Comments on: Fifth Coffee Element

By: thecrazydanish

thecrazydanish — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:11:07 +0000

I personally love YJ’s for many different reasons beyond that they are open late. My main one isn’t the coffee, because Luke and Slicey you do have a point, its the atmosphere. I love sitting out front of that place on any given lazy sunny day. The people watching all over downtown is fantastic, but at YJ’s it is some thing else. If you are social enough without being awkward it can be a great place to meet quirky artsy people. I wouldn’t rank it number one, but I also haven’t been living in KC for the past 3 years. All a coffee shop like YJ’s needs to be crazy good is a brilliant barista. Coffee shops can be random that way, some times you get a rock star barista others some one that doesn’t know any better. Still worth your time if you like being a part of an oddball corner of downtown.

By: Slicey

Slicey — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:55:30 +0000

I have to agree with Luke. The only thing I like about this cute little shop is that it’s always open!
I didn’t really care for the espresso there. The menu is ecclectic, but the shop is too small to really enjoy a meal there or hang out for a while, I feel. I would definately return if I found myself in the area in the wee hours of the morning when nothing else was open, but I wouldn’t pass up some of the better shops downtown to go to YJ’s.

By: Luke

Luke — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:11:59 +0000

I found myself in the Crossroads neighborhood again, so I decided to give YJ’s another shot thinking that perhaps the last time I went there was an “off” day for their espresso. I can say that my experience this time was exactly the same as the last time. Their espresso tastes burned, with a bitter aftertaste. I’ll give any coffee shop two attempts to woo me, as I realize that we all sometimes have “off” days, but if after the second attempt at getting a good latte, they don’t deliver, I won’t be going back. Sorry YJ, but I won’t be back. Furthermore, I have now sampled a latte from every Coffee Shop on kcperky.com’s top 10 list, which I consider to be a fairly accurate ranking of the KC independent coffee scene, and I don’t know how YJ’s even got ranked on the top 10 list, let alone in the number one spot.

By: Luke

Luke — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:30:07 +0000

I was intrigued by the fact that this coffee house was ranked by this website as being the best coffee house in Kansas City, so I had to try it having high expectations. Needless to say I was sorely disappointed by YJ’s Snack Shop. While certainly an eclectic venue, I found their espresso to be very very average. I would even venture to say on the low side of average. The service was good and very friendly which was nice, but the coffee was nothing to write home about.