World Street Kitchen Keeps Global Flavors Alive on Lyndale

World Street Kitchen, the fast-casual restaurant brothers Sameh and Saed Wadi opened at 2743 Lyndale Ave. S. after building a following with their WSK food truck, is still serving on a stretch of Lyndale that has seen heavy turnover. As of June 2026 the restaurant lists daily hours of 11 a.m. to 10 p.m..

The menu draws on global street food served quickly and affordably, the format that carried the Wadis from a truck to a permanent storefront. Sameh Wadi is among the better-known chefs to come out of the Twin Cities food scene, and the WSK name has been a fixture on this block for years.

Its staying power matters now because the street it sits on is heading into a major rebuild. Hennepin County, with the City of Minneapolis, Metro Transit and other partners, plans to reconstruct Lyndale Avenue South (County Road 22) between Franklin Avenue and 31st Street — replacing pavement, curbs, sidewalks, signals, streetlights and underground utilities from sidewalk to sidewalk. The county says it logged more than 43,000 points of contact with the community across four rounds of engagement, and construction is currently scheduled to begin in 2028, with planning continuing through 2026.

Saed Wadi, who owns the Lyndale restaurant, has taken part in neighborhood meetings about the reconstruction, which businesses along the corridor expect to disrupt parking and foot traffic during construction. Local groups including the South Uptown neighborhood organization have tracked the design process, which has weighed bike lanes, transit lanes, on-street parking and green space.

The reconstruction is years off, but it is already a live concern for Lyndale's restaurants and shops, several of which closed during recent construction and economic pressure in the broader Uptown area.