CAVA — Restaurant in Owings Mills

I have been here multiple times for takeout as there are few choices for vegan and gluten-free in this area.

On previous visits, there always seemed to be a few staff members who knew which items were gluten free. And, I feel like they used to have a physical allergen list they could hand you??

This particular visit, no one seemed to know what items were gluten free? No one offered a printed allergin list. (I think they did mention that the falafel was NOT gluten free which I knew already.)

Usually, I look up the allergin list myself but of course I was having phone issues and couldn't do that. 🤦‍♀️

Luckily, I kinda remembered what I usually get and was able to order from memory.

I did not get sick.

The staff did change gloves when I asked but when one staff passed my bowl to the next staff member in line they didn't say anything to the next staff member about changing gloves. I had to stop the next one suddenly (after they already touched my bowl) and ask them to please change gloves. There was a time when I was SO SENSITIVE to gluten that I would absolutely have been forced to have them remake the entire dish as just that tiny bit of cross contamination would have 100% made me sick with a multi day reaction. (I always hate these interactions because I fully recognize that I seem like a crazy spaz to people that don't have food allergies. You truly don't get it unless you have food allergies yourself.)

Other establishments, when making the bare minimum effort to prevent cross contamination usually have only one staff member (usually a manager) make the entire dish from start to finish.

There are now stickers on the glass barrier between customers and the food listing the options in each section and if they are vegetarian or vegan. I believe the labels included notation for nuts? If I'm remembering correctly? But, for some reason these labels do not include gluten?? Why???

As always, in any restaurant with a buffet or buffet type layout of ingredients any of these individual ingredients can be exposed to other allergens at any time in many different ways.

Ultimately, I did not get sick and I will probably be back due to lack of options in this area. I think changes need to be made high up in the company with regards to their approach to common allergens, training, and basic avoidance of cross contamination. I don't think the staff did anything "wrong" but lack knowledge and training for common allergens.

Cava...

I highly do not recommend this location at all. I’m a frequent customer of Cava but this location is the worse. This was my third time to give a try/chance and it was the worse.

Staff had the worse attitude. I always and only buy braised lamb and nothing else. The salad bowl is $15 plus change so it isn’t cheap at all and I’m not necessarily complaining about the price. But when you go a fast food type of restaurant and paid that much, my least expectations is to have a decent plate.

First, the salad, I asked to please add some more and make reasonable. The guy gave me a look. Then the lamb, he barely put and I said again to please put more. He said “do you know this is premium meat” I said “I surely know, that is the only thing why I come here. I’m paying extra $3 bucks for that and you barely put some?” He still didn’t add much at all.

Next, another guy, barely added the extras and the he gave me a look when I asked to please put dressing in containers and I wanted two different.

As you can see, the salad bowl was barely 1/3 if not less full with food. The dressing barely made it to half.

There were not napkins so I asked and the girl at the register gave me a look and said “grab from there” pointing with her face to a roll that was standing beside the register.

I don’t think is the company, maybe the management or independently owners maybe!? But this is absolutely the worse location.

Yesterday went to the one in Cockeysville as usual, and not a problem. The young lady even fixed the drink.

Totally disappointed that I spent about $18 for poor service and almost barely...

I visited the Owings Mills store. The team member who was serving the veggies gave me less than the advertised portion of vegetables (2 scoops). When I brought it to her attention, she was curt and asserted that she would have to charge me as if I was getting two extra scoops. I explained to her that I didn’t need extra, I simply wanted to 1/2 scoop that I didn’t get. Since she was not fluent in English, I wanted to make sure she understood. That strategy didn’t work. So, I asked to speak with the manager. His name is Gary. I explained to Gary the situation and he immediately responded (before I could finish my statement) that he would be charging me for double veggies. He was not a nice person and he was unwilling to listen. It wasn’t until I informed him that I would be contacting his manager that he changed his tone. But, he still refused to hear me out. He kept cutting me off. This is unacceptable for a half scoop of veggies. I don’t eat meat, so I only asked for veggies. For this reason, it was important to me that I had the portion that was advertised. To make the situation worse, all of the available outside tables (70% empty) were very dirty. So, no one is attending to the dining area. There was dried bird feces all over one table (see pic) and debris and food on the others. This is unacceptable. I would not recommend...