Critic's Review
I've never been inside a Tropical Smoothie Cafe before. I didn't know that they sold food until about a month ago. I started to get email advertisements from them. They seem to be kicking tires; last month they had bowls. I almost tried it, but never did. Now they're going with tacos, because, well , you can't get a taco anywhere else. They looked halfway decent and I didn't have time for lunch today, so I figured I'd do take out.
Inside the place screams fast food. There were a couple of hipster older chicks getting smoothies, and a police officer came in for a smoothie while I was trying to read the menu. They don't have current menus in printed form.
I ordered 2 tacos which is $5.69. It took way too long, over 10 minutes, considering that there was nobody else in the place ordering food.
They play loud, stupid music. G.R.L and Katie Perry. You can't eat in here.
When I got home. I took out the tacos. My initial reaction was utter horror.
Really? Here's the picture of the add. Notice the similarities?
Time to open these boys up. First, the chicken. This is described as:
Grilled chicken with a smoked jalapeo spread, bacon, shredded cabbage, diced tomatoes and red onions. Served in a flour tortilla.
They really load this up with veggies. If you were playing a joke on someone you could do better than this. You wonder if the person who made this can even see. Also, notice that the ad has chicken that is actually grilled; see the grill marks? None of that here. This is the boiled chicken. Maybe it was Grilled last Thursday.
The chicken spread was tanking and the bacon was bacon, so the flavors were good. If they had put some cabbage, tomatoes and onions on this it could have been quite good. The tortilla wasn't good; the edges were inedible.
Now for the fish. The description:
Grilled tilapia, spicy cilantro sauce, shredded cabbage and a roasted pineapple salsa with diced red onion and cilantro. Served in a flour tortilla.
The greens of the fresh cilantro hit me as I opened this up. Clearly they were playing a trick on me. This looks terrible and tasted about the same. Frankly the chicken and the "fish" tasted the same in that they both had no taste. Wildly overpriced at $2.85.
Conclusion
Tropical Smoothie is a franchise and this particular location is a clown show; at least in terms of food. Don't buy food here.