Tropical Smoothie Cafe — Restaurant in Virginia

My first time at this location and it may be my last. The first cashier that took my order not only get my order wrong by not giving me the combo deal but also completely missed half of my order. I don’t think it was that difficult because it was a double order of the same exact thing with no special requests. Clearly not paying attention even though it was not busy at 10am. The only reason they are even getting 3 stars is because my second order was done correctly. So thank you to the second cashier that helped me.

By paying with the app they were not able to refund me the difference m, but took my name and number and told me that it would be a store credit for the next time I order. Hopefully I will not have to order from this location in order to get the store credit.

This was suppose to be a simple order that just turned into an annoying experience.

Update: Sept 27, 2018 A week ago, I went to my usual location (in Herndon) and made an order. I wanted to test and see if the "credit" given to me would transfer to a different site as it was explained to me. Sadly, no credits were transferred, anywhere. They wrote down my name and number as stated in my first post, and no call to say otherwise. So basically I was lied to. Regardless of whatever my due credit was for my next purchase, at any location, and off-putting experience that I went through, I was lied to. I will not be coming back to this location again. However, I still love tropical smoothie so I will continue to support it...

I really like Tropical Smoothie...really I do, but I feel like this location just can't get its act together.

Here's the deal, the smoothies are great. They're made fresh (if the sound of a blender in the back is any indication), they taste pretty delicious and the portions sizes are fair for what you pay for them (a pretty penny if you ask me).

Here's the problem: the smoothies take FOREVER to be made. I don't know if it's because they're understaffed (they are), if every smoothie takes a couple minutes to make and things get backed up or if the staff is just slow. But whenever I order a smoothie here it takes at least 15-20 minutes to get my drink. That's ridiculous. I could have driven home, thrown some fruit, ice and yogurt into a blender, enjoyed the entire smoothie and come back to the restaurant before my order was ready.

I'm not a super busy guy (obviously because I'm writing Google reviews) but in my opinion this is too long to wait.

On top of all of that, there's just not enough places to sit while you're waiting an eternity for your drink. Everyone is just kind of standing around in a cramped, small building waiting for their order to be called. It feels kind of like the DMV.

I'll probably keep coming here because there really aren't that many great, affordable smoothie options in the Northern VA area, but just know that I'm not...

As an Hispanic female who as raised speaking NOT A drop of Spanish and trying to order food at this location seemed great at first….. but turns out there’s a comprehension issue when speaking and ordering in English.

As someone who also suffers from life threatening food allergies - ordering a shake with a firm understanding of what not to add into my food so I can enjoy the food without issues …was just not going to happen. Yes I am aware that I can order online and go that route.

But the problem still exists. Employees need to be properly trained and understand food allergies and would really be helpful if we spoke the same language with the same or at least a decent amount of comprehension (and the deer in headlight look is not confirming that for me)

I leave this review, not too harm your business or Cause the employee an issue - this is a review simply to inform others who have allergies that the owner/ company fail to understand the impact that this has on not just your business (bc the allergy community realize heavily on certain restaurants and their ability to safely serve us - and we frequently visit those places ) but also bringing awareness to an issue usually swept under a rug to a growing population...