The Fruit Palette

Where else can you find «hand made» popsicles? Well, I did not try one and opted instead for the liquid version of the same thing. This place has water and milk based juices. I had the milk based watermelon and strawberry juice, which was sweet and fairly filling for a juice. I met a friend here to try it out, since it is convenient to the Rice campus and seemed to offer a healthy alternative to the same old coffee shop. The atmosphere has a modern flair, but sit softly, the cushions are not as comfy as they appear!
The staff was typical of a shop in the area, young folks ready to give samples and serve when you are ready. They place was pretty empty for the entire 2 hours I was there on a late weekday afternoon.

Fruit Palette has absolutely delicious snacks and healthy desserts. It is a bit pricey if you think you’re just paying for fruit, but they do a great job of dressing up the fruit bars and shaved ice enough to transform them into something you can’t get enough of without oversweetening or losing the original flavors. I would recommend Fruit Palette over froyo if you’re looking to gratify your sweet tooth.

I don’t normally do partial reviews, but I’ll break that rule for The Fruit Palette. I’m ready to say without any hyberpole whatsoever that the coconut aqua is easily the best thing I’ve found to sip on in Houston so far. Even better, the service is always friendly and patient. You sure can’t say that about a lot of other places.
The other flavors are also fantastic. They’ll even let you go all mad scientist and mix and match to your heart’s content (lime coconut is tasty and refreshing). I’ve been a little disappointed that horchata is never available when I’m there, but I can get over it because I’d either end up getting two drinks or just going with coconut anyway.
So how is this a partial review? It’s partial because I haven’t had any of their non-​aqua offerings despite having been there a few dozen times.
The bottom line: with a coconut drink that can steal hearts and win minds, this place is a constant contender for my whims. If only they would team up with Tap House, I could fulfill my food and drink cravings in a single place.

Pricey? Yes
Worth it? YES!
I never thought I’d happily pay $ 3 for a Popsicle, but the key lime pie Popsicle here is divine. I ate two and bought a third to take home to eat later. I love the fresh modern feel of the place. The owner is a total sweet heart, and again… I’d kill for one of their key lime Popsicles. :heart:

I still like Jamba and Juice Box a lot better than this place. Yes, it does offer fresh fruits but they are not made freshly. It is all premade and it does contain a sweetner.
DO NOT I REPEAT GET THE TEA. They charge $ 3 for a supposedly fresh fruit tea but it turned out to be WATER and A TEABAG that contained essence of fruit in it. OMG! What a rip off. They did offer to make another one for me but I declined.
Kudos to the staff and ambiance but I will not come here again. It was a waste of time and money.

I would like to take some time to address some reviews of this place.
First off, this spot is catered to a niche market.
1) Do you like fruit?
2) Do you like refreshing, light, healthy snack with high quality ingredients?
3) Are you willing to pay a buck more for it?
Then the Fruit Palette is for you!
This store emphasizes QUALITY and CUSTOMER SERVICE.
I’d argue that the prices are in line with getting an ice cream (without the excess calories).
Fresh fruit costs A LOT more than processed dairy products loaded with sugars.
Customer service is amazing. I went in there to buy 5 frozen fruit bars, and the owner gave me the bars and a FREE cooler to bring them home packed in some ice. He just said keep it and use it next time you come back. In addition there is a frequent customer card so that after you buy a few you get one free. Not only that, he rounded down the price so wouldn’t have to break a dollar.
Overall, I think it’s still a great value for the quality of the product offered.

I like the area that this place is located in. I wouldn’t mind going to school at Rice – it’s pretty nice.
I had one of the popsicle things here. I don’t remember which one but while it was tasty, it also melted quickly and it costed about $ 3.25.
Worth it? I guess once.
Oh, and while I was waiting in line, the guy in front of me asks for a popsicle thing and the employee gives him one without charging. I don’t know if he prepaid or anything, but it was sort of awkward because then I wanted one for free too – unprofessional.

Fruit Palette recently starting serving yummy crepes! and I absolutely love crepes!!!

It’s pretty good, but not amazing.
I would recommend getting the fruit-​flavored aquas. They are very refreshing and light. We had the **strawberry coconut aqua** on our first visit, which tasted similar to a light Thirsty’s Strawberry smoothie. We loved it. On our second visit, we liked the **Watermelon**, but didn’t love the **Watermelon Lime**. Next time, I would stick with the Strawberry Coconut and Watermelon.
The **cantaloupe ice cream bar** was not good. It had a bad after taste, as if they cut too close to the rind. The BF forced himself to eat the rest of it, bc we did pay $ 4 for it.
Otherwise, it’s a good place to study, since there are always tables available and the wi-​fi is quite fast. You do pay quite a sum to study there, unlike a $ 1.50 coffee at Starbucks.

New favorite place in the village to get a refreshing drink!
Why is everyone complaining that it’s soo expensive? It’s twice as expensive at other places and much healthier than a coffee.
My favorite is the strawberry/​watermelon drink.
The crepes are pretty good too! A must try if you’re in the area.

Stumbled on this place after walking off our food at Ruggles. We wanted to find something similar to the Meltdown Popsicle place in New Orleans. We tried the Dulce de Leche and Cappucino. Both were pretty good, the Cappucino tasted a little too icy though. Cute and clean place. But like others say, $ 3.29 is a bit steep for a popsicle, but I guess they need to pay the rent in Rice Village so I can’t blame them! Maybe next time we will try out the crepes if we are in the area again.

Like a girl covered in make up and her best push up bra, looks sure are deceiving. Sure The Fruit Palette is super chic and modern. And sure they serve fresh items for all the health nuts out there but the food is so so. I wasn’t impressed by the crepes or over priced ice creams or the selection on the menu. They do no justice for the goodness for the exquisite combo of strawberries, bananas, and nutella.

My waistline hates me after the holidays. Nothing fits. In fact why would anything fit? I just checked my Unilocaling history and it’s a miracle I haven’t had myself a nice little coronary.
Anyway, my little solution was to visit The Fruit Palette. This place is really cute. Very clean. And super friendly. Authentic aquas? No. I tried a sip of my friend’s watermelon on my last visit and it was not authentic to what you’d find south of the border but nice try!
I can say that I ldo enjoy the salads here. A previous post states that all the ingredients can be chopped up at home. Yeah, that means you would have to HAVE all the ingredients. There were so many different items in my salad… it was like a fiesta in a bowl!
I want to give this place a four but I’m hesitant only because I wouldn’t go out of my way to come here. If I were on Kirby and wanted a frosted dessert, and saw Ben and Jerry’s I would probably stop there first. Sorry Fruit Palette!

Seriously awesome! I love the cantaloupe drink & ice cream bar. I also love their coconut ice cream bar. Everything is fresh and made daily.
Obviously, they are playing off the real mexican palettas however, this is fresh, unlike the ones you can get at the grocery store for way cheaper or off the street. The taste is great and pleasant to eat during the summer months here in Houston. True, it’s a bit pricery for the fruit bars & other things yet I suppose you are paying for the quality and to me, it’s pretty A-​OK! It is quite new to Rice Village and interesting for them to use fruits for salads. They also have very fresh fruit drinks. You are also allowed to mix them. I see people eating here for lunch and everyone seems to enjoy it. The chef/​owner is very nice and accommodating for his guests. Feel free to try samples!

This place is disappointing. I understand that if you don’t want to fork over almost $ 4 for a fruit bar, then you shouldn’t and you just don’t need to visit this establishment. But even after agreeing to pay $ 4 for a fruit bar, it really wasn’t all that great.
True, it’s nice and clean. True, the people are friendly. True, it’s got pretty interesting things like a fruit salad of all fruits, fruit aquas, blah blah blah. But paying this much for fruit you can chop and serve at home just doesn’t make sense to me. We got the almond and cantaloupe fruit bars. It really isn’t that big as other people have mentioned. Both taste like the real thing so that’s nice. The almond was pretty good because it wasn’t creamy, but more like straight-​up almond. The cantaloupe was lame– it tasted like real cantaloupe, but as we know, cantaloupe has a pretty light and watered-​down flavor. I’m pretty sure I can just squeeze some fruit juice myself into a popsicle mold.
If I want ice and fruit, I’d rather go to Jamba, Mam’s snowballs, or Juice Box. As my bf said, «This kind of place would only do well in the Village.»

I got a Groupon for this place when it came out several months ago, and wasn’t sure if I’d ever use it since I don’t make it out to the West U area as often as I’d like. However, I’m glad I remembered I got it and used it this past weekend!
I went with 2 of my dear friends, and we all tried a different flavor of their popsicles. Granted, it is called the Fruit Palette, not the Coffee Palette, but I HAD to try their cappuccino flavored popsicle. It was DIVINE. It gave me just enough of an espresso buzz to keep me hopping through the afternoon, and was quite tasty as well. The other flavors tried in my group were the watermelon and the coconut. They were both extremely pleased with their choices as well. Once we finished our pop, we got a fruit water as well. I tried the watermelon, and although it was good, it wasn’t as refreshing as I would have wanted it to be. It made me thirsty for some water! (which is rare for me! HA!)… The strawberry was the flavor my friend tried, and she loved it!
Next time I am in the area, I will definitely be back! :-)

This place is awesome. Granted, I have only been here once, but I intend to go again…
The interior is so clean and modern, when I think back on it I am somehow reminded of the spaceship/​planet from the movie Wall-​E. Anyhow, my friend called me up for a shopping excursion to the Village, and this was on our definite to-​do list. She had been raving about the fruit waters and fruit bars for a while, so…
When we got there, we were greeted by the lady behind the counter serving out the ices very cheerily. I opted for the watermelon bar, and my friend got the cantaloupe bar. The selection was vast, and I really didn’t notice that they served anything other than fruit bars and fruit waters until I saw other patrons eating the tempting salads out of cool take out boxes.
My friend paid for us both, and has a frequent buyer stamp card, and mentioned that I was a Fruit Palette virgin to the lady. She was nice enough to not only stamp my friend’s card twice (for the two bars), but go to the back and scrounge up another card for me and stamp it even though I technically didn’t buy anything. Uh, hells yeah. Way to make a first impression!
Also, I had to use the ladies room, (tmi?) and p. s. it is immaculate. If that is any indication about how they keep their kitchen, then I wouldn’t worry about anything…
Anyhow, onto the interesting part: the food. Um, that watermelon bar was just about the best piece of frozen goodness I can remember eating! I usually have a thing about not eating things off of sticks, as I don’t like the juxtaposition of something good and wet next to a dry sandpapery stick — (um, hello BlueBell Creamsicle, I am talking about you…), but this place knows how to do it. They actually have velvety sticks! I know that sounds weird, but if you have a complex like I do, you know what I am talking about. Also, still raving about the stick, it is shaped in such a way that it has a wider thumb grip. I know, I am a little too into the stick. But seriously, it is an important feature of an ice cream bar — essentially it is your utensil.
We sat outside at the little bistro tables on a typically sweltering Houston afternoon, but honestly didn’t care that much, seeing as how we had these awesome fruit bars to cool us down. We were debating if they counted as a serving of fruit in the food guide pyramid. We liked to think so…
Fruit Palette, I will be back, armed with my frequent buyer card!

This place definitely will find it’s place in the Rice Village because it has a healthy approach to desserts. All the juices and fruit bars are from fresh produce. When I went, I had the strawberry and coconut milk juice. It was pretty good. Also they have a pretty extensive amount of fruit bars to whichever craving you might have. I think their prices are a little steep for a dessert but I guess it comes with the location.
Go for it! But I don’t think it is my favorite of the new establishments in Houston. I’d also try out La Paletera and see how you compare them.

Food: 2.5÷5
Ambiance: ³⁄₅
Services: ³⁄₅
Prices: $ (avg 5/​person)
After 2 hours of softball scrimmages and 6 miles bike ride, I was in the mood of some fresh fruit juice or salads. I recently read about this place and my friend suggested that we check it out…
This is a prime location and considering it was a glorious day out, we were surprised to see that there’s nobody in the shop when we arrived. We looked at the menu, all sound tempting and there were samples of the Fresh Aquas, the strawberry & melon were good but the coconut was way rich & creamy, i need to have some water afterward to drain off the after taste! Basically, the aquas is very similar to the mexican fruit water/​juice you see at most Tex-​Mex restaurants.
My friend had the 16oz watermelon aquas $ 2.99 and a mango frozen fruit bar $ 3.29, they were not impressed, in fact, they bitched about the shop the whole time… I dont blame them. I didnt try the fruit bar but the aquas is basically sweetened «flavored» fruit water (Note: NOT juice) with ice, also note that they pre-​made their juices and dispense them as you order.
I used to have oj & carrot juice mix not even blend and straight up without ice and sugar syrup at Jamba Juice everytime I’m done with my workout. I like my juices pure & simple and from fresh NOT frozen fruits… So, after sampling those fruit waters, i decided to try out the Palette Salad, you pay $ 6.50 for any of the salad and with additional $ 2 you can choose either grilled chicken cut in small cubes or tuna. I went for the chicken. Its a reasonable size portion with slices of fresh strawberry, blackberry, blueberry, candied walnut, feta & grape tomatoes with red pepper creamy dressing. Honestly, its not a bad salad & quite refreshing combination. However, its not good enough for me to «just» drop in the next time…
So, if you are looking for FRESH fruit juice, go Jamba Juice. If you are looking for frozen fruit bar or ice pops and willing to spare $ 3.29 for it, then be my guest… I cant tell you if they are good! Its unanimous that this place will not survive, lets the countdown begin…

So my sister and I checked out this new place in Rice Village where everything is FRUIT based. Her bf being such a fruit fanatic, we went to give this place a try after dinner that evening. We saw this place had opened just recently in the recent 002 Houston Mag.
Fruit pallete looks bright, open, and very inviting. It was patio tables on the outside and array of table inside with a small corner of comfy contemporary couches. FREE WIFI!
The evening we decide to go visit was Sunday about 8pm. When we walked in, we were greeted by who i believe to be, the owner. He was very nice and welcoming. He mentioned that he was closing up. With them just opening up a couple of days ago, the hours of operation is still pending. Though his site says 9pm, it is from 10am-​8pm currently. Being in the resturant biz, i felt horrible of coming in and having him make something for us so we opt to leave and visit the following day. He said it was okay and was willing to serve us. He actually gave us a few free samples to try. [THANKS!] We totally appreciated it. He let us try the shaved ice and gave us all samples of the fruit bars which are fruit popsicles. We tried to pay him for all that he gave us but he refused. We left 10 bucks anyway— for the tip jar, and said we will return the next day during thier hours of operation.
And so we did… after dinner – have that fruit craving – we returned. So we had a little bit of everything.
So fruit fanatics – here is your place. However, I wouldn’t say this was ‘mind blasting’ or something «new.» The fruit bars (popsicles) was a favorite with fresh fruits and variety of flavors. strawberry, watermelon, mango… to cookies and crème, strawberry and crème, and even key lime ($ 3.29). The Fruit Shaved Ice was a cup of shaved ice topped with a somewhat thick sauce of the fruit of your choice. ($ 3.69). We got the strawberry shaved ice which was okay. for some reason i prefer a snow cone over it but hey, it wasn’t bad. The Fruit Aquas was interested. Then there was the Flavored fruit waters– self explanitory. Then the Fruit Cocktail my bf tried. Don’t be fooled – its NOT a drink. Its actually a platter of varioues fruits. We tried the Exotic fruit cocktail that had mango, strawberry, and kiwi with a little dressing of orange juice. It was fresh fruit of course but no different if I were to go to the store and purchased my fruits and cut them up on put it on a plate and served it. Like i said before… not very new or mind blasting. The people there are super nice. Very open to questions and willing to satisfy your cravings.
Other than what we tried, they have selections of fruit parfaits and fruit salads ($ 6.50), teas, and coffees. Their salads do look quite delicious and inviting. There are select pastries that are available and topped with fruits of your choice (chocolate cake, tres leches, key lime).
Welcome Fruit Palette to Rice Village and I hope they do well. However, i am not sure since its not much a difference for the common person to just chop up fruits at home. They did just open so hopefully they can come up with more creative and unique ideas.
HIghly recommend the fresh Fruit Bars.