Atrium Coffee House

Looking for a coffee shop/​café in the West End during term time? Everywhere packed full of students? Atrium might just have space for you!
I had this problem the other day (full disclosure: I am technically also a student). Perhaps it’s because it’s just far enough away from the main campus to make the walk unappealing. Or, perhaps it’s because, in spite of being an independent West End coffee shop, it’s completely unpretentious. Whatever the reason, everywhere else was full of students but when I arrived at Atrium I was the only person there under the age of 30. Actually, now I come to think of it, it seems to be very popular with pensioners. Maybe they get a discount?
Whatever the reason, I was just pleased to have found somewhere to eat lunch out of the rain. I took advantage of their soup and a sandwich offer (£4.95 for a bowl of soup with any sandwich) and selected a tuna melt to go with my roasted red pepper soup. If that sounds like a weird pairing you can blame me — they had plenty of other options but I have a tuna melt obsession.
I took a seat and got settled. I couldn’t find any WiFi connections that obviously belonged to the café, and couldn’t see any signs up offering WiFi, so I guess they don’t have it. No matter — I was there to eat, not to work. The food arrived and the tuna melt was just what I’d hoped for. The roasted red pepper soup was a huge portion and served piping hot, but was more tomato soup than red pepper soup, which was fine but not really what I’d had in mind.
The cakes look pretty great and they have a long list of milk shake flavours which they obviously pride themselves in — on previous visits I’ve tried a few and found them to be good.
I was impressed with how much food I got for the price and it was a very pleasant space to sit and eat it but there are a lot of great places to eat on and near Byres Road. I’ll be back if I’m struggling for a seat somewhere but I think I’ll skip the soup next time.

We arrived at 6:25 and were asked if we were sitting in. When we said no, the woman at the counter said, good, because I can only do take away, we’re closing in five minutes. Fair enough. After asking for recommendations which I barely understood due to the woman speaking at hyperspeed, we placed our order for two milkshakes.
The milkshakes are basically milk with ice and flavour syrup. Pretty horrendous, really. Between that and the fact that two different employees basically rushed us out, the second quite rudely, it’s safe to say that was my first and last visit.
If you’re after a good milkshake in the West End, give BRGR a try instead!

The place is really easy to find and there’s a choice of either indoor or outdoor seating. Most of the year, indoor would be preferred, as outside can be quite chilly (even during the Summer).
The staff are polite and courteous and always do their best to make you feel at home. The seating area can, however, feel a bit cramped: it may be worth visiting outside of peak times.

I have completely changed my mind about this place. Honestly, I may have fallen in love with their coffee. Although I have graduated from high school now, the early morning staff got pretty used to seeing my face at 08:10 3 times a week. In fact saying «Medium cappuccino to go please.» became part of my regular routine.
I followed up my promise and tried one of their milkshakes and sweet jesus it was fabulous. However the selection process was daunting because I wanted to try so many of the flavours.
Atrium’s you are my Waterloo and you have definitely become my favourite coffee shop in Glasgow.

I used to come to Atrium every week in my first years of uni, but now that study time is a premium I’ve been absent for a while. Today, in the beautiful sunshine, I made my return and once again I felt right at home. We sat in their outdoor seating which is a proper suntrap and great if you have dogs, prams etc with you. Today I had the chia latte which was perfect — sweet and cinnamony with just the right amount of froth — but overall I’ve always had excellent food and drink from Atrium. They’ve a great selection and their cakes particularly are fresh and tasty. The staff have also been in total nothing but helpful, friendly and attentive. Atrium is nothing fancy, but its strong base of regulars proves that it’s somewhere welcoming and satisfying that people want to keep coming back to.

I should have written this review a long, long time ago but I’m only getting round to it now.
Months and months ago I first experienced Atrium. I was O.K. The staff were unwelcoming, dry and gave hateful looks when making an order. The drinks were average, a bit too sweet though. The food is ok if you’re starving. The reason I would always go to Atrium though was because it mostly never seemed to be busy (when I went anyway…) I would much rather go to Starbucks any day but sometimes it’s too busy and I just want to sit and have a coffee and sandwich and relax. It’s hard to relax in Atrium though… After buying from the quite nasty female staff you can still feel the icy cold stares behind your back. Anyway. Months ago I was in Atrium with a friend, we both ordered coffees and I got a sandwich. My friend being a vegan got soy milk in her coffee and brought a small bag of grapes with her. We sat at the window with our coffees and waited for my sandwich to be brought over. When the rude waitress brought me my sandwich my friend began to eat her grapes. I had taken one single bite of my sandwich and a few sips of my coffee when the waitress came over and said in a rude manner «You can’t eat your own food here… at all.» I replied «We just bought two coffees and food, it’s only a small bag of grapes.» and she answered back «You have to leave or put the fruit away.» and then walked away. Another waitress was smiling at her as she was walking back to the counter, so I suspect the waitress was smiling back at her. We decided to leave, taking our coffees but had to leave my sandwich with only one bite taken from it. Never to return until after almost a whole year. So I thought «It’s almost been one year, maybe the staff has changed» and I was right, the staff had changed but they were as cold, dry and rude as the old staff. I went in for a coffee, it was basically the same experience as before… Bitchy female staff. I’ll probably never go back to Atrium ever again. I don’t know what kind of training the staff get or if they even get any but the sister store, Café Go-​Go is a whole different atmosphere. Unless… The workers from Atrium are in that day, then it’s exactly like Atrium.
I’d give Atrium 0 stars if I could but I thought I’d be generous today and give at least 1.

I give my review as a take away customer as I’ve never sat in. From other reviews it’s sadly had a poor rating but the few times I have been I’ve fortunately never had any problems.
I do always find that it’s really busy but fortunately my last couple visits I’ve just needed a take away. My man absolutely loves the coffee there after I surprised him one day when bringing him one with a wee cheeky Danish. This is where I noticed their 91 options of milkshakes. I knew I had to come back soon.
With all this lovely weather we’ve been having this was the perfect opportunity to pop in to try one of the many milkshakes. I swear I must have gopped at the menu for quite some time, it was a very difficult choice you know. I wanted to try so many. Arrrgh! What to choose?! In the end I opted for a chocolate cherry flavour and my man chose the chocolate cookie.
After deciding on our flavour we when were given more choice. Noooo! What size to have?! I chose the medium and my man had the large. I wish I had picked the small as it was still a lot for little me.
It wasn’t as milkshake as I thought, it was more slushy to be honest, it had a lot of crushed ice. It still tasted lovely and the flavour really came through and on the hot day that it was, it was exactly what I needed as a refreshing cooler.
I’m hoping to try more on their menu soon, the food does sound good.

I’ve been meaning to write this review for a long time but the anger in me was so great near the time that I didn’t even want to give credit at all to this place.
Visited here for the very first time with a friend of mine visiting from London, hadn’t seen her in quite a while and we normally go to (the lovely) Kember & Jones for a coffee, cake & chat but this time she wanted to try somewhere else. I’m always up for a new place so I had no worries at all.
Firstly I have to say the coffee and cake I had was average as was the service. Nothing to write home about. This however was not my issue. The problem did arise after myself and my friend had not even finished our coffees and cakes, one of the waitresses came over and asked would we like any more ~ this would not normally be a problem, one could say this is just good and attentive service. Yes, it’s good and attentive BUT not so after being asked for the FOURTH time and giving the same reply, politely of course, to the same waitress. It gets rather annoying and also every time she approached us to ask this she was interrupting our conversations without apologising and getting snippier with us by the minute.
After all this she decided to approach us yet again and then went onto inform us (in a not particularly nice manner) that if we didn’t proceed to buy anything else could we then leave. Upon being told this my friend, a bit taken aback (as indeed I was too), asked the reason as to why this was so. The girl then went onto give some feeble excuse that it was ‘a busy period’ and ‘we need the table’. Now, we were sat in the corner of the café on a small table for 2 people and it was by no means busy at all ~ there were at least 2 other tables (bigger than ours) free for any incoming customers. Also what grated the most was there was a man sat next to us who was in the café before we sat down, had ordered just one coffee and remained seated there, with his newspaper and was not once asked if he wanted ‘anything else’ or asked to leave. This was not on. We felt as if we were very much being picked on. Especially as every time the said waitress returned to the counter she proceeded to whisper and look over/​nod in our direction with other members of staff, now giving us both the evil eyes. Hmph.
After this charming conversation (Ha!) with the waitress we decided to leave anyway as we weren’t willing to put up with anymore rudeness. Before leaving my friend asked to speak to the manager, she was told the manager wasn’t in but spoke to the girl in charge that day about what had happened, she seemed not in the slightest bit interested and said it was ‘their policy’ to ask people to leave if they hadn’t purchased anything for ‘a while’. Now we were sat in there maybe an hour tops and we had BOTH purchased coffees and cakes so we did not appreciate her making us feel like two cheeky junkies trying to steal their precious table/​heat whilst sat at a table with a cup of tap water between us. I have worked and assisted in managing a coffee shop and believe me I DID have customers that would do exactly that but unless it was SO busy that our regular, paying customers could not get a seat I would NEVER ask that person to leave. It’s just not British. Or polite goddamnit.
The way we were treated that day and the immaturity and rudeness of their staff is more than enough to put anyone off going there, maybe this was an ‘off’ day but I have to say I have heard, since this occasion, a few other bad stories about this place so I’m thinking maybe not so… anyway, I for one will never go back.

I went there a few times and had a good vanilla milkshake. Not until one day when I was waiting for my drink, a woman came asked if she could use the bathroom first. Of course I said ‘yes, plz go ahead’. She then blamed me for not opening the door for her. Such an ungrateful woman. And then one day when I was reading newspaper after finishing my milkshake, the waiter took my drink away quickly and gave a look that he wished I left immediately. So I left and never returned. An obvious place for much older group of people in their 50s.

oh no a not so good experience! im copy and pasting this from a message post…
to be honest, im a little mad at atrium, as the service i had last time was a bit poor… i returned a milkshake that honest to god had two sips taken from it– i didn’t like it/​let my friend try it. the shake was crazy sweet and did not taste like butterscotch (don’t get the butterscotch milkshake) and when i asked for something else in a very nervous and shy manner the service gal was snippy about it and then was like ‘well its probably sweeter because you wanted skim milk’ and i asked for a coffee which i had to pay for, thus losing two pounds (hey im a student and thats another coffee) — im actually quite unhappy i had to rebuy something despite not even drinking or liking my original choice.
and while i was waiting for my coffee the girl and one of the other workers were talking about the shake in non library voices with some ‘tude because i asked for something different… ‘yeah there’s nothing wrong with it/​i don’t know why she didn’t like it’ etc
definitely not returning there for a while…

Oh Atrium how i love thee so.
How my soul aches for thy coffee, cake and wifi goodness…
I could well continue, however i feel that i may embarrass you dear reader with my open and frank declaration of love to this home from home, community hub of the west end.
‘So whats the beef? Why the love?’ i hear you cry… no? Oh, what did you say then… i dropped my glove? No, that’s not mine…
Express train to reality; one ticket please.
So, the beef is this. Atrium, for me, just gets it right.
–The décor, bright, fresh and welcoming (especially on a rainy Scottish day… plans for an awening have been discussed)
–staff/​oweners, friendly without coming accross as fake,
–coffee…yum…cakey goodness, fresh, tasty and reasonably priced.
Add to this the free Wifi (which has totally sorted itself out since my first review) and you have, for me, the perfect local coffee shop.
West End bound? Needing Coffee and a blast on the web? Hit Atrium, i do.

What can I say that hasn’t already been said. Maybe the best cup of herbal tea in the western world. Staff are wonderful!

This is a lovely, bright, comfy and quite homey coffee house just situated off Byres Road. I have to say, it’s this that really has me hooked. I love, Byres Road and Aston Lane as much as the next person (well, almost). But, it’s far too busy for me and the public’s inability to walk down a street correctly irritates me something awful.
Admittedly, despite being off of Byres Road this coffee house is remarkably busy most of the time. However, I reckon this is not down to it being an easy ‘people puller’ but down to genuine quality.
As mentioned in previous reviews the hot drinks are delicious and well made, while there’s a good selection of yummy treats to suit everyone. For example: last week I indulged myself with a big hot chocolate, double espresso and slab of cake; while my very thin friend opted for a lentil soup and an orange juice (weird combination, wouldn’t you say??).
Anyway, this is a lovely coffee house worth a visit. Especially on a Sunday when you can relax with the papers. This was a favourite of me and the boy’s though unfortunately this will now become a thing of the past seen as we bumped into my folks there a few Sundays ago. Shock horror. It was all too much to handle with a hangover.

I’m quite surprised I am first to review this minute coffee shop as it is always so busy though I guess all coffee shops in the west end are (oh how I love my cute coffee shops).
The coffee (or whatever hot beverage takes your fancy) is properly made and there is an amazing selection of cakes and muffins. I believe they even do bacon rolls which automatically puts it up in my estimations.
The service is friendly, there are newspapers to relax with and there is a little pinboard at the back with ads placed by local people. Indeed this little coffee house epitomises local. I like very much.