CAVA — Restaurant in Jacksonville

DO NOT ORDER DELIVERY you will have to WAIT an HOUR or MORE! I'm a delivery driver. Went to pick up an order & was told the customers that just walked in & had not ordered (but were in front of their eyes) were MORE IMPORTANT than the Customers who had ALREADY ORDERED AND PAID, at home still waiting on their food, nearly half an hour at this point.

This delivery company does not give orders to drivers until the restaurant has had long enough to make the order. The restaurant management knows this and acknowledge that I was correct in stating that. So, orders should be made & ready to go out for delivery when a driver arrives. There should never be a reason for a drivers to be hanging inside of a restaurant waiting for their customers food.

When I got to Cava, eight (8) other delivery drivers were already waiting for their customers. I complained for my customer, making no qualms about the fact that they should have already had this order ready. Even the customers in line understood that they should have had these people's order ready before they were even in the door. They were agreeing with me & glad that I stood up for my customer like that. I've been delivering for many years, of course I'm going to stand up for my customer.

After waiting a few minutes, I went into the line, back about 10 people, just to see how long it would take for any of us drivers to get our orders. I watched as orders were being placed to the side and no names were shouted out to the drivers. I continued through the line waiting for them to call out a name for any of us drivers and none were called. As I reach the register I asked again about my customer.

So I go in there, I've waited, I complained, I waited again, I went in line, I waited through line just you ask AGAIN. I asked him to please shout out the names of the bags that were building up and being ignored behind them because there's too many drivers waiting here for them. That's when they finally started giving out names of the six bags that were behind them waiting to be delivered. My customer's order was still not done YET. So of course I had to complain again!

I was kicked out by the manager who wanted nothing to do with helping the customers who had ALREADY PAID. This "manager" was more concerned about the people that were standing in line looking at him (showing no concern for his delivery customers), standing in front of his eyeballs, who had not even ordered nor paid. He was assisting four other employees making those customer's orders. Not even at the register? You don't have any confidence in your employees at all, do you? I mean that's why you hired those people to do that job so that you could do your job, which is actually run the entire store, especially helping the customers who have ALREADY PAID.

He kicked me out because I complained that my ALREADY PAID customer was more important (especially at this point) than a customers standing in front of his face, that have not even ordered nor paid yet.

If you're management skills tells you to be more interested in the what people see immediately in front of their faces (which was not impressive), without paying yet, then you are the one with an issue, you're not going to last very long as a manager or a company! Customer service 101, go...

The food here there is very good. However the 3 employees who prepare the food and make your meal ruin a good image for the restaurant and offer poor professionalism. I waited at the counter for 15 minutes before I was served. 2 employees were in the back yelling and screaming out of view and the gentleman who was in the front making the meals seemed overwhelmed. He called our to the other 2 employees several times to help him make the food and needed going back there to get the presumed manager and the other employee. The the manager started complaining about where she was working ad what time she plans to get off (which was in 10 minutes) and the other gentleman who was walking arround saw me stabding there waiting for my meal.

I was the only one in line and they had looked at me several times and never bothered to ask me what I wanted. I almost walked out but several people came in and this sent the gentleman in the front into s scurry. The manager who was taking her time rolling falatal in the back asked that guy in front if he was making to go orders ans he said yes. She told him to put it down and finally serve me.

Once I finally was asked what I wanted. I was given the wrong item ad he was onto the next order.

I thought about complaining, but I was just happy to have a meal. I dono if this was just one bad day for the team or if this is a constant issue. But for me it really took away the excitement I had of driving across town to come and eat at cava. I can't say that I'll come back. Cava does so well on their food options and drinks and promoting a good message and a customer friendly environment. Which I felt from the whole experience other than the employees. I felt like my order wasn't priority nore was I. And to me, bad customer service and the laizyiness of the staff sends the message of "I don't care about you, and your order" and I wouldn't come back...

Extremely disappointed with my recent experience at CAVA Riverside.

I ordered two kids' meals and a bowl. One of the kids’ meals had a whole 1-inch bone in the chicken—an obvious food safety hazard, especially for a child. My son choked on the bone and had to spit it out. This could have ended much worse, and not a single person at CAVA showed any compassion or concern when I brought it to their attention.

I called the store to report the incident and spoke with a guest services manager named Hunter or Hunder (unclear pronunciation). Instead of being apologetic or helpful, he was sarcastic, dismissive, and disrespectful. When I calmly explained the issue and asked what CAVA typically offers in a situation like this, he cut me off and stated, “I’m not refunding you for the whole meal.” I never asked for a refund—I simply wanted to know how the company addresses serious concerns like this.

When I asked for the general manager’s name, he hesitated, then told me it was “TJ.” I asked for the full name or a way to contact the GM directly, and he just repeated “TJ” sarcastically, clearly not taking the situation seriously.

On top of all this, I was not given a receipt, making it even harder to follow up with corporate.

If the general manager or anyone from CAVA corporate sees this, I would like to formally request that:

A complaint be filed against the manager I spoke with.

My child’s safety incident be taken seriously.

CAVA reflects on the poor customer service and total lack of compassion displayed.

Proper training be reinforced for staff handling serious customer concerns.

I have attached images for reference. Please do better, CAVA. Families deserve better care and...