Konbi

Konbi opened on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park as a Japanese-inspired sando shop — but the coffee programme was always taken as seriously as the food, and word travelled fast. Sprudge wrote a dedicated feature; the line outside on weekends now stretches down the block.

The coffee menu is short and exact. A clean espresso programme, a small rotation of single-origin filter coffee, and the milk drinks pulled with the same precision that goes into the sandos. The sourcing is thoughtful, the roast profile lighter than the LA average, the baristas competition-ready. It's the kind of coffee bar where you can taste that the team cares about the cup as much as the food.

The space itself is tiny and counter-led: a few stools, a long bar, white tile, calm light. The sandos — egg salad on milk bread, katsu, ham and gruyère on house focaccia — have become as well-known as the coffee. Order one with your latte and you have one of the best $20 lunches in LA.

A pure expression of LA's Japanese specialty influence: serious craft, no fuss.