Tropical Smoothie Cafe

They had the best cali chicken club sandwich ever & i like most of their smoothies too.

Even in the cold of winter, Tropical was busy this afternoon. There's a variety of fruit smoothies, all one size: huge! Also a full sandwich menu, with paninis and flatbread. Not exciting sandwiches. Many people ordered ahead for pickup, but quite a few ordered and ate in. No WiFi, but you can jack Starbucks next door.

Loved the taste of the detox green smoothie, but the ginger was very chunky & strong. Needed to be blended better

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 happy doing it.

The smoothies are AMAZING!! Such fast and friendly service too! You HAVE to try the pomegranate plunge!! absolutely my favorite ever.