CAVA — Restaurant in New York

This was close to the Marriott and was convenient. I needed a low carb menu and this fit the bill with their salad option.

When I walked in I was immediately confused about how to order. The start of the counter was a couple guys talking and doing food prep. I looked over the signs and was lost, almost left, there wasn’t a menu, just signs. But a lady at the counter asked if she could help. Since I’m not one to run away or back down from a challenge I said I’d never been in and would like to order but didn’t know how it worked. Then the game started!

To make a long story short, you have to pick a base (a green (which there are at least 5 options) a pita, or combination)then sauce, then protein (or other), then toppings, then dressing. Forgive my poor use of parentheses. All of these options are printed on a single card in front of the cafeteria ladies serving area so there’s no way to identify which is which. Luckily enough I’m food savvy enough to know by sight 25% of what each bin held. Just picture a Subway sandwich shop with trays of mostly unidentifiable food and one sign that names them all.

This is what you face! Good luck, I don’t honk Gordon Ramsey could identify them all.

So if you’ve read this far you’re thinking “Brian, why isn’t this a one star review?” Well the truth is, I plowed through the mystery and actually ended up with a decent meal. They just need to work on the presentation of their menu and ordering system. The food itself would never award a 5 star but maybe they can...

So I'm a happy camper who always leave 5 star reviews because I know everyone (usually) cares and tries their best! And I'm a huge fan of Cava overall! But this specific location is absolutely, entirely, fully, truly, (any other adverbs?) bogus and terrible.

They CONSTANTLY take well over 1 hour 15 to prepare an Uber eats order of 1 salad - I won't receive my food anything short of 1 hour 45 for a 15 minute distance for delivery. FIVE times in a row (I know I should just give up already but I really love their food), but 5 times in a row, over a 3 month period, it has take them WELL over 1 hour 15 to actually prepare my food. I'm at my last order today (because I'll no longer order from them) and they took SO long, that I tracked 2 different cyclists who showed up to pick up my order, they waited for 15 minutes, then left because my food was not ready. First cyclist showed up 30 minutes after I placed my order, seems reasonable, second showed up 50 minutes after I placed my order, also more than reasonable. Now its raining so noone else will be showing up, but I had TWO different delivery guys waiting to do their job.

This is literally the worst location I've ever encountered in my life. They obviously don't care and I cannot express strongly enough how disappointed I am in their lack of interest in getting an order out. Guys, it's just ONE SALAD. It's very clear this location does NOT actually care about getting a job done. The owner should be ashamed of...

Would be a 5 star review but this location has messed up my order for the second time now in 2 weeks.

First time: food came ice cold, and was made incorrectly. Ordered half chicken half lamb meatballs and only received 3 little meatballs. Was barely anything even in the pita. They only refunded me $3 because I paid for most of the order with a gift card . The right thing to do would be to credit back the gift card since my food/order was awful.

This time: ordered the free pita with my bowl and of course the pita is missing. I get it, it’s free, but Cava is not cheap. To spend $27 on ONE bowl (with delivery, tax, etc) and not even get the pita that I ordered is frustrating. Literally just stop messing up orders.

The reason that I continue to order from Cava is because the food is fresh, tastes good, is healthy, and I think it’s a decent value because it comes with unlimited free veggie toppings, multiple free dips/sauces, and free pitas. But when you mess up the order or leave out certain items it definitely makes the cost not worth the it. Not sure that I’ll keep ordering from here since they always mess something up and it’s pricey. Also, it would be nice if they could find a way to keep the food warmer for delivery orders. I know it’s hard because you’re mixing hot food with cold vegetables/dips, but if they could find a way that would make them...