La Mina Juice Bar

You won’t find their business information through a Google search and you probably wouldn’t look twice at their slightly off coloured branding yet don’t be deterred! La Mina’s Juice Bar is home of the best baguettes and sandwiches in Cardiff.
Despite being dubbed a ‘Juice Bar’ I only ever carb-​load when visiting here and as everything in covered in mayonnaise /​copious amounts of butter I doubt any would consider it a healthy option?!
I forever order the same: Minted Lamb Baguette with Salad. The occasional BBQ Chicken if they’ve sold out. They have seating inside yet I’d recommend you walk /​drive around the corner to Roath Park and take a seat in front of the lake.
Bliss.

In times of blanket advertising and marketing campaigns that cost as much as a small nation’s GDP, a word-​of-​mouth business success is about as rare as a monogamous footballer. La Mina is a happy exception to the rule. Hungry hordes queue out the door most lunchtimes. But it’s not the juice bar part of their name that has dragged all manner of punters in; it’s absolutely incredible baguettes made there and then, the way you want them. Most of the options are chicken-​based, but with a great array of flavours — barbecue or tikka chicken facing off for top prize — £2.50 will buy enough food to fill you for hours with, in most cases, pocket change to spare. The fact that La Mina is almost entirely staffed by attractive young ladies is simply a happy bonus.

La Mina Juice Bar is pretty mediocre in my estimations. It doesn’t exactly yell health at me with a full lung capacity, born of eating and exercising right… hmmm, could that be perhaps because it’s been eating stuff off it’s own menu?! Now let’s see… does that include too many pieces of chocolate fudge cake at £1.99 a pop, or perhaps the carrot cake… (ah, hang on, there’s a vegetable in that!). Ok, what about the cheesecake??? What? Half a strawberry perched on every slice? Surely that’s considered more of a garnish, rather than a health giving ingredient??? Besides, one lean soldier in a cholesterol army of thousands isn’t going to win the war of the yucked-​up artery is it?
And since when was deep frying considered to be an imperative component of health defence? La Mina Juice Bar seems keen to announce the recent addition of Falafel to its menu. Yep, Falafel is deep fried, Yep, that’s right…
Hmmm… I won’t go on as I’m enjoying this a little too much, and it’s a bit mean… I guess it’s a bit like getting to play the baddie in a movie when you are an actor that’s seen to be whiter than white… you do it with relish… but perhaps, I’m over egging that pudding???
‘Which one of the many?’, I hear you cry… for shame!