CAVA — Restaurant in Winston-Salem

CAVA took over the old Zoe’s spot, near where I live, and I was hopeful this chipotle-style Mediterranean would be just as good. I have ordered mobile curbside twice since they opened just over one month ago. I could not be more disappointed.

First, the online form only asks for vehicle style and color, which is not descriptive enough during COVID times when several people select this option. Especially when there are only three posted “curbside pickup” parking spots. Which are inconveniently the spots closest to the entry/exit of Stratford Rd, which anybody familiar with this area knows can get backed up and/or have cars trying to quickly enter/exit the lot here. Not an ideal spot for your most rapidly used parking spots.

Second, because there are limited mobile curbside pickup spots, I have had to park in other spots, both times fortunately (or so I thought) right in front of the main doors. When you order through the app, you indicate when you’re on the way and when you’ve arrived. Once you’ve selected “I’m here”, it says staff will be notified and someone will be out with you order shortly. The first time it was busy, dinner rush, and one of the workers running orders out finally asked me for my order name after I sat for approximately 30 minutes. The second time, tonight, was post-dinner rush, and not nearly as busy. I called after waiting for 20 minutes, “Hannah” answered, was very nice, brought out my bag (which I could see sitting on the shelf for over 15 minutes), apologized for the delay, and put a free cookie in my bag. I asked what could be done differently on my part when spots are full and there is a delay in service, but calling seemed to be the best resolution. Regardless, I left thinking I should just avoid curbside pickup from now on.

Finally, the food. The first time I ordered, I don’t recall any issues with the food. It wasn’t mind-blowing, but it was pretty good and what I expected for a greens + grain bowl I was able to customize. So, it was worth trying again. Today, however, I got home and realized the following was missing: my side of pita I ordered (paid extra $ for it and hummus), the clearly marked sides of lemon herb tahini dressing and Greek vinaigrette dressing. The added side of hummus was in a larger dressing cup and not left out, though I had nothing to eat it with (no pita), so it got thrown out.

The only reason CAVA gets two stars versus one is simply because the food was still decently good and “Hannah” was proactive about resolving the issue brought to her attention at the time. If this is the kind of food you’re looking for, I’d recommend just trying it out dine-in (if you’re comfortable with...

While this place definitely shares some flavor overlap with the previous restaurant at this location, Zoe's Kitchen, this isn't more of the same. Gone are my beloved white beans with rosemary, replaced by an interesting Chipotle-like assembly line of mediterranean foods, allowing to to indicate what you want in the bowl of your choice, in addition to some Mediterranean entrees from the kitchen.

I went a little overboard on mine and had, I believe, too many flavors in one bowl 😆 But now I know for next time to focus a little better. Highlights include some truly exceptional falafel (in my opinion, better than Zoe's) and an interesting product that I believe they called Right Rice, which was "rice" made entirely a vegetables, with a smooth orzo-like texture that gave it a mouthfeel just like its actual rice counterpart.

The "house made juices" were an interesting feature as well, though I admit to being disappointed as a diabetic that they did not have sugar content available, both on the machines themselves as well as at the counter when I requested the (FDA required!) informational paperwork. the woman I asked was as helpful as she could have been, she brought me the recipe they follow when preparing the juices, but again, no actual sugar content value so that I could make an informed decision. I chanced it, probably shouldn't have, but holy sh*t was the blueberry lavender drink good. I was later able to find out that the drinks actually have 35 g of sugar for a small cup (a can of sprite has 44 g, and diabetics like myself aren't really supposed to have more than 24 g of sugar in a day!), which subsequently explained my falling asleep for the rest of the day. Honestly though, it really was so good that I don't...

I would highly advise never mobile ordering at this location. I love cava, but the service at this restaurant is absolutely horrible. Today I placed a mobile order for a pick up at 12:45 and I arrived 15 minutes after that time at 1 PM. My order still wasn’t ready when I arrived and someone came out to hand someone else an order and asked for my name, which I gave her. Then this employee proceeds to walk away and disappear for like 10 minutes. At this point, I have been waiting for probably like 10 minutes and the line to order in store was gone so the employees were just standing behind the counter doing nothing. At this point, I approached the counter and told some other employee my name and she proceeds to be super rude and just turn to another employee and say “she said she’s waiting for this order but I don’t see it.” At this point, no one says anything to me and it takes another five minutes before they actually go into the computer and manually print out the receipt of my order. The first employee that took my name finally reappears and grabs the order which someone else had just made and hands it to me like it’s nothing that she didn’t just disappear for the last 10 minutes without saying anything to anyone about my order. I don’t see the point in offering a service like mobile ordering if it’s just quicker to walk inside and stand in line and order that way and the employees actually pay attention to you. I’m super understanding with restaurants and waiting for my food because I understand, stuff happens, But I feel like being rude to a customer is just out of line, especially when they could’ve just told me that they couldn’t find my order and I could’ve just easily pulled up my confirmation...