Yuko Kitchen Miracle Mile — Restaurant in Los Angeles

As fusion as they come. Basically everything is a salad, which isn’t a bad thing, except when you are hungover and want nothing more than something greasy, carby and to help ease the pain from the night before.

Japanese? Maybe, inspired yes, but a whole lot more something else mixed in. The coffee/pastries, salad part. Like 10% still Japanese, no doubt about the influence, but I would definitely just say healthy & fresh.

Hidden on the corner, back side of the main street. Street parking, so certainly a local spot. No parking lot which is to be expected. Wasn’t too busy, but service was pretty weak. Would you like anything to drink?, What would you like to eat? Dropped off bill and never came back to pick it up. No hello, no thank you, no how is your day. It’s not like we were dressed for a wedding or anything. It’s also not like it wasn’t busy and were seeking unique accommodations. Staff was nowhere to be found, always walking by, had no idea who our server was. The chairs was dirty, ended up staining my friends dress, which we didn’t notice until later. The décor is super eclectic, not in an uncomfortably weird way, but the set up isn’t ideal to an inviting ambiance despite the dark wood, baked smells and color scheme. Everything felt like a garden, probably why there is so much salad. We never saw a table get cleared or cleaned in our hour here. Prices were very good, reasonable to straight inexpensive.

Yelp pretty much mirrors their favorites, so the spicy salmon bowl was what I ordered. Ice tea (no table sweetener and they overfilled it making mixing it messy). Boba milk tea was as flavorless as the actual boba. For a place that offers so many drinks, it’s weird to see they don’t balance it with the proper condiments. We got a veggie roll, a chicken plate and split an ebisu roll too. I really liked the teacup shot of the soup of the day. Curry really was bold and a more memorable flavor than the teriyaki chicken, salmon roll or anything else on the plate. Terikayi was fried, but had an orange chicken texture. The Ebisu roll, liked the shrimp tempura, but was a little soggy, very sloppy build. The dessert bites were great. One thing that almost got me to pull the trigger on was sesame marshmallow blondie, now that’s what I was talking about, bold, balanced, but I wasn’t willing to potentially throw more of my appetite at something that might not be favorable.

My bowl was a salad with a scoop of rice with mixed spicy salmon topped with radishes, and tobiko. It was large, but really 80% salad, it also made it hard to mix. It’s in a large bowl yes, but I’d have asked for the salad in a separate bowl. I liked the radishes a lot. Found the rice to be undercooked and the rolls didn’t use sushi rice. The menu has fresh rolls, but they are as unconventional and unauthentic as they come, all include lettuce. Yes, lettuce, and like a lot of it. BBQ Catfish roll, that’s not something that stands out in a good way. Bowl-Litos (Japanese Style Burritos). See Style, fusion. Initially sounds cool, but would probably have more salad than rice, so we stayed away. I sort of got this feeling that this place has a salt intolerance, like everything is low sodium. The chopsticks are laid out the long way, taking up undo table space, put in a vertical holder so we can fit all our plates. That’s common sense.

If I lived around here I’d probably eat here and know what they do best, but for my visit here I doubt I’ll be coming back. Yelp LA has let...

Worst Boba we ever tasted. Was just water sugar and brown coloring. Tapioca pearls were good. Teri chicken was dry over cooked and bland...no Teri in evidence at all. Wifey's salmon was reconstituted uncooked ground mush with no taste or spice at all. It was called spicy salmon claimed to be their most popular. It sucked but at least she didn't report a food poisoning as another reviewer recently has. My garlic shrimp was 9 pieces of tiny bland shrimp ...no garlic flavor at all..suspect it was frozen from Costco. Salad had no dressing and was very warm served beside and in same big bowl as the tasteless rice. Salad at least was fresh but tasteless. Suspect it is the costco spring mix package salad. Tomatoes in the salad were fresh and were the only tasty thing about the dish, but warm and odd because of the warm freshness. I requested light sugar for my lemonade and at first the order taker said its premixed and can't be changed. Then a guy told her it can be changed and she said it would be lightly sweetemed...it was sickengly sweet anyway. Drink was 6.50 and maybe 6 Oz Styrofoam or plastic cup with full ice. Of course no free refills but who would want one. They do have free water available at least...serve yourself. The disastrous Boba also arrived in the same small 6 Oz clear plastic cup. They give you a number to place on your table as if they will deliver food to the table Turns out they announce your number on an annoying PA system and you are required to bus your meal to your table after turning in the number. Oh, and you are required to pay when you order and the credit card device requests a tip up front. For what? For being nice when they take your order,? Parking is difficult, the lighting is dark inside and on the street. It's probably to hide the obvious disrepair and general run down appearance of the place...walls and broken down decor, we used to call it funky or shabby shiek. But this place is a different level. Chairs were shaky, small, minimal and uncomfortable and tables were smallest I have ever seen except on Southwest Airlines. and they were jammed together and crowded and very difficult to navigate, especially in the dark. Place was Not very clean and junk was stored in one corner a few feet away from the table. Napkins were one up from the thinnest and cheapest available so bring your own. And only one of the four outdoor heaters were turned on and working. Music on the sound system and people behind the counter were only nice things about the place..and it has a nice big staghorn plant that looked healthy.

Wish them sayanara and will commit Harry Kerry before I spend 20 bucks plus per head at this place again. We felt robbed to pay 63 bak for three of us at this place and none of us could stomach finishing the rice or salad. Only my teenager ate all of his dry chicken. He thought it was crispy, but wifey agrees is was dry, overcooked, bland and tiny in comparison to the mountain of warm rice and salad presented. We had to stop at In and Out on the way home to kill the hunger.

Unbelievable that this place has 4.5 stars and that reviews state this place has good food or that it is actually Japanese. Makes me doubt the validity of the reviews.

I am truly sorry to write such a scathing review and am even more sorry that such a place exists under the pretext of offering Japanese food and sorrier still that we made the choice to try...

Holy crap this place was awesome, and not just because of the food! My first thought upon entering the cafe, was, "whoa, did I just step into the Japanese version of The Shire? Where are the Hobbits?!" After that little wave of amusement passed, I finally looked at what they had to offer, and, as I usually do when I see it on the menu, went with the unagidon.

Little did I know how generous the servings sizes were here! Now, admittedly, the massive bowl you get is mostly salad and rice, but they definitely didn't skimp on the unagi itself - or, as an added bonus, the avocado, either! My cousin, on the other hand, went with their chicken plate, with came heaped with even MORE food than mine, as well as a handful of tasty dessert treats as well.

Being that it is more a cafe than a restaurant, ordering is done up at the cashier, after which, you grab a number and hopefully find yourself a seat. Come before the lunch rush so that this isn't a quest that warrants a ring bearer, because the place IS rather cozy.

Accessibility Info

Venue - So, accessibility is not really the name of the game here at Yuko. The front entrance is a little difficult to get to, as, first, you have to get up a pretty steep, short curb ramp, and then follow it up with a longer, less steep ramp to the entrance, but one that's narrow and riddled with flower pots, tables, and other garden knickknacks. Once inside (though there's also some outdoor seating as well), you might find the interior a little cramped, with tables that you can't entirely pull up under. A trek to Mount Doom indeed...

Bathroom - Didn't try them, so no comment, but I am doubtful of its...