This is the mid-morning purgatory of Ninth Street, where Durham's post-renovation aesthetic meets the athletic elite of Duke. It's a sanctuary housed in a former 1961 West Durham Post Office; a space where letters and parcels were once sorted with human hands, now repurposed to serve $15 bowls of nutrient-dense sediment to people in $120 high-performance spandex. We've traded the weight of the written word for massaged kale and "Fuel Happiness" stickers.
The Bueno Bowl arrives looking less like a meal and more like a tactical geological core sample, a dense, chaotic mash of black beans, charred corn, peppers, and feta precisely engineered to hit a specific macro-count. It's functional, high-protein fuel that tastes genuinely excellent, even if it looks like something exhumed from a very ugly archaeological dig. The space is industrial-clean: open web steel trusses and polished concrete echoing with the frantic energy of 9th Street. Overhead, the slatted wood canopy provides modern-rustic shelter for the work-hard-play-hard demographic. Large windows frame the miserable gray winter Durham rain, turning the dining area into a bright, sterile fishbowl where the Juice Room operates with the cold, laboratory precision of a triangle biotech startup.
It's a clean, well-lighted place. It won't save your soul, and the quinoa doesn't care about your problems, but when the rain is coming down on 9th Street, it will keep you nutritionally fortified and spiritually neutral. My beautiful Starbucks cup on the table felt like the ultimate corporate crossover, a necessary bit of global franchise consistency to anchor me in this local-ish boutique void. Hit your macros and move on.
Daniel Peterson
Nov 7, 2025
5
The food is consistently fresh and absolutely delicious! My wife has a gluten allergy and loves all the options she has. Our go-to dish is the Protein Bowl. The portion is easily big enough to share and feel satisfied afterward.
Wen Carey
Sep 21, 2025
5
Loved everything all around. Ordered a smoothie and a honey chicken bowl. The salad was scrumptious and they didnt skimp on the salad bowl which sometines places like this will do that.
Sophia Burchett
Sep 20, 2025
5
Happy + hale is healthy but it still tastes absolutely delicious!!!!♡ even my picky 9 yo sister thought it was good! Super yummy
Mac & Cheesy
Aug 23, 2025
5
Got a breakfast bowl with spinach, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes. and my friend got a custom bowl!
It’s tasted great and was prepared quickly! We dined outside with our poochie and the team brought out some water for him without being asked! So nice of them! :)
Vegan Linked
Aug 18, 2025
4
Great variety of healthy whole vegan foods! Would have gave five star on service if the cashier would have had a better personality and they would have actually had tofu. It took at least 15 minutes before they had tofu. And that was the only vegan "protein" option. But they had plenty of other veggie options that were sufficient like black beans, sweet potatoes and broccoli which was great. It was unfortunate that the only vegan protein option was not even available. The cook was very kind and explained that was just because they got over the weekend shift having ran out and It took time to marinate, chop and cook. I would give five stars on the food if it was entirely vegan. There was way too much animal in there. ;)
*Apparently the owner thinks they "can't get rid of their animal products". What a disappointing response. Of course they can get rid of them! There's over 33,000 vegetarian and vegan restaurants in the US alone. Thousands of these are vegan. You can get rid of the animal products, you just don't care about the animals enough to or the gravely invasive impact animal agriculture has on the environment, communities, and human outcomes concerning health with increased risk of chronic disease for the consumer. If you cared about those things then you would easily make your restaurant entirely vegan and there are countless ways to do that and be better than all of the other restaurants around you.
There was a marketing class where they shared a story about Nike sending a researcher to Africa to see if there was a market. When he came back he said there wasn't because there was nobody there wearing shoes where he went. On the flip side though it was an untapped huge market of tremendous potential. It's kind of like is the glass half empty or full. You can get rid of the animal products, you just choose not to care or be creative enough to. There are literally Michelin star restaurants that are vegan.
Dalton Ewing
Jul 19, 2025
5
I got the Thai chicken crunch bowl here and it was absolutely phenomenal
Donovan Thomas
Jun 1, 2025
5
A very special lady in pink (pictured ☺️) recommended me here to try a smoothie and I just happened to get an acai bowl. Pick dragonfruit ladies n' gentlemen, you won’t be disappointed 💗
Natalie Sulejman
Feb 18, 2025
3
Ordered one of the kale salads that was drenched in dressing. A copious amount of salty dressing was already tossed in the greens mix. So. Much. Sodium. The tofu, cauliflower, other toppings are overly salted/marinated. It's unnecessarily salty and takes away from the flavor of the actual food. My only recommendation to this place, as the concept is great and makes for a good, quick option. Smoothies are good, lots of varieties. I would recommend building your own bowl and being very specific with your order, if you aim to be health conscious.
