Tropical Smoothie Cafe

This has to be the worst run Tropical Smoothie Café I have ever visited. The problems are numerous:
1. Tropical Smoothie offers a discount to senior citizens. According to an employee that I asked after not receiving the discount, the owner of this franchise has instructed his employees to not offer the discount unless the senior patron remembers to asks for it. This location is situated adjacent to a senior (age 55 and up) community. Since senior citizens are not known for their good memories, this owner’s policy amounts to the systematic cheating of his elderly customers and neighbors.
2. According to its web site, Tropical Smoothie offers free wireless internet to its customers. The owner of this franchise has encrypted his wireless network and does not tell his employees the password. If you dine at this location and ask for the password, you will be told «I don’t know».
3. This location is always understaffed. I have never seen more than one employee working there. Waits of 20 minutes or more are not unusual, especially around lunch time. I have even stood at the counter for over 10 minutes before my presence was even acknowledged.
4. According to the menu, the purchase of both a food item and a smoothie is supposed to be accompanied by a side such as chips, a fruit cup or a piece of fruit. More half the times I have gone to this location, the lone employee has not offered the side. The last two times I ordered the fruit cup, it came in a tiny cup that was only half full. I have not asked whether the owner has instructed his employees to withhold the side unless the senior patron remembers to ask for it.
5. At least half the times I have been there recently, they have not had the ingredients needed to make the food item that I wanted to order.
The cost of a food item plus a smoothie exceeds the cost of most of the local buffets in this area. I have continued to patronize this restaurant because I like the food, and have hoped that the poor management might eventually improve. But now I have reached my limit and have had enough of this owner’s greed. I will be dining elsewhere in the future. Furthermore, I have no use for anyone who cheats senior citizens.

Wanted to order a smoothie and half a sandwich, but was told they can’t make the half sandwich and that I had to order the whole sandwich. How does that make sense? Pretty annoying

Fast and reliable. Quality shakes too. The guy working there was awesome! Definitely going the more often.

Slow at best and glacial at worst, this Tropical Smoothie will probably take longer than any other in the valley. I have never seen more than one person working here, and with just one or two people in front of you in line, you’re looking at a 15+ minute wait. Go to a different location if possible.

This tropical smoothie sucks. We never get a greeting there’s always some grumpy high school kid that hates being there and today I walked in there were two high school kids talking about their social life after 10 seconds of them continuing to talk and not caring that they had customers I blurted out «hello». If you’re going to hire teens teach them work ethic.

The absolutely worst tropical smoothie
In town. They never have any ingredients to
Make anything. Please, if you live up in anthem highlands or inspirada drive to another location Because you will Be very disappointed when they can’t make a smoothie that you want.

Very disappointed way over priced. Service stinks. Dirty. always get the order wrong. The workers dont know what there doing and dont seem to care. Even there hours are not consistent they close and open when they want. stopped going there. After six times un a row of problems.

This place is a hit or miss. Sometimes it’s empty or one person in line, other times it’s filled with team moms and a ton of kids. There is one person working and I think it has something to do with costs and the location. It would be nice for them to add another person during rush hours or weekends.
Other than that, never had a problem with the food or smoothies.

Great service for only having One employee working on a Saturday afternoon!
Great food.
The young teenager was respectful and informed me that there was a wait.
I feel sorry for the employees that work at this store.

Just terrible. Did take out for the convenience of the location, came home to find a crappily made Cranberry Chicken Salad sandwich. It was disgusting (see picture) with the heel of the bread making up the sandwich… Just terrible.

My gosh why is this poor girl working alone here? Non stop customers! She is running around like crazy– the poor thing! She is doing an amazing job, food is great– but PLEASE get her some help!

I get better customer service at yard sales than here. Lazy kids are occasionally hired. Save your time and money, buy a magic bullet.

There definitely is a bit of a wait when it’s busy, which is not as often as some of the reviewers are leading on. I come often and every staff member is super nice. If you don’t want to wait call ahead and your order will be ready when you get there.

Food is usually pretty good, way understaffed usually wait 30 – 40 mins for something. No one is ever at the counter, only reason I go is cause its close to work

If you can get served here, it’s usually ok… there’s only one poor teenage girl working the counter, making smoothies and food, answering phones and trying to clean. Give me a break. It never takes less than 20 mins to get your order. The employee was even doing interviews the last time we were here. If this is a franchise, shame on the owners for forcing one employee to do everything and dealing with unhappy customers. We walked in and heard «it’s going to be awhile» yelled from the back. There was at least 5 people in the dining area waiting for their orders. We walked out after 5 mins of not seeing anyone at the counter.

I arrived at tropical smoothie to order lunch for my family. There was one person working and I waited 10 – 15 minutes to order (I was first in line) I waited while she made the previous order and once she served me they were missing peanut butter for the peanut paradise so I went without and it took another 15 – 20 minutes to put 4 smoothies and 2 wraps.
I was in Tropical smoothie for almost half and hour before leaving with my take out food and drinks.
On a good note a young guy arrived advising he was here for his interview maybe just short staffed but it made for an annoying first experience at the new local tropical smoothie!
Oh and the last part I asked why the drink container was so flimsy well the response was the owner doesn’t like to spend money on these types of things.

15 mins and don’t have food yet. Understaffed. One kid working answering phone, making sandwiches and filling a big take out order. It’s almost noon. Ugh!

Worst tropical smoothie ever.
Never anyone at counter and 30 minutes just to get a smoothie on multiple occasions.
Avoid at all costs!!!

I had a really tasty Mongolian beef bowl here. It is only available for a limited time so bummed about that. Hubby stopped a couple of days later and got me a sandwich. It was very mediocre and I would rather stop at the nearby Subway for a sandwich. When I went only one woman was working and while she was busy cooking customers got tired of waiting to order and left. They need to get better staffed quickly or many irritated customers will never come back.

Great smoothies, quick service and convenient location! Perfect place for a quick bite to eat.