The Flavour Co

Really can’t fault this place. Their juices/​smoothies are excellent and very reasonably priced — you can get two large green smoothies for just over a fiver. You have a choice of a cup or bottle, which is really useful if you want to buy a couple of smoothies and keep one in the fridge for a day or two. They do soup/​paninis/​coffee and what not, and there’s a few seats if you want to eat in. When I say «few», I really mean it — I think there are 6 seats in total!
I just wish they were open slightly longer — they are only open for 6 hours a day (9am-​3pm Mon-​Sat). It would be nice if they opened at 8am to catch people on their way to work. It’s a shame because I can only come here on Saturdays but would love to pick up a smoothie before work!

Great wee place to grab a coffee on the go or even sitting in taking advantage of the free wifi they have firing away.
Small? Yeah, but they have a few stool type seats that you can sit on and tippy tap away to your wee heart’s content.
Coffee… great. Nice and smooth, reasonably priced and served with a smile… whats that i hear you say Costa? I said a SMILE… look it up in the dictionary! (burn!)
Owner was very pleasant and keen to point out that they also specialize in fresh fruit juice (spring/​summer treat methinks) as well as freshly made sandwiches and good service. What’s that i hear you say Costa…
Flavour Co = thumbs up in my books!

Flavour is very small, with standing room for maybe 5 customers and 2 or 3 stools near the window. It has a a selection of sandwiches and cakes that are invariably good. The soups have a decent choice and taste and feel like good, homemade soup. And the coffee is better than average.
So far it sounds like many other spots in the West End and along Great Western Rd. But the main selling point for me is how friendly it is there. The staff are really nice and make it feel honestly welcoming. It is one of the few places I would walk a little out of my way just to stop there for a takeaway coffee. And that feels good

Previous reviewers are right, this specific location on Great Western Road does appear to be cursed as it seems to be occupied by somebody new every time I pass it! However I have only ever actually entered 517a while it has been The Flavour Co. I don’t know what it was that drew me in other than my general love for café type establishments.
I was pleasantly surprised when I entered this café because while it is so tiny they seem to cram a lot into it. They have a good selection of homemade soups and sandwiches as well as delicious smoothies but the highlight has to be the «healthy cakes». They are just as delicious as «normal» cakes but are made from organic ingredients and unhealthy ingredients such as sugar are substituted with healthier agave. Go Flavour Co go!

Paul is right on the account of this premises being inexplicably difficult to keep afloat — perhaps being wedged between Coopers and Subway means it gets submerged. It’s a shame, really, as I often have passed 517a in its various appearances as juice bar and milkshake shop and although it picqued my interests, I never visited.
The Flavour Co is the next to step up and run the gauntlet. Although as Paul outlines every second business in this area sells snacks (we Glaswegians love our food, apparently) the Flavour Co offer a selection of smoothies and cheap, healthy soup to tickle your fancy. It’s dinky but there are booths along the window so you can watch the world go by propped up on your stool, or pick up one of the papers strewn across the tables.
Even though cafes in this area are not exactly in short supply, I am rooting for this one to do well since the staff are exceptionally friendly and I can’t stop thinking about the sandwich I had from here. Hummous and red pepper, going around and around in my brain. Why? Because it was bloody delicious. And not even expensive! So don’t you dare overlook this place, I love it and recommend it to all!

Given the number of snack bars in the West End, it’s hard not to take a hard-​nosed Dragon’s Den stance with any new one that crops up. What have you got to offer? What makes you special? Who are you trying to attract? And so on, until more often than not it ends up with, I’m sorry, I just don’t see it, I’m out.
The latest is the Flavour Co, which has taken on the challenge of the difficult 517a Great Western Road location as it aims to succeed where so many others have failed before. Shuffling inconspicuously on to the scene, the miniscule café, so small that it can often seem busier than it is, specialises in the usual morning and lunch time fare and offers a handful of high stools with the day’s papers for those who wish to have a quiet morning coffee. With both Hillhead Secondary and Glasgow Academy nearby, lunch-​times here could perhaps be more trouble than they’re worth.
When it comes down to it, Flavour Co isn’t really doing anything different but the staff were just so damn nice when I visited that I can’t help but keep my fingers crossed it succeeds. I’ll never be the next Duncan Bannatyne, I guess.