Primal Roast

These guys deserve five stars alone for the fact they played an entire City and Colour album during my visit. When I think of the perfect chilled out working environment that’s exactly the type of music I like to listen to. So Primal Roast are off to a good start…
The café itself is a lot bigger than it first looks with a spacious seating area in the back. I’m finding it hard to describe the décor without repeating the word lovely over and over. It’s bright and very inspiring, with cute sofas for lounging and table and chairs for working or eating. Plus they give you such a generous amount of personal space between tables.
The staff are super knowledgable about their extensive tea range and serve up some really healthy breakfast and lunch options — really different to the other food options in this area of Glasgow. Today I had the grilled chicken, quinoa and roast vegetables for lunch with a really delicate green tea on the side.
The grilled chicken dish was just what I needed. Everything was really scrummy, the chicken was soft and tender and roast vegetables are always a winner in my book. Big thumbs up for the roasted courgette — my fave!
I’m so impressed with Primal Roast. It’s really nice to see someone break the mould of city centre cafes and do healthy food so passionately without being preachy. I’ll be back for those breakfast options and more lovely tea really soon.

This is healthy eating for the fearful: my natural revulsion to foods that look like sick/​contain ingredients I don’t understand had made me a little nervous about my first trip to this paleo/​raw food/​clean eating inspired café but those fears were unfounded. I ordered the minute steak, which normally comes with courgette noodles but which I had with a quinoa/​roast veg salad instead (they were out of the noodles, but I’d be worried if a fresh lunch spot was still fully stocked at 2pm!). The food was prepared quickly and packaged well (but not excessively!) to take away and was honestly one of the nicest lunches I’ve ever had. Not cheap — you wouldn’t expect it to be — but absolutely glorious.
Two thumbs up for their wide range of raw baking too — I was spoiled for choice! I went with the raw caramel slice, and it’s so tasty that even I (a baked goods aficionado) cannot fault it.

I love food. I love eating. I also love checking out new businesses. All of these things collided today when I visited the brand new Primal Roast on St Vincent Street (up near Charing Cross).
First impressions might be that this is a paleo café, and I guess it does cater to that customer but they are actually also brilliant for anyone with dietary requirements/​allergies, or anyone who just wants really tasty food. At the moment, I’m mostly sticking to dairy free/​gluten free and found that the food here fits that perfectly — the staff really know their stuff in terms of ingredients and allergies and will happily talk you through what is suitable. There’s also a couple of options each day which are suitable for vegans — the veggie Buddha bowl as well as dessert/​sweet options.
It’s also a much bigger space than expected — there’s a few seats in the front area but then a really large seating area out back. It’s perfect for a casual lunch spot with couches, or working with a laptop as there’s power points and wifi (with a password which I didn’t ask for on this visit!). I sat out the back and the guys were nice enough to bring my food out to me which I appreciated.
So, the veggie buddha bowl. The veggies will change depending on what they cook but today it was sumac aubergine which was all my dreams come true — I love aubergine so much. Served with steamed rice, spinach as well as chickpea stew and topped with crispy kale, it was absolutely delicious. You can tell that these guys know their food as it was packed with flavour and I totally loved it. For £5.50 I thought the portion size was just right and left feeling perfectly full.
They do Dear Green coffee and Tea Pigs tea — super fruit is absolutely amazing! I also got a couple of slices of cake to take away as they have dairy free options — chocolate orange cheesecake sounded too good to resist!
If you’re in between 7.30−11am (or all day Sat) they do breakfast which sounds good and has something for most people — porridge, hash browns, breakfast burritos. Other lunch options include frittata, soup, grilled chicken, steak. The menu isn’t massive but there’s a lot of variety.
I’ll definitely be back!