Tropical Smoothie Cafe — Restaurant in Carol Stream

We love Tropical Smoothie but this location has been consistently disappointing. The crew that works there don't seem to know what they are doing.

Today we ordered a kids cheese quesidilla for my vegetarian daughter thru the drive thru. The person taking the order repeated what we wanted, confirming it was the kids cheese quesidilla. After we paid and was handed the food, my daughter immediately checked to be sure it was a cheese quesidilla (since they mess up the order often). It was a chicken quesidilla that wasn't even cooked. They chicken was cold and the shredded cheese wasn't melted but the outside tortilla was lightly toasted. We noticed it was not what we ordered right away and told the person who gave it to us (who was not the same person who took our order). That person said that they only had one kind of quesidilla and it comes with chicken and that next time we order we should specify if we didn't want chicken. I told them we had correctly ordered the kids cheese quesidilla and our order had been repeated back to us. I asked if they could make us a cheese quesidilla as we ordered. He said he could remake it for us if we gave him the chicken quesidilla or we could "just pick the chicken out" ourselves. My daughter insisted we just go as she showed me the uncooked cheese and cold to the touch chicken. It looked gross.

We've had other, similar experiences at this location and I was always hopeful it was because its a young crew still learning. But, I don't think I've ever seen a person in charge or anyone demonstrating good customer service skills. I don't plan to stop by this location again. Here's to hoping the management makes efforts to improve quality...

Usually love this place. I order the avocalada with whey protein and multivitamin. It’s always green. My kids get the junior jettys. Theirs is always pink. Lol I got my smoothie today though and it looked super yellow. Picture doesn’t do the yellow justice. I tried it as I drove away and it was really sweet. I called to tell them they forgot the avocado or added something else (maybe why it was tasting so sweet) … just to let them know incase someone was new and needed to be retrained. The girl who answered defended the drink though and said they definitely put the avocado in it. 🥸 I told her it was really sweet and yellow, unlike the green it normally was and I definitely didn’t taste any avocado. She said that the whey protein changes the color to lighter/ yellow & they made it fine. (Again, I order the same thing every time I stop at Tropical Cafes with whey & the vitamin) so it’s definitely not supposed to taste or look like this.) I wasn’t up for arguing over a $9 drink and thought I’d leave a review for owners/ management instead. After everything she did say they could remake but I’m not interested in going back to her if she’s saying she made everything correctly....

I waited in the drive through for over 10 minutes, I’m the only car out here. I paid for my order and then they forgot about me. They left the smoothie by the window but no one came back. I tapped on the glass, no one came to the window. One girl was on her cell while the guy took other orders from people at the counter. I had to call to let them know that I was outside waiting for my order. The guy comes back to the window and was like are you picking up an order, and I had already paid that guy cash for my order. So the guy picked the smoothie up to give me my smoothie finally, and had to remake it because the one that was there was starting to become watery. I got told that it was a lack of communication on their part. Get an apology and then a new smoothie made. Biggest issue was that they legit forgot that I was there and I had to call the store. It is horrible customer service, teenagers from high school who do not know ethics of working or what it means to actually pay attention other than being on your cell...