CAVA — Restaurant in Irmo

I had heard that this Cava location was the one to visit, so instead of my normal location I chose to take my family here for the first time. What a mistake!

We went on Friday April 18 around 5pm. When we arrived, the store was pretty quiet. There were 4 employees working behind the counter, but only a couple of customers in the store. The bins of food were all very low. Maybe they had just had a rush that was nowhere in sight, but it seemed like they just hadn't refilled anything from the lunch/late afternoon. It wasn't yet dinner time and a lot of the choices were empty or bottom of the bin.

After making my bowl, the employee went to put a lid on it. I told her I didn't need one and that it was for here, not to go. She put a lid on it anyway. She did the same to my son and husband's food, even though I also said "I don't need a lid" on each of them. This was frustrating for multiple reasons; the dressing came off all over the lid so we had to scrape the lid to get enough on our food, it was a waste of plastic, and on my husband's bowl the lid wouldn't shut and it was difficult to carry without spilling because of the ill-fitting lid. We weren't offered a tray or anything to carry our food to the table.

When we went to find a seat, we ran into our next problem. Every single place to be seated was filthy. Tables were sticky or had crumbs left on them. Seats were wet with (hopefully) drinks spilled or dirty with food crumbs. My husband collected the spray bottle near the garbage area and sprayed down the table we chose as well as another table for the ladies that came in after us. We used napkins to clean the table and seats. Employees noticed this but never once offered to help despite no one else being in line or waiting for food. The sign next to the garbage area boasts that tables are cleaned after each use for cleanliness or something like that, but these tables looked like they hadn't been cleaned all day. It was disgusting.

The food was fine. The portion sizes were bigger than the location in Lexington gives. But I definitely wouldn't come back to this location after the poor service and disgusting cleanliness of...

The food was ok. Everything is covered in so many flavors and sauces that nothing stands out. This is the inverse of bland. This is why white people shouldn't be allowed to attempt non-white people food. It is like the Anglo-Saxon decendents decided to make up for 300 years of culinary and social injustice in one lunch hour. No spice left behind.

The food was cold and took as long to get as a sitdown restaurant. I think one lady got her PhD during the duration it took me to order the food on the app, drive 3 miles, stand around and finally get the cold, overwrought food.

Atmosphere, you ask? Oh, buddy. It is so gentrified that the walls are stark white. The place is so entitled, you need an attorney to do courhouse research before you can order. Fairly typical version of "I'm so modern I self-identify as awesome." I nearly got a second-hand gender crisis. The kitchen was staffed all by minorities who were busting their butts to serve the entitled "benefactors."This is progress.

Lastly, I've never actually heard someone shout over the subdued din of the crowd "Siri, what is the temperature outside" as said individual proceeded to step through the door.

I'm too poor, common and unrefined for this junk. I love writing reviews for places that get stuff right. I rarely write bad reviews, but holy heck. Wow. This is the nexus of...

The staff moved and worked very slowly. I was the third person in line when I walked in and it took them about 10-15 minutes to take my order. The first employee didn't seem especially knowledgeable about the menu, but was very nice. As I was pointing at a sauce I was asking about, my hand crossed the plane of the glass counter by around a foot at most. I didn't actually touch anything, but if there was an imaginary plane even with the front of the glass counter, my hand crossed it by several inches. The second employee barked at me rudely, ordering me not to allow my hand to cross the plane. This seemed almost silly to me. It was obvious that the second employee was merely trying to assert some power she felt she had. At that point I felt really bad for having inconvenienced the staff by being a customer. The flavor of the falafel was good, but it was soggy and not crispy like I'm accustomed to. The quality of the ingredients of my chicken pita seemed good, but it was very soggy and messy because the employee didn't know the right proportions of ingredients to use. I hate to say it, but I'll give this place a year. It's hard to be critical of restaurants for hiring rude employees, because in today's economy they have to take who they can get. I'll stick to Zorba's or just make...