Jungle Juice Bar

I’ve been here several times and still I’m walking slowly down the ally way making sure I don’t miss the café. It’s a great hidy hole that has little room inside and leaves you wondering how the staff function in such a small space. But they do, it must be the killer sound track and music that keeps them going. I come for the bagels but the coffee (in all its varieties) just nails it. I’m a creature of habit so I go for the vego bagel and still get a silly grin on my face each time I see the old Golden Book menu.
Love this place, and it’s top of my ‘day after the night before’ brunch list when staying in the city.
Unleash your inner hipster and come try it out.

damn shawwwdddy
I already know what I’ll have:
McBagel
Saigon
Lebo lemonade
this place is fantastic. excellent prices. quality, friendly service. great bagels and the coffees are superb. some of the best in the City. Probably straight up the best in the city, because in the main, JJ are not catering to the corporate crowd who will guzzle whatever swill you splash in front of them.

One of my favorite places in Melbourne! I take out of Towners and locals here whenever I can or chill with a Vietnamese coffee on the tiny outdoor tables and watch the world go by. This place is seriously tiny and you would be forgiven for walking past and not noticing it.
The food is simple but oh so good. Menus can be found in old recycled golden books — the kind you had as a child. They do a great coffee and have a few special add ons like a African spiced coffee or sweet and tasty Vietnamese coffee. I always try to grab a outdoor seat though the indoor tiny tables are nice and warm. If you finish lunch and feel like a beer they also can provide! Or better yet head up the stairs and discover hells bar!

Many Melbourne lane way cafés are overrated in that they’re gentrified these days. Yes, they may be hip, but that shouldn’t justify a $ 50 breakfast there. It may be the landlords demanding ever increasing rents, or the café owners are getting greedy. Whatever. Prices have built up to ridiculousness, to a point where it becomes more luxury than their liberal artsy origin. How else do you explain a $ 17 omelette, a $ 10.50 Kransky bagel (wrongly claiming to be German) or a $ 10 oats muesli? And I don’t care that it’s supposedly organic. It’s just plainly overpriced (and they don’t even allow card payments). Take that, Sydney!
Positive note: Tastes are alright.
Value (and that’s what my rating reflects): Overrated, and yes I’ve experienced better.
Alternative lifestyle has finally embraced market economy. Hooray!

If I lived in Melbourne, I would come here everyday! But because I don’t, I will have to settle for going there every time I visit Melbourne. Don’t let the name of the place fool you, there is also great coffee. But the highlight for me were the fresh juices — you can see them bring in the boxes of fresh fruit everyday. The last one I had was a pineapple-​orange-​mint-​berry-​ginger juice for $ 5.50, it tasted as awesome as it sounds. There is also a really cool vibe in the artsy laneway, divey setting and menu in children’s books.

Centre Place café, Jungle Juice exists in the intersection of Hungover and Hipsters in Melbourne’s Venn diagram. The bagels are fantastic and sit at around $ 10 (give or take) for a generous size with options including the BLT, smoked salmon, McBagel, Vego and more, chosen from Golden Book covered menus — but no alterations.
The whole place is teeny tiny, staff are daydreamy but friendly and make a decent coffee. Apparently there are other things on the menu but I haven’t felt the need to look that far. Oh, and if you need a breakfast beer with your hipster hangover, they are licensed as well.

Love this place. While so many cages in this area ooze pretension, this is a friendly place with great coffee and great food. Try it out!

I was under the impression that this place was actually called «The Bagel Café» until failing to find that name when checking in to Unilocal and discovering it is in fact «Jungle Juice».
So, that’s a good introduction to how tucked away/​non-​signed this place is. But don’t let that discourage you.
I’m a die hard inner north-​sider, and I like to think of Jungle Juice as the hipster café of the CBD. Of course, the «only-​find-​it-​if-​you-​know-​where-​it-​is» aspect contributes to this, as do the alternative lifestyle haircut/​fashion waitstaff, the recycled golden book menus and the bohemian seating. None of which are criticisms!
But the best thing about this place is the bagels. My favourite is the BLAT — bacon, lettuce (in this case, rocket), avocado and tomato — which comes with their «jungle mayo» — aka amazing mayonnaise of mysterious deliciousness. Bagels are served hot but never burnt, always a bit moist and crispy and perfectly fresh. As are all their fillings.
While this strip of the city (Degraves St through Central Arcade) is always crawling with people — especially at lunch time — I always manage to find a seat here. That said, the seating best caters to solo and duo diners, so don’t bring all your friends here at once.
Staff are always pleasant, and the tininess of the café means that seating is pretty much shared with the kitchen space, so you can usually watch them potter about for entertainment while you wait for your food. My advice is to become a regular, order as soon as you walk in the door and enjoy getting your bagel and juice just a few minutes later. It’s pretty much the only place I eat lunch in the city these days. Lucky the prices are very reasonable, too!

Blink and you’ll miss it — but then you’ll also miss some excellent bagels and bloody good coffee! This little hole in the wall inside Centre Pl has limited seating, so if you’re lucky enough to score one of the miniature tables you’re onto a good thing. From there, you’ll be handed an old children’s book which acts as a cover for the menus. I always order the veg bagel, with rocket, tomato, cheese and tobacco sauce. It’s full and rich and delicious! Probably not the healthiest lunch but it’s worth it!
Because of the general chaos of the lane, ordering and paying can require a bit of extra effort, but truly, the quality of the food and coffee here is worth any pain.

Out of the numerous coffee dispensaries in the greatest Place in the Centre of town this is mine and comes highly recommended by not just me but a number of people I know as well.
Everything about Jungle Juice is awesome. The menus that are made from Golden Books set the tone and bring back all sorts of nostalgia. As a bagel lover they give them all the respect that they deserve and fill them with quality ingredients and great combinations. The staff are the friendliest in the city and are well educated in the art of making coffee. It is very cosy inside if you can find a table and exciting if you are sitting on the block outside with all the traffic passing by.