Tropical Smoothie Cafe — Restaurant in Surprise

First thing is the food and drink were phenomenal. The young man that greeted us, took our order and couldn't get the order right after we repeated it several times. He couldn't repeat the order back to us still. My wife ordered the pecan cranberry chicken salad sandwich and i ordered the smoothie and half a sandwich (ultimate club). He charged us for her sandwich (correct) and charged for a full ultimate club and a large smoothie, overcharging us. We figured the kid was new (which i asked him) not to have him too stressed. The order came in separate deliveries, with the food first then the smoothie several minutes later. We said it was to eat in, not to go. It came wrapped and to go. This is our first time eating here so we not sure of protocol on serving of food. Half way through our meal, a young man who had been preparing the food, came to the register area. He loudly announced, with his arms outstretched "the lobby is now closed, you're going to have to leave." There was only my wife and I and a table with 3 teenagers in your restaurant , all of which were paying customers. We felt it was uncalled for and inappropriately communicated. We gathered our food and proceeded outside where we finished it in our vehicle. As we sat watching from our car, they began to laugh and dance around the lobby area. We witnessed them make food for the drive thru with their gloves on, answer text messages on their cell phone, then continue preparing food without changing their gloves or washing their hands. We also saw them wiping smoothie cups on their soiled apron. They allowed staff from the pizza place next door inside the lobby to place an order, and a good 10 minutes passed before they secured the front door following our exit from your facility. Overall it's a real shame that your food was so tasty, fresh and of good quality, while your employees were immature, unprofessional and downright unsanitary. Leadership and food handling policies need immediate attention and improvement. Thank you for your time in reading this lengthy review. Respectfully submitted from...

Update**

Lord if I could give this place less than one star you bet I would. Tonight was on a whole new level of bad customer service. Multiple customers in the drive-through lane. All the employees sharing smoothies together and visibly partying in the store. I waited at the drive-through window for 10 minutes for them to bring me my mobile order that they confirmed at the drive-through. Multiple customers behind me roll down the windows all of us conferring that no one was coming to the drive-through. I had to get out of my vehicle and knock on the drive-through window after honking multiple times and seeing many people pass by the window. This was 30 minutes before they closed they were most definitely open but we’re getting no service at the drive-through or over the speaker to other customers after me. My order was already made I saw it on the pick up table. And when I finally did get someone’s attention after knocking, they didn’t even apologize they rolled their eyes and said online order. I am shocked at the bare minimum level of customer service at this location and horrified by the management. Will not be giving this location business anymore. I almost took a video of how ridiculous it was sheeesh.

Old review:

Honestly this place gets my order wrong more often than not. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ordered the chicken quesadilla only to get a cheese quesadilla missing the side of sauce. Honestly it’s run by children so the customer service isn’t great, but it has a drive thru so 🤷🏻‍♀️ take a risk and see...

The potential is there, but they are missing the mark. My issues are the fact there is only one size, they seem to be a bit pricier than other places and their food options are meager compared to their competitors.

Also, prep time was a bit long. I realize that while we were the only ones inside, they did have a steady drive thru, but out of 6 people in the back, only 2 were making stuff. The manager was micromanaging, but not actually doing anything. Two staff members were cleaning under the prep table (fine, I know it needed to be done, but one person was enough), and one very friendly guy was running orders at both the window and the counter. It seemed like a disorganized mess made that way by the manager trying to control every facet of the operation.

Here is a tip to that manager, set expectations that are clear and concise. Then let your trained crew do what they need to do to meet those expectations. Each person is unique and will have to find their groove on how they will achieve it. Expecting robot like performance isn't realistic.

Edit: On a follow up visit two months after the first review the service went down further. Apparently, they decided if only 1 person was going to the work, they only need to have 1 person. I feel for her as she was busy doing everything completely alone. There needed to be at least 3 (drive through/front counter, food prep, smoothie prep), but that wasn't happening. Not sure where the managers of this store got their training, but it is lacking. Very surprised this place is...