CAVA — Restaurant in Winter Park

Below is a transcript of a letter sent to your company's Contact Support Team. Please feel free to have a manager contact me with any questions or concerns you may have.

I was told that I was able to get a bowl of food from a female manager and a male manager with a black cover over his hair. Just earlier today, when I came in with money, a male manager with a similar cover over his hair told me upon receiving a free bowl, unnecessarily at that, as I had money to pay for the bowl I was ordering, "This is the last time this is happening.", or something along those lines. After eating the contents within the bowl, I asked the manager for his name, upon which he told me, "You can get a bowl."

He failed to provide his name, and would not answer when I tried to get his attention once more. As such, would it be possible to ask for permission from corporate to receive written permission of this agreement. The first time this was asked, one of the associates kindly shook my hand and told me to come back at 9:45pm. Since none of the bathrooms in the city are open outside of Wawa, and the legal may or may not honor the fact that using the restroom is or is not violating a trespass warning, I came in the daytime and had a female manager approve of this.

I would also like to revoke my compliment of Christian behavior from this staff. They are perhaps not as kind-hearted as they first presented themselves. Please know that unless written permission is given by management tomorrow, I will leave a review on your Google results page to see if a manager might provide an explanation for this sudden change in conduct. Perhaps the staff was trying to help and management was unhappy. I would argue, if this was the case, that you are infringing upon the religious freedoms of the staff members or managers who provided permission for me to receive a compensated meal. This meal was likely then, compensated by the store itself if not the management of the Winter Park CAVA location. Christian behavior, however, may not always mean that someone is a Christian. I understood their behavior that way as I grew up in a home that aspired to Christianity, with my mom having once been more formally Christian when she was a member of the Christian Church. Even with a Protestant upbringing, however, I understood charity to be a requirement if one was to be truly Christian. Other faith groups, however, may have some similar doctrine, or none at all. This is something that I both understand and respect, which is why I decided to include this in this message.

When I said that perhaps love does not truly live in Orlando, perhaps I was right. There must be no practicing Christians in this city, and perhaps even in this city's metropolitan area. My apologies for misidentifying you as something you clearly are not, Christian.

I was able to speak with a manager named who told me his name was either Albert or Elmer. When asked, he stated that the compensated meals the two of us initially agreed upon were to still be provided. When coupled with another manager's words, it seemed as though our initial agreement for me to only come in at night was to be honored as opposed to another agreement with a female manager who stated that it was okay to receive a compensated meal in the day. This review has been updated accordingly as a result.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------It seems to depend on the manager or employee regarding what sort of answer you will receive to a question you may ask one of the staff members at this facility. As such, try another CAVA location for a better experience. Imagine a staff that does not know the difference between begging for food and one trying to pay them back for having paid it forward. Proper conduct is usually a requirement for being...

This is a lengthy review but this place deserves it. No other review really captured the true environment and the style of food they serve.

I was a little skeptical about trying Cava at first but wow the food was absolutely phenomenal. A friend recommended it to me and I am so glad I listened. It is set up similar to Chipotle but with Mediterranean flavors. You start by picking your base like rice, then choose your protein such as steak, lamb, or chicken, and finally load up on toppings.

The best part is that toppings are unlimited and free of charge. You can pile on things like hummus, feta cheese, avocado slices, arugula, tomatoes, falafel, onions, olives, cucumbers, and romaine lettuce. If that feels overwhelming they also make it easy by offering numbered options like pre-built bowls. For example option 1 is a steak bowl, option 2 is a chicken bowl, and option 3 is a steak and lamb combo.

I ordered option number 2 which was a chicken bowl with rice. For toppings I added feta cheese, onions, romaine lettuce, olives, corn, pickles, tomatoes, and a drizzle of garlic sauce on top. I also got a side of falafel to go with it. The bowl plus the falafel came out to sixteen dollars and some change which I thought was worth it for the quality and amount of food. Every bite was super flavorful and fresh. The food was so yummy that I was genuinely surprised at how good it turned out.

They also have a drinks bar with both classics and unique choices. You will find sodas like Coke, Sprite, and root beer along with options such as Mexican cola and blueberry soda. They also serve their own homemade lemonades in different flavors. I have not tried them yet but they offer Classic Lemonade, Blueberry Lavender, Cucumber Mint Lime, Strawberry Citrus, Sweet Tea, and Unsweetened Black Tea. It is a really fun selection that adds to the experience.

There is plenty of indoor seating if you want to stay cool and a cute outdoor seating arrangement with umbrellas over the tables that makes it a nice spot to sit and eat outside.

This is a place I will absolutely be coming...

We love Cava as a quick service solution, but tonight was an epic online order fail at the Winter Park location. In fairness, they were busy. But busy doesn’t explain the fact that I could have gone through the line twice by the time my online order was ready. There are some serious deployment issues that need to be addressed here.

Order placed at 6:35, estimated pick up time on app was 6:45, arrived at 6:50, finally left with my food at 7:25. I am not exaggerating when I say I could have gone through the in-store line twice. There was no one in line when I finally walked out with my food. Only the poor other people waiting for online pick up.

Part of the hold up was that they ran out of pita chips, which was explained but only after I started asking questions. My order sat there “ready” for 10 minutes and supposedly the chips only take 2-3 minutes. A simple, honest communication could have allowed me to make the decision that I didn’t need the chips and get me 10 min of my life back.

I get home only to find that my order was missing items as well. At least I got a free cookie out of it all…

Shout out to the one girl working with reddish brown hair who was the only one who seemed to care about customer service and had to deal with the rudeness and incompetence of her coworkers while trying to help. She deserves...