CAVA — Restaurant in New York

Cava is not safe for Black ppl. This is my 3rd racist experience at Cava Union Square. My bowl was prepared & I was at the dressing station. When the cashier at 3:35pm, slammed my bowl down. She then asked to the white couple behind me which dressings they’d like before she asked me. I then asked for a side of crazy feta (they gave it to me so questions asked but regretted to inform me that I’d be charged.) I proceeded to pay that same cashier round Latinx woman (no name tag) when she said “we’re not taking cash.” I said well you should have a sign notifying customers when they walk in. She said “oh there’s no sign, she’s checking the register. “ She pointed to another person who I assumed was a cashier. I said to her “well cash is all I’ve got. So what do you want me to do? Should I wait for her to finish?” She ignored me & the person checking the register approached me & I handed her my cash. She says “do you want change?” I said “Yes.” My total came up to $20.95. I handed her $21. When I got my receipt, I noticed a charge for $4.05 for crazy feta— I was alarmed because not the person preparing my bowl nor the 2 cashiers informed me of that. I returned to the register & showed the person who checked the register the scoop of crazy feta I was charged. $4.05 for & she said I should not have been charged. She rolled her eyes at me & gave me the nastiest attitude “oh I believe you. Here. I gave you more. Whatchu want?” The manager (short latinx woman in red crocs & light wash jeans) refused to refund me. The original cashier who refused to take my money shrugged her shoulders. I left the store irritated & disgusted unable to eat my meal. I then found out, the woman checking the register was the manager. She’s wearing Red Crocs in the photo. I called the complain about my horrific experience, giving her a description of the cashiers & she claimed she couldn’t help bc I didn’t have names. None of these service workers wore name tags. So I couldn’t provide her with names. But I called 20 mins after my experience. All of them were still on the clock. Since this isn’t an isolated experience, I won’t be spending my Black money...

Cava is definitely a stand-out in the world of build-a-bowl spots in the city. I'd never heard of / been to this place (and would later find out it's actually a pretty big brand). I liked the variety of options in the Mediterranean world of flavors. What I had was delicious, and I //want// to go back because it's a choose your own adventure kind of place. I am excited to try other combos. The friend I was with (who suggested it) said it gets insane for lunch, and it was busy but not too busy around 1:30/2pm when we went. If you get choice anxiety, 1000% read the menu before you go because there are a LOT of questions / options as you walk through the process. The pita was a throw-away, and actually the only thing that was disappointing because everything else was SO good. It was bland and just ... bad.

Here's how it works / what I got: You pick the base from green, grains, or both — I did both using one of their pre-mixed greens and lentils (two kinds of rice were the other option). Then you pick which "dips" (3) which is a small ice-cream-scooper dollop of whatever you want. I chose harissa, "crazy feta" (no idea what's in it), and hummus. Then I added chicken, but they had two kinds of meatballs, beef, and all the food looked fresh and well seasoned. I used tahini for the dressing and threw in a bunch of the options they give you for complimentary add-ons. The combo I had was delicious, I think because the ingredients they use are good. Plus, you can see them prepping and cooking...

An unpleasant experience of taking a simple lunch order and making me feel bad about my choices. No welcome or hello. When we got to our meat choices, we decided to go with falafel. The woman assisting had asked if we wanted the spicy over the original and we said we wanted the original. She then asked if we have tried it and we had told her we had not, but wanted to stick with the original for today. Instead of giving us what we had asked for, she began to tell us that the spicy is much better than the original and she doesn’t understand why people go with the original falafel as it’s boring compared to the spicy. This went on for 1-2 minutes of her trying to convince us to go with the spicy version until I finally had to say, can I please get what I asked for as I would like to go (after saying no 3/4 times already.) For the rest of the transaction, she continued to give us attitude and did not say thank you or have a good day when I tried to end the conversation on a good note. There is obviously a high pressure to push this new version, but this is not the way to do it.This experience has left me feeling unwelcome and I will not...