Paleteria Tropicana

After finally trying this place out today, I can't believe the negative reviews I'm seeing. The staff were very friendly, and both items I tried were delicious. I had the tropical smoothie first. It was so refreshing and delicious, I think because they don't put too much sugar in it. I also had a scoop of ice cream. Had to try it because they are all homemade. Again, not as sweet as most ice cream that I'm used to. I really enjoyed it, and I will be going back for sure.

Good food. Nice staff. They slay that horchata. I asked for half fresa and half horchata. Delicious.

I love me some good, homemade ice cream. When we saw this on Yelp only a few miles from where we had dinner we had to pop over. The atmosphere here is less than stellar. It's in a long beige strip mall anchored by a Wal Mart grocery store. Inside Paleteria is just OK as the ice cream signs didn't always match and it was a hodgepodge.Ice cream, however, was stellar. Tried a few and ended up channeling my inner six year old with a birthday cake ice cream that had real chunks of cake in it. Definitely a good local ice cream spot, but in an area I seldom visit, likely to get filed away and forgotten about.

This location is not that good. I asked for one cup of pistachio and lemon ice cream. I got one pistachio and another kind I ask of lemon they said no. Then they scooped it out and put it back in the ice cream. We went through this process three times before I gave up. Just got the lime ice cream. Then 15 minutes they turned up there music a lot. Like they don't care about there customers. The main problem was not understanding English and the cross contamination. I'm not allergy to anything luckily but I know people who are. That with this disregard probably couldn't eat here.

Sneaky good snack place! I always wondered why just a plain old dessert place didn't exist where you could get a variety of pies, cakes, coffees, smoothies, and ice cream.This place is still not that, but it's the closest thing I have found. They have a unique variety of flavors and a menu you can't really find in one place anywhere else. The smoothies, for example, are much more interesting than you'll find at most chains, such as Jamba Juice. Same goes for the popsicles. They take classic items--the banana split, for example--and make it interesting by letting you choose your ice cream flavors. The ice cream flavors aren't quite as interesting as those at, say, Glacé, but the texture seems decent.Other unexpected items are churros, funnel cake with ice cream, and flour wheels, which are like, fried flour or something. I don't remember. The churros are solid and handmade, and are some of the better ones I have tasted. It was also yummy to dip my churro in my girlfriend's split.......Ahem. Anyhoo, the atmosphere is the knock against Paleteria. You are welcomed by an unpleasant smell akin to strong bleach or something. Maybe it's strong bleach. The sun was beaming in through the glass during our evening visit, and it got pretty warm in there. It's also kind of a confusing spot to find the first time.......Okay, I better wrap this up before I get in trouble. Er, not like that. I meant...never mind.Uniqueness: 5/5Atmosphere: 1.5/5Note: Un menú español está disponible.

Amazing smoothies, popsicles, and ice cream. very nice and amazing customer service. highly recommend if you want a little snack

Tropicana has popped up for me on multiple occasions, and I finally got to try it out because I happened to be in the area. The menu was rather overwhelming for me. There are just so many things, I couldn't figure out what I wanted. So, my boyfriend and I stood there for what probably seemed like an eternity to the employees.Note, they also have a Spanish menu, which has different items on it. I found that to be interesting that both the English and Spanish menus weren't the same. Since I don't read/speak Spanish, I had to go off cognates from the French that I know - which didn't completely help, so I didn't end up getting anything from it. I finally decided on a banana split and churros with cajeta. I got the Dulce de Leche, Butter Pecan, and Mango as my ice cream base. The Mango was an odd combination with the more dessert type flavors, but it was the best Mango ice cream I've ever had. Well, I believe it was a sorbet, since it wasn't creamy, and instead, was icy. It was obvious that they use real mangoes in it because of how similar it tasted to a perfectly ripened mango. The two other flavors I got weren't as bold. In fact, I felt they were rather muted, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. At least in the case of my banana split. The banana was also the perfect ripeness. A lot of places that make banana splits use under-ripened bananas because it's cost-effective, so the split ends up with hardly any banana taste at all. The ice cream overall had a good texture. The churros tasted a little off. I couldn't quite place what it was - though I wonder if it's the oil they fried them in. I don't know how often they change the oil, or what kind of oil they use, but I only ended up eating one. However, my boyfriend loved them and ate the whole batch. So, not sure if it was just me or what.The service was average. One of the employees misheard me when I ordered a banana split, so she ended up making me a Banana Berry smoothie. My boyfriend confirmed that I had spoken correctly, so there must have been a blip in communication at some point. But she ended up just making the banana split. I felt bad because of it though, so I ended up tipping a bit more than I usually do.Anywho, I felt that this was a unique little spot for dessert, and I would definitely come back.Overall: 4/5Food: 3.5/5Service: 3.5/5Atmosphere: 3/5

I think all the people in the comments went to a different Tropicana than I did. The staff was helpful, very kind, and almost felt like i was speaking with family! Although they are in a somewhat hidden part of the plaza, it is delicious!

Very very very rude staff especially the man on the counter he has very bad ethics and don't talk properly to any customer and he shouldn't be in any business that evolve with people at all

I'm not sure what to say here. Chocolate and Oreo flavors were not available. Chocolate, are you serious? There were 30 other flavors but no chocolate. It's got to be the requested flavor in the universe. We got mint chocolate and it was okay. I'm sure the place is cute and charming but it lacks the customer service and overall quality of a chain establishment.