Roots & Bulbs

I guess I’m not the target market for £6.50 smoothie. Even though I was being treated to my visit here by the bank of mum, I just couldn’t bring myself to order a drink that cost that much. And even if I was the target demographic, I’d expect the table I was sitting on to have been wiped down for that price and not to have been wonky. Instead of a smoothie I settled for a matcha ice tea — which to be honest was absolutely disgusting and needed sweetening for my taste. I guess I am just not the right person for this detox health conscious place. I did like sitting outside in the sunshine though, so I’ll give it 3 stars.

My husband and I hit Roots & Bulbs for coffee every morning during our London visit. The café is cute but tiny, and the location of the ordering counter right in front of the door can make things awkward and crowded during busier times. There were two areas with milk and sugar, one of which was on a counter that runs over some prepared foods, which are sitting out in the open. I’d personally pass on these foods for this reason.
That said, the coffee alone is reason enough to make a stop. I had lattes each time and they were incredibly delicious. If I were a local, this café would be one of my go-​tos to get some work done while sipping delicious caffeinated beverages.

A very lovely spot just behind South Kensington tube spot, it’s a very small little restaurant not much of a seating area was more of a order and go sort of place, we decided to sit in, I ordered the smashed avocado on toast me and my friend were happy overall but the poached egg was too over done, while my friend was unhappy with her order all together, so a bit of a disappointment from what we expected when we first saw the place

Best breakfast I have ever had!!! (Mashed avocado, toasted bread, poached egg)
Lovely interior. Absolutely cozy.
The staff is so lovely. Absolute nice people. Can’t wait to go back to London and have breakfast in this place!

Delicious and healthy food, everything on the menu is very fresh. Make sure you try the walnut brownie — amazing! The banana bread is fantastic as well and is one of their best selling deserts! Goes nicely with a hot latte! The staff are friendly and entertaining but the only downside is the slightly crammed space. Considering it’s obvious popularity, they could do with a larger seating area. Definitely worth coming down to South Ken for! Perfect spot for a rainy day coffee as it’s wonderfully warm homely and cosy!
4 Stars — one less only because of lack of spacing! Food and service 5*

Amazing, fresh and far from stingy. I got a avocado on bread with poached eggs and pleasantly surprised with the quantity of avocado. Fresh juice was also good and coffee decent. Felt healthier the moment I left!

A cozy and peaceful restaurant/​café great for studying or watching South Ken stroll by. Food is superb. All very fresh and organic. Did I mention free wifi! Not very suitable for big groups.

The layout of this place is quite confusing. You order food at the register for eating there or for takeout and some of the food is laid out on the counter.
We ordered a couple smoothies, which were decent, not amazing.
They are trying to adapt a «healthy» café idea here and so far, I feel like it has some work to do.
Go for some semi-​healthy smoothies, but don’t go for the food — it looks like it’s been sitting on the counter for too long.

Im inclined to agree with the poorer reviews. I have been here 8 times– 3 of those visits were a zero star. It is a great concept and location and a nice place to spend time but the set up for smoothie take aways which seems to be the bulk of their business needs a cooer look. The staff are very friendly but the Manager there (tall lean blonde chap) is always miserable and certainly doesn’t seem the need to follow the very ‘smiling’ happy Californian style philosophy that this place is essentially trying to imitate. The smoothies are priced very high for what they are– essentially two bananas go into one smoothie and then some spoons of powdered stuff out of unmarked tins which you have no idea on whether the quality is inferior or cheaply sourced. It shouldn’t be but it must be as the proof is in the pudding.
My experience at Marylebone was far more pleasant but the South Ken branch is hit and miss. Too inconsistent for that pricing in my view. This place needs some competition so that complacent managers like the one at the South Ken branch who charged me 50p extra for a dash of honey then walked off after taking payment without even asking the staff to add this in. Once the smoothie was ready I realised and it had to be redone. What a shame that the younger staff are all so pleasant and this case of sour grapes comes along to remind you that they are not as ‘Californian’ concept as they would like but a more hardcore commercial business. I also tried a salad (also 7 GBP which seems to be the magic number here as most take away options are 7 quid– another great marketing exercise) it was seriously appalling with 4 pieces of extremely dry and stale chicken on a bed of cheap lettuce. The profit margin on that is unjustified when the quality is so crap.
With specific regards to smoothies ingredients should be more transparent. The customer should know exactly whats going in and thats why they don’t offer for example a strawberry and banana and coconut ice smoothie like Juice Generation in NYC– these ingredients can not be faked like some of the poor quality stuff they have on offer. I am always bloated after their smoothie and after 1 week put on weight so stopped drinking them.
Same 7 days in NYC with Juice Generation in NYC and I lost weight. Because a smoothie should deliver digestible nutrients not stuff that will make you feel full because the body can’t digest it– I may as well drink a gallon of cream.
Also they insist on taking your payment before they start blending– and whilst they do this in Starbucks too the set up there is far more efficient — here there is always a wait in the crammed doorway– and Starbucks delivers with panache and class.
Roots and Bulbs has a great money spinner there but the smoothie drinkers will agree that these smoothies are overpriced considering the ingredients and

Excellent place to spend an afternoon. The green tea is cheap and quite good as well.

Place is really nice actually. Great concept, cozy and friendly. I had a latte and it was one of the best coffees I’ve had.
Would recommend!