Mr. Gyros, and seriously damaged many others.

After a crowdfunding campaign, the Arsheed brothers, Sammy and Joni, opened the newest Mr. Gyros location in mid-March, serving the very same menu of shawarma, gyros, kebabs, and other Greek classics. “We’re not just reopening a restaurant,” Sammy told the PhinneyWood Blog in March. “We’re reuniting with the neighborhood that helped make Mr. Gyros what it is today. This reopening represents the resilience and determination of this community.”

Grann

Sixth Avenue, Tacoma

One of the area’s most anticipated restaurant openings is down in Tacoma. In April, chef Reginald Jacob Howell and pitmaster Denzel Johnson took over the former Sixth Avenue space once occupied by The Table and are now serving Texas-style barbecue with Indian, Creole, and Caribbean flavors. Tacoma-born Howell, who led local favorite en Rama’s kitchen for a few years, says the name is “a play on grandma or gran-gran.”

Highlights from the debut menu include butter chicken pasta with andouille, smoked beef biryani, masala tandoori ribs, and gulab jamun beignets.

Laurel

Capitol Hill

At just under 500 square feet, this bijoux little jewel box debuted this spring on Capitol Hill’s busy, buzzy Olive Way. Open from a staggering 8 a.m. to 2 a.m., Laurel does coffee in the morning and then switches to cocktails in the evening. (How Scandinavian.) Co-owners Kate Opatz — who also owns Montana next door, as well as Rich Rich and both La Dives — and biz partner Niko Ciel named the cafe-bar after Opatz’s mother. They keep things light and femme, with houseplants, colorful tiles, and pastel tones. The Laurel Collins, made with Fords gin, bay leaf, lemon, black pepper, and walnut bitters, is a standout.

Laurel’s espresso martini features vodka, fresh espresso, vanilla, chocolate, and orange zest.

Photo by Lauren Max Winkelman

Triumph Valley

Shoreline

The only local dim sum restaurant to rival those found on No. 3 Road in Richmond, B.C. — per Seattle Times’ Tan Vinh — Renton’s Triumph Valley opened a Shoreline satellite this spring, on North Westminster Way and North 155th Street. The new location has the same tremendous menu, encompassing a couple hundred items, from which you can order piecemeal or just choose one of the combos. The dish for which it’s most loved, the roast duck, comes in both Peking and Hong Kong styles, and the dim sum is pretty classic stuff — xiao long bao, pork-and-corn potstickers, red bean sesame balls.

You can also opt for the entrees. Plenty of recognizable Cantonese standards here, like sweet and sour spareribs and beef chow fun, along with some deeper cuts, such as chicken feet and spare-ribs over rice in lotus leaf. This place has everything.