CAVA — Restaurant in Virginia

My partner and I have had the good fortune of having a Cava right near each of our last 3 residences, so it has very much become a staple of our "I'm too tired to cook" meals. Unfortunately, it's looking like we won't be able to continue frequenting this location.

The less important issue is that it has to be consistently the slowest staff of any Cava we have been to. They're always friendly (with the exception of one girl, who always seems miserable), but the efficiency just isn't there. If there are more than a couple of people in line ahead of you, good luck getting your food in under 15 minutes. Why not order ahead and pick up, you ask? Well, that leads to the much more important issue...

The food bar is consistently filthy. One of the reasons we love Cava so much is that they're supposed to be safe for people with food allergies - in our case, a gluten allergy. We can't order ahead because it's become completely necessary to watch the staff make our food since (1) we've seen them rub the protein ladels against the glutenous pita wraps multiple times when serving, thus cross-contaminating the food, and (2) the toppings bar routinely has ingredients spilled over into other ingredient containers, including the pita crisps. The staff are good about pulling out a fresh container of the toppings we want when we can see that they've been cross-contaminated, but that's not sustainable long term since it always means we're holding up the line.

We've spoken with managers about the latter issue multiple times, but it just doesn't seem to be getting any better. If they're going to advertise themselves as allergen-safe, then they need to deliver (no...

When I googled where to eat that day, I didn't realize that I had a date with destiny. Fate saw to it that I would be met at Cava with a life changing experience. First, the food.... I had the steak and harissa bowl. It was like a party in my mouth, and all the flavors were invited. Next, the people.... It was crazy busy during the lunch rush. But they handled the line out the door like Olympic champions racing in the 100 meter dash. As I was approaching the register, the manager, Alex came out to handle some business, and wow, did he ever handle it! At first, when he came out of the kitchen door, I thought I saw the heavens open up. I mistook Alex for an archangel, and I expected a blessing upon my lunch, and my life. Instead, I was the recipient of a quick "Hello sir!" which not only brightened my day, but it also made me rethink my life choices. Thanks to Alex, a true angel, my life has been changed for the better. In fact, I am a better person for having this interaction with him. My only issue is they were out of paper towels in the men's room. I assume that everyone else's food was delicious and finger-licking, that they had no choice but to wash their hands as if we had a resurgence of COVID-19. Overall, I would go back to the Willow Lawn Cava, not just for the food, but for the experience. I haven't had this good of a time since my crazy ex-girlfriend took me skydiving over...

I work right near the Willow Lawn location and I've pretty much given up on them and started going to Short Pump. It's not because of the quality of the food but rather the LACK of food. I've attempted to order from them maybe four times since January and with the one semi-successful attempt I walked in to pick up my pita wrap and was informed that they were out of pita, so they made me a salad instead. On the other three attempts the site said they were basically out of everything except falafel and salad mixes. I'm not exaggerating when I say that roughly 3/4 of their menu has been marked SOLD OUT for three months. And that's every time now since the new year. I started ordering from Short Pump, and when I mentioned this to the manager there she kinda rolled her eyes and nodded her head like she knew of the dysfunction at the Willow Lawn spot. Today I spoke to a guy who works there and he was perplexed and said it's probably because they're poorly staffed and hiring high school kids who don't do their jobs or just don't show up for work at all. Whatever the reason is, Short Pump has been good and reliable while Willow Lawn doesn't seem to serve...