Tropical Smoothie Cafe

We went into Tropical Smoothie Café with high expectations, and at first glance they were met. It appeared to be a clean environment with a health-​conscious menu. The cheerful employees who waited on us added to our hopes.
My husband and I were leaving town after a quick visit to see family and wanted something that meshed with our gluten-​intolerant, vegan-​if-​possible dietary needs. We both opted for the Health Nut smoothie with pea protein added.
It looked great and at first sip all seemed well. Then the strangely sweet, artificial taste set in. What had we ordered? The ingredients listed on the menu board were all innocuous and we didn’t think the pea protein posed a problem. We held off drinking more smoothie until we looked up the ingredients online.
Listed among their ingredients was SPLENDA! Splenda!!! That’s right; an artificial sweetener that has been compared to DDT since the ingredients are closer to that than actual food. If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about:

I’m guessing that Splenda is (inexplicably) added to every smoothie at Tropical Smoothie Café. Not sure why; Does Tropical think their ingredients are somehow not up to par, so they give them what they imagine is some extra zip? If so, eek!
Evidently unless you know about the insidious Splenda addition and your smoothie without it, you’ll get this powdery poison. I can’t figure out why they didn’t at least tell us about it and ask if we preferred it with or without.
One of us had to work so we were in a hurry to get home. Otherwise we would’ve turned around and asked for a genuinely healthful smoothie. I had that gag-​inducing Splenda taste in my mouth until we got to South Bend. Ugh.
What a giant disappointment! I was hoping to give a good review but it’s not possible. Please, Tropical Smoothie, stop doing this to unsuspecting customers! I can’t understand how an ingredient as dreadful as this got into a smoothie in the first place, but it should be ditched fast.

My wife and I heard about Tropical Smoothie Café through Unilocal.It’s pretty new to the Kalamazoo area, so we thought we’d check it out. We are very glad we did!
The environment was fun and refreshing, complete with bright colors and pictures of fruit on the walls. We spent quite a while looking over the menu before ordering. I ordered a cilantro lime taco and a Korean bbq taco for a fair price of about $ 6, and added a 24oz (huge) smoothie for about $ 4 more. They were advertising their new fall smoothies (I would’ve never thought of that), so I tried the spiced pear. My wife ordered the chicken pesto flatbread with the Beyond Meat meat substitute, since she’s vegetarian. We were grateful that the cashier let us have a sample (albeit cold) of the Beyond Meat.
The tacos were good. The Korean bbq was delicious. It was sweet and spicy, and I loved the kale and cucumber added to the top to add some refreshing coolness. The steak was good, nothing unbelievable, but good. I thought the fish taco was good as well. There was a sweet pineapple salsa on top, which was a strong flavor. If you don’t like pineapple, you won’t like this. But I love pineapple, so I enjoyed it. In combination with the cilantro sauce (creamy, probably mayonnaise-​based), the fish flavor was pretty much gone. I enjoyed it, but wished there was a little more subtlety in the sauces. My wife wished the shells had been more special — they were very ordinary tortillas. Nevertheless, both these tacos were very tasty.
My wife’s chicken (in her case, Beyond Meat) pesto flatbread was very good. The Beyond Meat was impressively tasty! We looked up what it was made of, and it is not exactly tofu, but it is similar in texture and flavor. There is some chicken flavor on the Beyond Meat, and I thought it was quite good in the sandwich! My wife really liked the sandwich, and I agreed that it was delicious.
Both the smoothies were good, and good size for the price. I thought both were a little too sweet, however. I’ve never had a smoothie with pear before, and I think the reason is probably because it was a little grainy. I would probably not get it again, although I enjoyed it as a fun fall treat. The Island Green smoothie that my wife had was very smooth and very good (although a little too sweet in my opinion).
Overall, we really enjoyed our experience and our meal. I would recommend it!

Everything is delicious, and healthy! As a vegetarian I usually don’t have many options but thanks to their Beyond Meat (chicken substitute) I can eat everything in the menu! The smoothies are also made with real fruit, unlike that other place (cough cough).

Brand new location and everything looks beautiful! They offer delicious and refreshing fresh made smoothies and a badass menu of food! And get this!!! They will substitute out for beyond meat products for us cool vegetarians and vegans!!! Definitely worth checking out!!!

Great place with amazing smoothies! We had the mango smoothie and it was the best I’ve had in Kalamazoo! Totally worth going!

When I heard that Smashburger closed I took the news, hard. I loved that place. My parents loved that place. I will miss Smashburger. The only consolation is that a super awesome Tropical Smoothie Café opened in it’s location.
I was waiting for my pizza creation at Papa Murphy’s and walked next door to see what they offered.
The ambiance is really nice. It’s an «upscale» smoothie bar that offers a very comfortable environment. Yes, they have smoothies. Almost any kind of smoothie you can imagine. Everything from avocado to Vanilla and everything in between! Want a healthful smoothie with chia and flax? They got it. Want a dessert smoothie with chocolate and peanut butter? They got it. Want a sandwich? Wrap? Salad? Flatbread pizza? Check. Check. Check. Check.
I can only comment on the smoothie I ordered. I got the raspberry lime and it was fantastic! Just the perfect amount of tart and sweet. While the price was steep (close to $ 5), there was enough for my mom, dad and I to share. It was a great treat on a hot day!
It’s in a great location with a lot of parking. Worth a stop!