Juice Garden

As a vegan and someone who is really into the whole health-​food thing, I do like Juice Garden. They’ve got an array of fun juices and smoothies, raw and vegan cakes, breakfast food like acai bowls, as well as main meals like soup, salads, burgers.
The juices, smoothies and cakes that I’ve tried were all really yummy. However, their main meals are generally a bit lacking in flavour. Everything is also really quite expensive, and while I can accept that for juices that are full of expensive acai/​maca/​spirulina/​etc, their food is definitely overpriced. I’d expect more from a £5.95 sandwich than some avocado on a piece of dry bread!
The staff also is not the most service-​minded and a lot of them seem very distracted most of the time, which is a shame.
On the whole though, I do like popping into Juice Garden once in a while for a juice or a smoothie.

I love the idea of what Juice Garden does, but I’m just not sure I am totally wowed by the execution. I hadn’t been to the Byres Road Juice Garden before and needed a quick lunch on my way to another café. I popped in for a look hoping I could find something suitable and ended up just opting for the soup of the day (sweet potato and coconut). It was around £4.50 and came with some bread on the side too.
I took a seat — dining here is very casual and the other tables were occupied by students and people working away on laptops. My soup arrived pretty quickly and had a nice topping of coconut shavings. Personally, I didn’t love the soup — it was just ok on the soup scale, resulting in the 3-​star rating for this place. I can’t really fault it, it just wasn’t anything special. It did have a bit of a kick to it which was nice, and it was a good sized portion. I was in a hurry and had to eat it really quickly and bust-​a-​move (leave) so maybe if I had more time to relax and enjoy this place and a juice, I’d like it more. I will definitely be back though.
Note: There’s meals made up in the fridge if you’re looking for grab-​and-​go, and they have a customer loo.

Same rating as my review for the other branch, for almost the exact same reasons.
Again post run, wanted an energy boost so popped in for a coffee and a juice. There was only 2 tables taken, yet a few of the tables had leftover cups/​plates etc. Could be down to the fact there was only 2 members of staff on.
Ordered my drinks and by the time I had paid, my coffee was all bit ready. Then the waitress spilt it as she put it down, which is fine, but annoying nonethless. The americano was super weak and could have done with an extra shot. The 8^th wonder, was again lovely, pricey but definitely worthwhile. We saw someone else had tap water in mason jars, so we also ordered some, as after a lot of miles you just need to rehydrate.
I do love it here, the juices and the food, but overall appearance needs to be improved, especially on such a quite day.

Ahhh Juice Garden…
I want to love it SO much, the nice airy décor, the delicious juice combinations, the healthy lunches… but it’s just so damned expensive! I cannot understand how my friend’s tiny avocado, onion and red pepper sandwich, which came on wharburton’s bread (perhaps they had run out of their usual rolls) came to 5.95! I mean, not even a bit of side salad! Literally just an alright sandwich that could easily be made at home.
I got some soup which wasn’t bad but came with chewy coconut bits on the top which I wasn’t a fan of and only came with half a slice of bread.
The service here is usually quite slow and one couple left after they sat down for 20 minutes and no one took their order.
I absolutely LOVE their juices and I wish I could give 3.5, but I just don’t think they warrant that extra star yet. Maybe if they get a bit more organized with their prices and bulk up their portions a bit I’ll be more willing to pay that price!
I will still probably go here often because I can’t get enough of their juices and it’s right round the corner, but I just wish they’d give you a bit more bang for your buck!

I really like the idea of the juice garden it’s really healthy and has a quirky vibe inside the shop. I love the variety of juices and the health benefits listed. I have found all of my juice orders delicious, the food orders are less so — they only serve sweet potato, chilli and coconut soup — for months now this is the same soup — I feel like they need to change this and choose a new vegetable!
There are some really friendly staff members who take the time to make conversation and smile. However what I’ve noticed is there are a lot of staff members yet ordering and getting your drink takes forever (most of my lunch hour waiting!) and as other reviewers have pointed out you’re stuck in the middle of the shop having to move out of the way every 10 seconds because there is no room to wait for your order! Drinks orders take a ridiculously long time and it isn’t necessary from my own experience of working in a café in Australia that served fresh juices.

We popped in here on Sunday for a quick immune boost as we were both feeling a bit sniffy, although Herself more so than I was. It was pretty busy with a queue for the counter, but I was really impressed that one of the staff came and issued everyone with menus to peruse before we got to the counter.
The menu is extensive enough that it took us a bit of time to choose what we wanted, but it couldn’t have been very long before we were at the counter and ordering our drinks to take away.
I had a #03 ‘Sherbet Lemonade’ Apple, Lemon & Mint with an added immune booster shot, Herself went for the #06 ‘Iron Mike’, and ordered a ‘flu shot’ while we were waiting. This turned out to be the most intense thing imaginable — it was like liquid fire! Honestly, eating raw chillies would have been less challenging! I think I would have waited for the main drink and poured it into that to water it down a bit, but she resolutely sipped at it and managed to finish it just as the main juices arrived.
I love fresh juices (who doesn’t?), and I would love to drink here every day; but at £3.85 for a small juice, I can’t afford to sadly. It’s a special treat.

I got dropped a to-​go berry juice from here once. Although it was just pretty much like any other juice, wanted to check the place out first hand. Bad idea.
One star for despicable service.
Uniformly wearing frowns on their faces, staff were some of the worst I’ve experienced in Glasgow. Juice menus are inconveniently scattered on ordering counter and only the food items are on wall menu. People come in expecting juice, standing in line and seeing no such choice are left like deer in headlights; while bumps and pushes by waitstaff hauling dirty dishes without so much as an «excuse me» egg them slowly up the line.
There is one person taking all the take away orders, with a sour face. She was asked what a certain boost ingredient in one of the smoothies were. Pointing to the booklet of ingredients, she simply said to «read it there». Okay. well we let the next customer go ahead of us and we take a min to quickly read the two lines. We are ready to order, standing right in front of her we wait until the current order is finished. I am still in the exact same place, ahead of the next customer and signal for attention. Blatantly ignoring my face she continues to take the next customer and then the next. We were just about fed up and walked out. Horrendous.

I love the principle of Juice Garden. I’ve drank a LOT of juice in my time, and this place sells great, inventive, health focussed juices.
The Byres Rd branch have wider range of products than the Renfield St outlet. There’s the same range of juices and sandwiches, but they also do hot meals such as veggie burgers and soups, and also sell raw vegan desserts. I am very happy to have a place so near to me that sells raw vegan desserts! And they have a cold press juicer — a Norfolk no less. If you’re properly into your juices, this will mean a lot to you!
I’ve had mixed experiences with this Juice Garden over the weekend though, so I’m not 100% impressed with Byres Rd yet.
Yesterday, I visited and got a couple of juices to take away. I got an Iron Mike which is my favourite, and a Drink Me Shrink Me. The Iron Mike was amazing — it’s said to be an ‘iron rich organ revitaliser’ and I definitely felt revitalised after drinking it. It’s an amazing, fresh, zingy juice. The Drink Me one was good too — sweeter, which is what I was expecting, and it also seemed to do what it was supposed to. So I was very very happy!
So happy in fact that I went back today. I sat in this time, and had another Iron Mike — it really IS my favourite juice, along with an Awesome Avocado sandwich, and a raw vegan brownie.
I was disappointed with the Iron Mike! What went wrong Juice Garden! It just wasn’t the same as previous Iron Mikes. It was paler in colour, and didn’t taste as strong or fresh. I couldn’t taste the parsley, and it didn’t seem very spinachy either. The girl who served it to me had called it by a different name, and I did wonder if they’d given me the wrong juice, so I double checked and she said that it was an Iron Mike. Looking at the ingredients of the other one, it didn’t taste like that either, so I’m having to presume that it was just an Insipid Mike rather than an Iron Mike. I’d venture that the balance of ingredients was wrong — far too much apple and not enough green stuff. Either that or they’d ran out of something and just didn’t put it in.
The avocado sandwich was tasty — lovely vegan pesto that is made from cashew nuts on site — it’s very cool that they do that.
The raw vegan brownie. Unfortunately another slightly disappointing experience. I’m sorry Juice Garden! It’s probably just unfortunate that I’m a raw food afficionado. The topping part of it had the potential to be lovely — it was soft and creamy, almost mousse like. The base was good in that it had brazil nuts, which are really good for you, but they were hardly chopped up at all, so you’d just get a fork full of brazil nut. It also had bits of dates which were still bits of dates. Everything should have been smooshed together a bit more. Overall, it was missing that dark, cacao taste that I would expect from a raw chocolate goody. It also tasted like it had been lying about for a couple of days, which it probably had been, as I’d seen them in the cooler the day before. Raw food needs to be fresh — the whole point is the enzymes and they’ll be dead if the product isn’t consumed fairly quickly after making. You wouldn’t make a salad and keep it in a cooler for a few days and expect it to still be OK — it’s the same with raw desserts. They might look OK if they’re old, but they don’t taste the same, they taste kinda dead, not alive and replenishing like they should be. So Juice Garden, please treat your raw desserts like your salads. Or if you do need to keep them for a few days, at least keep them in a tub so they’re not open to the air and deteriorating even quicker. I would try another raw dessert, but next time, I’ll ask when they were made, and I’ll only buy it if it’s fresh.
I was actually so unsatisfied by my Insipid Mike that on my way home I bought apples, kale, spinach and parsley, and am going to make my own Iron Mike at home. Unsurprisingly, Tesco was all out of Moringa, but I’m sure I’ll cope without it. I have a juicer and I’m going to use it! It’s just SO much easier to buy a juice. But if I’m going to spend almost a fiver on a juice, it needs to be top notch. And this is my worry for Juice Garden. Juice places have come and gone in Glasgow, it’s a tough market for them to sustain after the initial excitement has worn off. People who just fancy an occassional juice aren’t a big enough market to sustain a couple of outlets — you really need to be attracting the serious juice fans who will buy on a regular basis and form your core customer base. But is the juice isn’t good, or consistent, what will happen is that those people will just recreate them at home, and get them exactly the way they want them, and you’ll be left with a market of people who only want a juice now and then. Juice Garden is a good place, but it needs to be amazing if it wants to survive in Glasgow.

First visit for me. It’s been open for a few weeks so the initial craziness has died down. The staff seem much more organised than what the previous reviewers experienced. Really nice, welcoming and helpful.
The drinks are pretty good, although bizarrely there doesn’t seem to be much difference between a large and a small drink. I had a super greens, which was tasty although a bit overpowering with the lemon. I’d definitely come back and give it a second go, especially as it’s so local to me. Overall, it’s a great addition to the byres road community!

I have to agree with the other reviewer in pretty much everything they said about this place. It was packed to the brim when we walked in and thankfully we were just getting takeaway juice. The staff were overwhelmed with the orders coming through and there was only 1 person doing all the Juice orders. Maybe it’s okay to have one person on staff to do that in a slow period but not on a weekend! The mugs look cute and the food looks good as it came out of the kitchen.
I got the Detox juice and I wasn’t impressed. To be honest I’ve had really excellent juice from a place in Austin, Texas called Juiceland and you can’t really beat it. I need to come back here and try them out on a less busy occasion.

I’ve visited the Renfield Street Juice Garden for a juice fix on several occasions. So, whilst in the west end and craving a refreshing drink, I popped into their shiny, new juice bar.
I much prefer the style of this Juice Garden. It feels a lot more relaxed; brighter and more inviting. There aren’t any of the iPads you’ll find in the city centre café here. — Whilst JG’s first juice bar venture was a futuristic, funky one, their second is a little more rustic and stripped-​back, which I liked.
It was the second day of the new year and, of course, if there’s a time for detox, it’s January. So, as expected, it seemed like the whole of the west end craved a healthy lunchtime pick-​me-​up. It seemed that staff were unprepared for the January juice needs of Glasgow as it was chaotic with quite a wait and the mixing up of orders. It didn’t seem like there was any table system as we just took our seats after ordering. I think it could have been a little better organised since the staff seemed to just wander round with juices having forgotten who had ordered what and where they were sitting.
I can’t fault the staff; they were so apologetic about the wait. And I can’t fault the juice; it was delicious! I’ve no doubt that it was just opening niggles brought out by the January detox madness. — I do hope so! I’ll be back to find out.
On a side note: The table next to us ordered food and I could not stop taking sneaky glances. — It looked delicious… Did someone say sweet potato fries?!