CAVA — Restaurant in San Antonio

I just moved from DFW where there are several CAVA locations I’ve been to, so I was really excited when I saw CAVA was opening up a location at the Rim in San Antonio. I placed an online order for two bowls at 3:28 pm for pickup at 3:45. I arrived at the restaurant and there weren’t any to-go orders on the shelf. After waiting for several minutes with no new orders brought out to the to go shelf, I waited in line to inquire about my order. The employee in line said my order “was up next,” and coming right out - at this point I had been waiting 11 minutes since the promise time of 3:45 pm. I waited some more and stood by the to go shelf - it was extremely obvious I was waiting for an order and at no time was I offered assistance or even acknowledged by the 6+ employees working in front of house or by the employee in charge of bringing to go orders out.

After waiting several more minutes, I got back in line again. At this point I had been waiting 24 minutes. I would’ve canceled my order but there wasn’t a way to do so via the app or the confirmation email. I asked about my order (again) and indicated I had been waiting a very long time/the promise time for my order was 3:45 pm. The employee in the line asked me if I had checked the to-go order shelf, as if I hadn’t been standing there for the past several minutes waiting on my order. The employee then “checked on” my order AGAIN, and assured me it was “coming right out.” After waiting some more, an employee finally came out with my order at 4:17 pm, 32 minutes after the promise time for my order. All he said was that they received several orders around the same time and evidently forgot about mine… (despite me waiting 32 minutes and getting back in line twice to inquire the whereabouts of my order from several different employees). See the photo attached below where it is clear that the promise time for my order was 3:45 pm and the receipt sticker was printed at 4:14 pm (29 minutes after the promise time). The food was cold and needed to be reheated once I arrived home. Additionally, they forgot to include my side pita bread that I ordered.

I have worked in food service at a quick service restaurant (where the food is prepared on the line in front of customers) very similar to CAVA that was more high volume than this location, so I understand being busy. If a customer’s order wasn’t ready by the promise time, the appropriate action is to make the order right then and there and to work the to-go order into the line, before taking another order. If a customer had to wait over half an hour past the promise time for their order at the place I worked, the order would have been comped and an apology would’ve been issued at the very least. A customer should never have to wait 32 minutes past the promise time, ever.

I was never offered an acceptable explanation and or even an apology. The customer service at this CAVA location was really unacceptable and disappointing. Unfortunately, I won’t be returning and wouldn’t recommend going here.

Edit: After contacting CAVA Corporate, they handled the concern appropriately with me. I added an extra star for CAVA corporate’s (NOT management at The Rim location) quick response and customer service as they tried to rectify...

This will be the last time I come to cava by the rim had the worst experience with the staff serving us to dealing with a recent new hire. I am an original client at this location and even though the manager was super sweet to apologize, unfortunately my business has ended. I’ve never had such a horrific and tormenting experience in a public setting. First thing the employee serving us had an attitude the whole time me and my husband were there and we were getting extra charges for no reason which kindly got refunded by the manager. I get it we are all humans and yes lunch hour sucks but don’t take it on the customer. You chose this line of work and dealing with customers ain’t easy. The other issue is with a new hire. I come to the register because of the extra charges and the manager was talking I assumed with an employee. Turns out the employee just got hired. The employee immediately thought I was rude because the manger decided to assist me with my refund. Again when I saw them especially him I saw him with the same uniform as the other employee. Never have I thought he was recently hired and never was I rude I just didn’t think he was a customer at the time I approach them. The employee kept saying I’m rude and using profanity such as the F word one after the other which made me feel so uncomfortable at that time. I apologized numerous times to him but he kept making me feel bad and extremely uncomfortable when I apologized. I was confused whether he was an employee or a customer because I never been in a situation like this. I’m extremely upset with the way the employee constantly kept going and going about how I interrupted their conversation and that’s when I had to ask the manager is this how your employees talk to your customers. The manager did not know at that time he was hired, since some other manager hired him. Manager apologized to me and my husband and the employee was spoken to but I just can’t go back after what I’ve experienced. We didn’t finish our food and left. No customer should go through something like this. If they don’t know how to deal with clients hey go find another job not dealing with customers. This occurred...

Man, I don’t know what it is with Cava staff. I have never been to a chain that so consistently has employees doing goofy things or being just plain rude. And it’s a bummer because I love their food and having more health/protein geared options! Today as I stood in line, I witnessed a worker put both gloved hands deep inside the trash can then grab a pita out of the toaster, and assemble it all without changing her gloves. Okay, mistakes happen, but when it came my turn I asked if she could change her gloves. She gave me an exasperated look and asked if it was because of gluten. I said no and just asked if she could and apologized for being particular to diffuse any tension because having worked in food service I so do not want to be that person. She did so kind of bugrudgingly, made my bowl and passed it off to the cashier who seemed to also be going through it, I’m not sure why. The cashier was extremely clipped with me and when I told her what dressing I wanted and that I would like to add pita chips, she just went “we’re out.” I didn’t know which she meant, as I could barely hear her talking low, and then assumed she meant the Pita so I asked if she meant like out for the day because I was fine waiting. She said No. just out. And left. Randomly, she came back and threw pita chips in a bag, slammed it down on the counter and didn’t say anything else. I was kind of confused so I took my bag and realized she had meant they were out of dressing, no worries(!), so I apologized and told her it was difficult to hear and I had misheard, but maybe I could get a different dressing? I felt awkward so I just told her never mind. Rude response, rude delivery, and all I wanted was just some food on my lunch break :( I know people have bad days but it seems like every time I walk into a cava the staff is having a morale issue or...