Yuko Kitchen

This is where Yuko Kitchen started, a small Wilshire storefront that Yuko Watanabe opened in 2009, painting the walls and furnishing it with whatever she could afford at the time. Seventeen years on, the room is a greenhouse: long communal wood tables under a canopy of hanging ferns, murals in every color behind them, and Hayao Miyazaki films playing on the green plant walls. The matcha gets its own heading on the menu here, which we appreciate. There is an Iced Green Tea Matcha Latte and a Strawberry Matcha Latte, with the Matcha Latte Boba over in the boba section. Coffee is drip only at this address, so the green drinks carry the counter. Happy hour starts at 3pm and runs to 6pm daily, an hour earlier than downtown, and every boba drink is four dollars. The cookie case is the reason to save room: Green Tea Choco-Chip, Green Tea Sesame, a vegan Green Tea Strawberry, and a Green Tea Marshmallow Blondie made with roasted sesame. Doors open at 11am Monday through Saturday, closing at 7:30pm early in the week and 8:30pm from Thursday, there is free parking, and LACMA is a short walk west along Wilshire when you are done.