Palmetto Superfoods - Santana Row — Restaurant in San Jose

Update: I came back several times since it first opened and it was on point every time. The medium customizable bowl for $13.50 is a steal compared to other places that charge $2 extra for custom bowls or it may even add up to more.

You can get many base layers and this time I tried the ube, POG, dragonfruit, and matcha. For four flavors, I didn't expect it to be perfectly layered but it still looked like beautiful layers of rainbow sand. The POG was a new one for me and it tasted like Jamba Juice's Caribbean passion. I don't recommend the chia seed or oats as base options because they make the whole thing melt fast.

We could still place orders at 7:50pm which is surprising even though the staff was hard at work and didn't seem like they would wrap up anytime soon. They said the orders would be ready in 30 but it only took about 18 minutes.

// The POS machine kept getting disconnected this weekend when we went. They let a person order from them directly, went back to working on the self-order tablet, and then took another order by the human machine. An honest and unforeseeable mistake, as they would say. Wish they could have taken orders at the same time as trying to fix their system.

The wait after ordering was 20 min as marked by a sign near the front, which was great. My favorite part of the bowl was that you could order multiple bases and they are layered prettily like colored sand on top of each other. The mango base was less watered down than most I've had. The seasonal coconut beach one was really special too. I almost ordered the blue spirulina but I usually don't love those in smoothies so I got the blue butterfly pea instead. That one tasted as expected, as did the matcha base.

I like the unlimited toppings, fruits, and the selections you can make for nut butter and granola. Besides the usual toppings like mulberries, bee pollen, and goji berries, they even have hemp hearts and other things that sounded fancy but was just a type of...

My favorite acai bowl place in Bay Area! They always pack it to the brim with goodies. The acai has the perfect consistency and is so delicious. Palmetto Superfoods really satisfies my cravings when I’m not in Hawaii. The employees here are always really nice, even if it’s a bit short staffed at times.

There is no indoor seating so Palmetto Superfoods is more of a grab-and-go store. There is some seating outside and a nice green area, so I’m looking forward to enjoying my bowl outside when the weather is nicer! I like the location of this storefront because I always make sure to grab acai after shopping in Santana Row or as a reward after a strenuous hot yoga class nearby ;)

The following critiques are more for their corporate entity, because this store probably doesn’t have control over these?

I wish they had more granola options. I am allergic to almonds which prevents me from ordering their “main” granola and I always have to customize my bowl to sub it for another granola type. The other three granola types are pretty limited in flavor, as in they don’t always go with all the bowl combinations (hemp hearts, chocolate, or coffee granola). Sometimes I just don’t want chocolate flavor and the coffee one is too bitter for me.

I also wish Palmetto Superfoods was more straightforward with their caloric numbers. I’m tracking my macros and it is SO difficult figuring out the nutritional contents of the ingredients because their online ordering menu does not have this information nor does anywhere else on their website. You would think that a chain priding itself on real, nutritious offerings would have basic nutrition info on their website or in...

Palmetto truly stands alone amongst other acai bowl companies in the Bay Area. The unlimited toppings, ability to choose from multiple bases and overall, what you get for your money, stands tall above the rest. The few times that I have been since the grand opening have been underwhelming from a customer service standpoint. It took over 30 minutes for my bowl and my sister's bowl to be completed. While they take the phone number and I recognize that preparing bowls take time, they have not notified me and my sister the past few times we have been when our order was ready. They also did not notify us that the lids yesterday were for DoorDash only until we went to pick up our order. We requested a bag as well, which we didn't end up getting since we didn't have a lid. We should receive these items on the house next time. Also, given my many years of customer service, I expect a better experience going forward. I recognize that they are pretty short staffed given the demand, but customers should be greeted upon entry and upon exit. They need to monitor who is coming in and out of the shop. The shop is too small for people who haven't received their orders to be waiting inside. After all the wait time yesterday, my sister's bowl and my bowl were soupy, which is not how the bowls have been in the past. We deserve to get a bowl on the house to compensate for the lackluster customer experience. Summer is coming, and they are going to have to make some major adjustments so that they can successfully operate (one of which will likely need to be taking others orders in line or adding another online...