Smoothie King — Restaurant in Virginia

Smoothie King @ 20035 Ashbrook Commons Plaza, Unit 194, Ashburn, Va ✵ New Customer-Undecided ✵ My college student enjoys the smoothies and different variations available at Smoothie King. The prices are coincide with other smoothie stores. As a parent, if I had to choose between coffee, caffeinated drinks, energy infused drinks, or smoothies… I would prefer she choose a habit with smoothies that have minimal over processed additives and high levels of sugar/fructose. That defeats the purpose of incorporating a smoothie into a regularly maintained diet for her.

Yesterday, I tried purchased my first smoothie king. I ordered the 20oz “High Protein Pineapple” Smoothie (Nutrition Info ; 310Calories ; 12gFat ; 28gCarbs ; 27gProtein). Cost: $8-9 without any other alterations. I had mixed feelings because the protein overtook the taste of the pineapple but I finished it. Any smoothies with protein powder/additives tend to change the consistency and flavor (imo). The positive is the flavor and consistency is similar to the homemade smoothies we make without the taste of artificial flavors and/or condensed juice we make ourselves. Therefore, my overall consensus would need to be determined at a later time over multiple assessments on likes/dislike of different smoothies and variations.

➥ Basics for the smoothies I’ve noticed are: Smoothie king has a mix of protein based, energy based, plain, low-carb, greek and plain yogurt, vegan, raw plant-based ingredients to self select to your liking or nutritional needs.

★ Upon researching the ingredients thus far, I’ve gathered they have: • Unsweetened almond milk & Oat Milk (lactose intolerant friends). •Natural/alternative sweeteners: Splenda, Stevia, honey, & maple syrup. • “No No List” but I have not explored those options as of yet. •Limited Low-carb section (ie, 20oz smoothie can range from 0-147 grams per serving. •Kid friendly options are available with sugar free additives and customizable ingredients. Sizes: 20oz (SM), 32...

I will preface this by saying that I am a huge fan of the Smoothie King brand. i've never had any issues with Smoothie King at other locations. However, because this is the closest one to my house, I come here on a semiregular basis and I have to say that I am not impressed with these systems that this management team has in place nor the support and training that employees are receiving. As has been consistent with a couple other reviews that I read, their drive through is open only some of the time, but they never put a sign on the drive through saying when it is open or closed. This leaves the customer waiting for several minutes and feeling like they're yelling into the void for whether someone is actually there or not. When you are in a rush, and have already ordered on the app, it can be very frustrating when this consistently happens which it has happened on three different occasions to date. Due to the extra wait, it also means that you sometimes get your smoothie more melted than usual.

The one time when I went in there a couple weeks ago, after the drive thru was unexpectedly closed, the employee was by themselves and requested that I call the management with my frustrations, as they were also frustrated and were on the verge of quitting themselves. I had real compassion for the employee. Having worked in the service industry earlier in my life, I felt the frustrations of this particular worker as it feels like the management is setting their employees up for failure through these seemingly bad systems, poor training, appropriate scheduling of workers and/or uneven communication with customers. I may start to drive slightly further to go to other locations if I feel like the problems aren't being fixed which I have little faith that they are given the number of times this...

The reason why I’m giving it a low rating is because each time I’ve personally ordered from here there is something that goes wrong or not available.

The first time I’ve been to this Smoothie King location I ordered a PB Swizzle smoothie bowl and it was fine but the server said they didn’t have a certain ingredients like strawberries or granola which I could replace with something else. I asked for a spoon or fork so I can eat it on my lunch break but the server said they didn’t have any so I couldn’t eat it until later on in the day.

The second time I’ve been to smoothie king just now after I placed my order on the app the server said he ran out of smoothie bowls and asked if I wanted a regular smoothie and I told sure I guess and he made me a banana boat smoothie. He made me the banana boat smoothie and put it in a smoothie bowl container and was already spilling out the container. He could’ve put it in a REGULAR smoothie cup but instead put the smoothie in a smoothie bowl container. The smoothie was alright but it did taste a little off to be honest. I don’t know it seems like this location doesn’t have the ingredients and utensils to last the days. I’m not sure if I will go to this location again if they don’t have smoothie bowls throughout the day. Kinda their best thing they have besides the smoothies.

And I also think the guy who is working at the location shouldn’t be working by himself in my opinion. He seems confused when making people’s orders like he isn’t sure if he should be adding a certain ingredient or not. Other than that I love Smoothie King just not...