CAVA — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I want to start off by saying I love Cava, in fact I was just at the Sherman Oaks location yesterday and it was amazing. This location however felt demonic and dark-sided. I have never in my life felt in a such a fever dream like I did when stepping foot in this location.

First of all, I understand this location in proximity to the corporate office buildings and the food court is very high foot traffic, hence it was busy when we arrived. I also understand that because of how hectic it was in there, the workers are not going to be as attentive as they can amongst the chaos. As you may have picked up, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. What came upon ordering was what can only be described as a horrifying experience.

To start off I waited in line for 25 minutes. At first I was thinking that the customers ahead of me were clueless, and inquired the workers about every option they had presented to them, but little did I know it was the complete opposite. The workers had possibly the WORST sense of urgency I've ever seen not just in a service sense, but a life sense in general, I genuinely could not tell if I was getting pranked. The worker that helped build my bowl was obviously new, her coworkers gave a pathetic attempt to help her by telling her a singular piece of critical information (they were out of lamb), and then just laughed and walked away from her. I ordered my usual bowl, nothing crazy until I asked for the hot harissa sauce. They had just ran out and she grabbed another one, and while waiting for her to come back, her abhorrently clueless coworker came over in an attempt to finally help with building the rest of my bowl. I told him I was just waiting for her to return with more hot harissa, and this man looks at me, rolls his eyes, and says that the harissa was right in front of me, pointing to the chicken. I wasn't talking about the chicken. I tell him, "Oh no I'm waiting for the sauce not the chicken" in which he then asks me "Are you sure about that?" with a smug grin on his face. I reassured him I was sure and he just laughed and walked away. Then the original girl came over, I asked for half chicken and half sweet potatoes. She then immediately cuts me off and says "We don't have sweet potatoes. We never have." , as I'm pointing to the sweet potatoes. Again I could not tell if I was being pranked, I even laughed because it was so funny I wanted to cry. They proceed on to my toppings as the man who had gave me unwarranted attitude helped me, and by help I mean just existed within the same space as my bowl, as he swiftly told me that they were out of half of the toppings there. Great. Fine. I get the toppings that I could and FINALLY I get to the end of this evil interaction and ask for my dressings. I'm cut off again and told they only have 2 dressings available.

I just really want it to be known, yes the food was fine, there was nothing inherently wrong with the food. The service on the other hand can't even be described as next to none. It was truly diabolically malevolent, every single worker in there had no sense of urgency, absolutely no humility, no empathy, no remorse, and most indubitably no respect. I have worked food service for 4+ years, I know people have their days, I know when it's peak busy not everybody is going to be in their best mood, however I know when people are just bad, and every single worker in that location was a monster. Hopefully if any of you decide to order online you don't have to deal with the sinisterly inhumane service, but I can guarantee you that you will be missing your promised pita bread that they lied in my face to me about not having, as I'm pretty sure they are hoarding them for themselves to deprive their customers of ever being...

I'm not from LA but I'm obsessed with Cava, and every time I come to LA I look forward to eating Cava the most. This time was no exception and I happily found out that there is a Cava in Westfield Century City!

However, my experience ended up disappointing and I think if this was my first Cava taste...I would not return to this chain ever. From the service to the food, there was room for improvement everywhere.

On a Saturday at 3pm, my group got in line behind about four parties (consisting of about 10-12 people total). The line honestly did not look long at all....but we stood there for FOURTY MINUTES before we got to the counter to order. Luckily, we were not on a time crunch but I saw plenty of potential customers leave the line to go eat elsewhere.

I'm honestly not sure WHY the line was moving so slow. The processes just seemed incredibly inefficient. The bottleneck was at the last station where you add your toppings and the bowls/wraps piled up there. They need to hire more employees working the counters because the man slowly scooping the toppings was also running around getting chips and doing other things. This store needs more people, each doing less things.

We eventually got our bowls and I thought it wasn't as good as other Cava I've had. I know that each food component probably follows some sort of formula for preparation and seasoning, but for some reason my toppings seemed slightly watery or off.

I know which Cava to avoid next time...

I walk to this mall regularly as I live down the street. I was so excited a CAVA opened here. But after coming here several times, my experiences have been far from good. I don’t expect white tablecloth/white glove service here. I understand this is a fast-casual restaurant, but while the food is what you would expect from a chain restaurant (mostly consistent) the service and cleanliness of this place is not.

I know new restaurants need to work out the kinks but it’s been here long enough to work through that. At this point it’s just sheer laziness of the staff - the counter has always been dirty, like they never wipe it down so the presentation of the food is terrible. They are constantly out of something, today it was limited toppings and lamb meatballs.

The staff is the absolute worst. They never smile, they have the most stoic faces, and look like they just wanna rush you through because they hate their jobs. Overall terrible attitudes. Isn’t minimum wage in CA like $20 an hour now? Geez, try a smile or a “hello”

If they are out of something they aren’t like “let me add an extra scoop of hummus for you” nothing. Just a stoic “we’re out”.

The outside tables are also always dirty. I’d say only come here if you really crave cava because the only thing good (not great)...