Frutilandia (though I want to spell it “Fruitlandia”) is a little shop on the corner of University Ave. and Cherokee Ave. in City Heights West. We’ve passed in driving in the car going to North Park tons of times, but never really noticed it or thought to stop in. In fact, there seem to be similar little shops all the way down University but for some reason we never visit these places. I’m not quite sure why. A combination of not knowing what these shops are with the fact that it’s really hard to park on University seems to be a real hindrance. But no more! I have visited one of these places and now I feel I can visit the rest to see what I have been missing out on.
Frutilandia sells all fruit related things: smoothies, fruit salads, pico de gallo, fruit waters and more. I’ve only had one thing though, the fruit salad:
This is a “small” container ($3.55 + tax) of fruit salad. They chop everything up on the spot for you and you can request certain items and customize this how you want, though I just let them give me whatever they like since I’m not too picky about my fruit. You can get granola, honey, cottage cheese (or yogurt) and raisins on top of your fruit salad as well, but I opted for only granola and honey. Mine came with red apples, mango, watermelon, honeydew melon, strawberries, and bananas. A medium is a longer rectangle box for less than $6 and you get a TON of fruit. I got the medium sized one for Jake for Father’s Day last weekend so we would have a least something healthy to eat (besides the large box of donuts I bought… oh my).
The fruit tastes really fresh and crisp and you know it is since they chop it up for you on the spot. There’s no fruit salads sitting around in plastic containers all day (like at the grocery store) so the fruit just tastes better.
A quick look at a review from the Union Tribune divulges the secrets of the other items on the menu: pico de gallo is fruit salad with lime and chile powder; escamocha is a Mexican fruit salad with several varieties of fruit chopped very finely and mixed with condensed milk, coconut shavings, and sliced almonds; fresas con crema is strawberries with sweetened condensed cream; they also have smoothies and fruit waters and ceviche. All things fruit!
The one downside is that this place is cash only. But you should definitely get some cash to try out the wondrous fruits they have in store for you here. I will definitely be back to try some of their other goodies and maybe venture into those other shops I spy on University all the time.
Frutilandia
3647 University Ave
(between 36th St & Cherokee Ave)
San Diego, CA 92104
(619) 282-9774
