Smoothie King — Restaurant in Florida

Not much area inside, similar to crumbl cookies. You place your order and that's it. The smoothies are good but expensive. The menu was hard to read. You will need time to look at the wall and figure out what you want if you've never been before. I have no idea if there are mix-ins available like other smoothie places. They were looking at me and waiting on me and I didn't know what to order and I finally just picked something so I could be done with it. A hand held menu would've been better. But the menu is right by the register, so you have to stand right in front of the employees as you decide. Overall, it was good, but expensive. Like nearly $20 for two smoothies. This is not a snack at that price, it is a meal replacement. Also, they ask for tips to mix your smoothie & ring you up. Tips are "optional", but of course you are auto directed to tip like 15% or something, and you have to change it, if you so choose.

I appreciate these employees, but I've got serious tip fatigue. I totally understand in a sit down restaurant, but we've just gone too far these days. Soon, we will be tipping at the grocery store. At the pharmacy. At the dentist's office. Why aren't people paying their employees enough? Why are we STILL subsidizing them? During covid, it was OK. They were risking their lives to serve your smoothie. But I hate how it never went away afterwards. Now there's the constant pressure (every single time, every single place), of trying to figure out how much to tip (while the person you are tipping is standing there looking at you). I just want the businesses to charge enough to pay their employees a living wage, instead of asking us to figure it out for them. The discomfort of not knowing how much to tip for which service (and really feeling it's a bit unfair to have to tip for some of the services you do get - at Nothing Bundt Cakes, the employee handed me a cake and pressed a button on the register and I did the rest, including running my card, using the sign pad, and getting my own napkins, but I was still asked to tip even though she didn't have to take a single step to fill my order). With the Smoothies (and everything else, including the bundt cakes), I'd so much have rathered that THEY decided a fair rate to pay their employees and then THEY charged me enough to do it - and that the whole tipping option just went AWAY. For ever. Back like it used to be when we only had to tip at restaurants. Otherwise, the place was clean and there were good smoothie options, the servers were polite, and the drinks were...

My family and I came to this place, the employee in the counter was very informative and helpful, we all got banana and strawberrie smoothies, even my kids, the only difference is that my husband and I add proteins to our smoothies and my kids didn't, the flavor wasn't very rich but it was ok, and I was a little disappointed because the fruit wasn't fresh, everything was like frozen , like the fruit from a can, price was affordable. Would I recommend this place to a friend? Probably not unless my friend is on the road and in that case in convenient like it was for my family and I, we were looking for a healthy option and it was the best place we found for that, but is always better to make a smoothie at home with fresh fruit if you...

Pulling forward and parking in a tiny awkward parking lot with no one behind me in line is exceptionally dumb.

Edit - the parking situation isn't the issue, it's the idea of pulling forward in a drive thru to go park somewhere else instead of waiting at the window when there's no one behind me that's the issue. I understand it's a corporate issue to do with drive through timers and other silliness. If I go back and am asked to pull forward again with no one behind me, i'll change my review to 1 star and leave it that way until the policy changes back to what makes logical sense. Dear...