Yuko Kitchen

The downtown Yuko Kitchen opened on 5th Street in 2018 and turned a Historic Core storefront into a jungle, with shrubs screening the sidewalk and plants stacked from the counter to the ceiling inside. It is the larger of the two Yuko Kitchens and the one with the full drinks list: a matcha latte hot or iced, a Strawberry Matcha Latte, and a Matcha Latte Boba, poured alongside espresso, Asahi on draft and sake. The detail we love here is the hand-painted wooden signage pointing you around the room, one arrow to Order Here, another to Pickup Food There, a third to the Plant Shop over there. Most of the greenery really is for sale. Happy hour runs 4pm to 7pm every day and takes every boba drink down to four dollars, which makes the Matcha Latte Boba an easy afternoon habit, and the Green Tea Choco-Chip cookie is the one people photograph. Doors open at 11am Monday through Saturday, closing at 5:30pm early in the week and 7:30pm from Thursday, with Sundays off, and weekdays are the calmer time to settle in. Come on foot if you can: saero coffee is a block over on Spring, and Go Get Em Tiger is a few blocks west inside Grand Central Market.