Happy Lemon Bellevue Square — Restaurant in Bellevue

Expensive and mediocre. Definitely not worth it for the price ($16+ for drink and waffle), at least for the items I got (brown sugar milk, chocolate waffle with tiramisu sauce).

If you want delicious baked goods, just go to the Cinnabon or Pinkabella nearby. Actually delicious $4.50 cupcakes are practically a steal compared to a bad $7.50+ waffle with sauce.

This place has always had crazy lines whenever I visit the mall, and I wanted to see what the hype was about, so I jumped on it when the line was practically empty (only 2 small orders in front of me). Despite that, it still took a surprisingly long time for my food to be ready.

I normally get a brown sugar milk tea boba from boba places, but these guys don't have a tea variety, just "brown sugar boba milk". Decided to try that anyways. The drink itself tasted nothing like a any "brown sugar" drink I've had before - it had an incredibly heavy blackstrap molasses taste, as if they'd just taken a tablespoon of molasses and tossed it in with milk and boba pearls. Not what I expected at all, and not very good. Drink was also 1/2 ice and they refused to make a low ice version.

The chocolate waffle was practically flavorless on its own, despite the great smells coming from the shop. I can see why they try to upsell you on extra toppings/dipping sauces. The texture of the waffle not great IMO - since they're cooked fast, they're crunchy on the outside and gel-like/undercooked in the middle. Technically edible (at least, I hope cooked well enough to be sanitary if they're using eggs), but again not what I was expecting.

The "tiramisu cheese" dipping sauce was extremely sour to the point of being distracting - the sourness overpowered all other flavors to the point where the dipping sauce was practically unusable.

Maybe some of their other bobas or smoothies are good, but I'm probably not going to bother trying them based on this experience. I don't...

I usually enjoy visiting Happy Lemon with my daughter, and we often stop by on weekends. But this time, I had a disappointing experience that I feel I need to share.

I ordered two drinks and one waffle, and my total came to about $23–$24. I also left a tip because I know how hard people in the service industry work, having worked in restaurants myself. After paying, I noticed a sign on the side of the counter that said customers who spend $15 or $20 could get a free cup or tumbler. Naturally, my daughter was excited, thinking she would get one since our bill was well over $20.

However, when we picked up our order and I asked about it, the staff member first told me the promotion was only for orders over $20. I showed him my receipt, which was close to $25, but his reaction made me feel uncomfortable, like he didn’t really want to give it to us. He went to check with someone else, but the whole interaction felt dismissive and unwelcoming.

To be clear, it’s not about the tumbler—I didn’t need it. But my daughter was excited, and when a business advertises a promotion, I think it’s the cashier’s responsibility to make sure customers who qualify actually receive it. Instead, it felt like they were picking and choosing who to honor it with, and that left a very bad impression.

I’ve been a loyal customer, visiting almost every weekend, but this experience really made me question whether the staff values all customers equally. I hope management will pay more attention to ensuring consistent and fair service.

For other customers: if you see a promotion posted, I recommend asking about it before you order, so there’s no...

My kiddo loves mango smoothies, which is why we occasionally come here. However, this review is not about the quality of the drinks but rather the quality of the service. I completely agree with the low-rated reviews that highlight the rudeness and unfriendliness of the staff. I experience the same issues every time I visit. Just today, the cashier—who seemed half-asleep—was supposed to help us make a choice and complete our order. Instead, they were absolutely useless and visibly irritated by our hesitation. Rather than assisting us in selecting drinks and increasing their sales, we ended up ordering the same mango smoothie as usual, even though we were initially planning to buy two additional drinks. On another occasion, I placed an order through the app. After waiting for some time, I realized the order had been canceled. When I approached the staff for an explanation, the girl at the counter was extremely rude. Instead of offering an apology for not processing the order, she gave an indifferent response along the lines of, “We’re very busy, so we don’t care about you.” This kind of experience is common at the Bellevue location. It seems the management assumes this location is profitable enough and therefore doesn’t invest in staff training. However, remember that complacency can harm a business. One day, you might be surprised to find no line at...