CAVA — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Oh CAVA my CAVA!

Four year ago, when I first arrived to USC, CAVA was my sanctuary. Where else could you get such a beautiful wholesome variety of carbs, greens, and proteins for under 15$? But the real reason why I, and everyone I knew loved CAVA was because of its glorious portion sizes. You were the only place that satisfied my deep hunger. Your meal compensated for lacklaster portions I might have had at another restaurant earlier that day. If I had the chance with you that day at lunch, I might not have had to eat dinner.

Many great memories were made during the golden period of CAVA. When my dear friend and I couldn't agree on anything else, you would be our fallback. We brought home many meals and discussed philosophy, life, and love over those beautifully satisfying bowls of sustenance. CAVA will always be part of me.

But then the pandemic struck. And I saw business close for two weeks. I was scared, and the other CAVA lovers must have been as well. Business dwindled for a while, and among all the thing that I prayed would come back, CAVA was the one I prayed for the most. Slowly things did come back, people recovered, masks came off, and covid no longer on our minds.

CAVA came back, but we started noticing changes. The bowl became smaller. The pita became thinner. Some of the sides were switched to pickles. The lines started becoming unbearably long. These may be things a corporation wants you to forget but I will never. Perhaps the sides were stifled by the supply chain? Perhaps inflation was hitting hard? Or perhaps, CAVA was held back by its poor management?

An article on the NYTimes said that companies realized they could get away with hiring less, which leads to longer wait times, and most importantly, overworked employees. Maybe CAVA adopted this strategy. At the beginning, many were still willing to wait to order with a disgruntled employee to get a beautiful CAVA bowl. But slowly, less were enamored. And I had periods of as long as half a year where I did not step foot into a CAVA.

Some may see such as an inconsequential story. But I want to highlight: this is capitalism. When times are good we might have an abundance, but when times are bad we are at the mercy of the forces that be. Sometimes, capitalism squeezes hard, and it ruins what you once loved.

But today, Robert, Carlos, and Kevin made me a beautiful bowl, leaving me in a familiar state of bliss. And I had a glimpse of the glory that once was.

(I'm the Asian guy with short hair btw, thanks for the...

Time: around 12:45pm Location: CAVA in USC village Type of report: racial discrimination

Since I am a student studying at USC, I go to this CAVA branch alomst every week, and whenever I always visit, I have terrible experiences. Again, a female employess (short and fat, I cannot assume the race) irritated me by not understadning my pronunciation. Even though I do not have Korean accent, I have a perfect American accent, a few CAVA employees do not understand my pronunciation. But the ironic is that it is only the CAVA employee who does not understand my pronunciation. After selecting protein choices, I wanted to choose cherry tomatoes, corns, brocolis, olive, and, cheese When I pronounced "olive and cheese" the female employee understood I was trying to say "all of this" So she asked me did you just say "you want all of this" so I clarified again for her "olive and cheese" and her reaction was like "you were trying to say olive and cheese" and that behavior made me feel upset. Isn't it a definite racial discrimination? And even after when I was choosing sacue I wanted Yoghurt dill. Although my english is proficient, I am not familiar with mediterranean food, so I had a slight trouble reading youghurt dill. Even though I could not read the name properly youghurt is so obvious. I Although when I said yoghurt she misunderstood and picked up completely different sauce and asked "is it a sauce you want?" So I pointed, but she just did not understand. She ruined my mood.

As they do not put their name tag on, I do not know her name. But, she irritated me all the time I visited. That female is the one who most frequently ruined my mood. I want all empolyees at USC village CAVA to be trained properly. I want you to find out who the lady I described is and I want her to be warned.

I do not want any credits. I already obtained it for two times after sending complaints. I feel guilty of obtaining it continuously, but I should complain because what she has done is racial discrimination and it was intentional. She intended to...

I have never been here before. This location is hounded with delivery/pick-up orders and extremely understaffed. They are clearly stretched thin and can't keep up with student demand by itself—the line out the door. The lobby was messy and the all the food options were low. When it was my turn, an employee named Kevin approached and didn't say a word to me (I only know his name because I had asked another employee for it). He just held the bowl and looked at me. I tried to order a "build your own bowl" and asked for "basmati rice". Because the line was so long, I used the website's menu so I would know what I want and to expedite my order process. Kevin asked "which rice?" and I repeated "basmati." He got annoyed and told me that all the rice is basmati rice. Their website's menu states: saffron basmati rice, brown rice, black lentils, and rightrice. I know I'm not crazy cause one of the options was clearly basmati rice and the other option was clearly brown rice. I showed my phone and said, "Saffron basmati rice." Kevin glanced at my phone and immediately shut down on me after this. He stopped speaking to me and didn't look up as he haphazardly and sloppily threw my ingredients into the bowl, as if he was displacing his annoyance with me into the food. Normally, I wouldn't let something like this bother me but this place is kinda expensive for the broke college student budget and his annoyance with me not knowing their menu interfered with his ability to build my bowl. When he was finished, he slid the bowl down the counter and said something inaudible to his co-worker, who immediately looked at me. I felt humiliated and not welcomed, as someone unfamiliar with the menu and trying to replicate the words used by the CAVA brand. The other employee, Tyler, was very kind and tried to make the moment better. He was also very patient with everybody in line, working on takeaway and pick-up orders simultaneously. At least the pita chips...