CAVA — Restaurant in Long Beach

I normally don’t make reviews but this was my first time here and they pissed me tf off. I ordered a falafel bowl with avocado for pick up. Pick up time listen online was 7:30, I showed up, my food wasn’t ready for another hour so I was just waiting for an hour to pick up my food, mind you, my wife is supposed to be on the clock. I get my food and we leave, I open up a bowl that is less than a 4th of the way filled that has no falafel, AN AVOCADO PIT, but no avocado slices, is missing the hummus, is missing the sauce, is missing just about everything except some vegetables and pita strips. I’m living bc I’m so hungry and I just spent my last $17 on this disappointment of a meal, but my wife is on the clock so she has to do a couple deliveries before we can go back, we go back, the offer to remake it, the second time, the bowl is filled higher but it’s missing EVEN MORE stuff than before, they didn’t mention they’re out of everything. I understand places run out but if that’s the case why not just tell me and refund me.. I tell my wife to just go back in and ask for a refund bc I did not just spend all this money for a sauceless bowl of lettuce and rice, they do not give a refund and tell her to fill out an online form (despite her mentioning the website is down), even though the website clearly says you have to get a refund in store. They could’ve given her a gift card or offered to remake it another day when the items are re stocked, but no. So we notice on the website they only do refunds within 24 hours, so my wife goes back today, they still don’t do the refund but say they are no longer out of items and can just remake it, I agree, they have me write down specifically what I want and I send a list in great detail and they still forget my freaking sauce, at this point, I’m over it. I start eating the food and within the hour my stomach is grumbling and I’m feeling like I’m abt to throw up. It’s like I understand fast food is busy but if you’re gonna mess it up that bad or be out of that much stuff you just need to run me my money back bc I’m not paying for the ambiance, I have OCD, I have extreme food aversions & I’m an extremely picky eater, you need to tell ppl and have them consent if you’re gonna make a food item food was mid. I will not be returning… and seriously AN AVOCADO PIT?!?!?! never in my life years have I been to a restaurant that put an avocado pit in my food. Don’t waste...

CAVA NEWBIES HERE!!... after hearing the rave about this place, we decided to try it today. Let me start by saying, the 4 stars given here was NOT due to the food but the overall experience. Jumping right into it, the line was long and we were okay with it because we thought it may have been due to Cava's popularity, but in reality, it was just super slow and very disorganized which made the experience chaotic for everyone we were in line with. The signs at each section which shows you what's available to choose from for your order was placed at the bottom of that section, which made it hard to view while waiting. It caused other customers in line to have to briefly cut in front of others within the somewhat small aisle to read the signs. I'm not sure if all the locations have this situation going on but this one did so keep that in mind when you're trying to figure out what you want in your bowl or pita.

Also, there were only 2 team members running the line. Every now and again a 3rd person would show up for a split second and leave again, which was very inconsistent and clearly assistance was needed. We could tell that the two that were working the line were very irritated but they were holding it down the best they could.

The dining area was really messy and the floor was dirty and sticky. A lot was neglected and overlooked during our long wait and service which caused things to run in a non cohesive manner. There was a lot going on and not enough going on all at the same time sheeesh! There was a full house of employees so I was utterly confused regarding some things but I hope they figure out how to make things flow more smoothly in the future....BUT to look on the bright side we were excited about our order.

The Order: we shared a bowl and we loaded our bowl with romaine lettuce, brown rice, saffron rice, black lentils, red pepper hummus (on the side), tzatziki sauce, vegetable medley, sweet potatoes, kalamata olives, feta, fire roasted corn with greek and balsamic dressing. The bowl was indeed AMAZING and definitely worth the hype, we truly enjoyed it. The flavors fused together beautifully and I loved the array of options available. Cava also have some really great sounding drinks but we passed on those for today but definitely check them out. To wrap it up, the food was awesome and I'll definitely visit Cava again but at...

Disorganized staff, messy service counter, snail slow service and unengaged staff. The grilled chicken served from a warmer plate was ice cold. The menu shows you can order a bowl. However they were serving bowls in small three section containers which look close to the kids meal options on the CAVA website. (Except when a worker walked away and made her own bowl in a much larger bowl container and served herself fresh chicken from the grill in the back) The portions were very small. Many of the food items were unavailable in the service line. Some items have up charges only shown on a small sticker that's badly placed just past the items on the sneeze guard. They served 4 cubes of honey chicken an item that is up-charged for an extra $1.50. The honey chicken was luke-warm. The grilled chicken which is included in the $12.85 bowl price was ice cold. The staff served it from a warmer plate and it was heavily charred, however extremely cold. The line took 30 minutes to get through. The staff seemed more concerned about talking or disagreeing with each other than helping customers and getting the line moving. At one point the whole staff walked away from their stations, many went to a back area out of sight, and 2 were gathered around a schedule print out. Meanwhile the half made bowls were just left in the serving area and everyone in line seemed super confused. The tension from staff and customers could be felt. After several minutes another staff came out from the back to finish our orders. When asked if we wanted here or to go, we looked at the messy uncleaned tables and decided to go. As we left we immediately started talking about how terrible the whole experience was. As I started to eat and discovered how cold the chicken was, I threw out the food to avoid any health concerns.

I would not recommend this location to anyone. I wasted 30 minutes and $30 for nothing. Assembly line food is possible if staff work together. Perhaps a field trip to another location may help this location improve. I was very disappointed in the staff serving them self an actual bowl as seen on the CAVA website while serving customers in much smaller 3 section containers. Visit was on Friday 2/23 ...