Tropical Smoothie Cafe — Restaurant in Charlottesville

I tend not to gravitate toward chain restaurants but on this occasion I'm glad I did.

My wife and I where in C'ville when she felt the pangs for a smoothie. A quick search showed Tropical Smoothie five minutes down the road, so we stopped.

First impressions through the door, seemed a typical chain, but expedience won the day. It was clean and bright, the menu had a good variety and was my wife was pleasantly surprised she could add kale and pea protein to her Mango smoothie, I wasn't as enthusiastic at that prospect. I went with the Peanut Butter Cup. We decided to also split an Ultimate Club to hold us over to dinner.

The service was quick, the clerk was polite and friendly and sat to eat.

Overall I was very happy with the smoothies, the ingredients tasted fresh and the combination flavors worked well together. I very much enjoyed the Peanut Butter cup, it wasn't overly sweet and the level of peanut flavor was not in your face. My wife enjoyed her kale and pea protein with Mango smoothie, she commented she couldn't taste the add-ins though they were added in good amounts.

The sandwich was pretty good, the bread could have been better. It needed more of a harder crust to feel home made, as is it was more "wonder breadish". But I'm nit picking.

I'm glad we stopped, we both agree we would go back for smoothies anytime and will bend my rule about chain food a little...

Soooo we did a thing. We may have stopped by here after our away soccer game to celebrate a big win with a tropical smoothie dinner. Upon arriving we realized it may have been helpful to call ahead to give a heads up that 26 people would be storming the castle with just the 2 employees on staff tonight. Even so, these two people were absolute ROCKSTARS! They both were cordial, helpful, and went out of their way to make sure we were taken care of. We had them running around that kitchen like crazy but they seemed up for the challenge and delivered all of our orders without error and with a smile on. The young lady that was working even had the social awareness to address the customers waiting behind some of our orders to let them know she was sorry for any delay and that she would be with them ASAP. This dynamic duo was IMPRESSIVE! Recommending both for a raise and high marks for food and service here! I tried the new MANGO BACON BRIE FLATBREAD. I was not disappointed. Thank you guys for the amazing experience...

I’m very frustrated with my recent experience at this location. I was overcharged on my order and couldn’t get a refund because they said there wasn’t a manager on site who could authorize it. Which I think just isn’t true, but if it is, then why wouldn’t there be a manager there in case of a situation like this. Then, there were the actual smoothies that either tasted sour like the strawberries went bad or tasted like they were missing most of the ingredients. I ordered the monsoon and could only taste the mango, that was it. I think the reason they rushed through my order was because they wanted to get back to their “break” because when I first arrived and then left, the person who took my order was just sitting at one of the tables on their phone with some chips. I won’t ever come back to this location, especially when there’s no manager to manage the situation and make sure the quality is up to the standards...