My wife and I are not celiac but we do not eat gluten or dairy. I really enjoy the food at Cava and I think the menu is very transparent about what is and is not compliant. However, I can imagine there is quite a bit of cross contamination based on the setup. Have not had a bad experience here yet!
— Not at all
— Gluten-free items are marked on the main menu
— Most/All
— Excellent
I used to go here all the time, but my experiences haven’t been that great lately. My go-to bowl contained spinach, rice, lentils, and beef meatballs. The past few times the food was salty, and I had a few bowls where the lentils were undercooked. The best thing is the crazy feta.
Yes
this chain does list all ingredients and will change gloves for you. big BUT: they have no processes to ensure no cross contamination and apparently no staff knowledge of cross contamination of allergens. with a little patience you will catch them spreading dips on a wheat pita then putting the same utensil back in the dip. or handling wheat pitas, then using the same gloves in bonds of greens to serve a salad bowl.
No
They do an excellent job listing all allergens. They are accommodating with changing gloves. Food is good. But both times I have gone I have ended up ill. This time much worse. From what I have read the cross contamination may occur on the grills, maybe utensils? Not sure and there is always new people working so it's hard to investigate what is the issue. But if you are celiac/ sensitive be mindful and cautious. Delicious yes, but I'm struggling now.
No
Cava is a similar set up to chipotle in the build your own manner but they use spoons for all ingredients so there is less worry about cross-contamination. Everything is gluten free except for the pita, falafel, and sides but other than that it’s all safe. The website has a downloadable pdf with all food restrictions laid out which was super helpful. Delicious food and no reaction so far! My only issue with them is that the staff can be rude about the safety precautions, so be prepared to fight a little in order to have safe food.
— Somewhat
— No gluten-free information on the menu
— Some
— Excellent
I love their food and there are many GF options, but you have to be careful of you are very sensitive to cross contact. They keep pita bread right next to the rice and they are tossing bread around a lot. If you are very sensitive, I would recommend asking if they can get fresh rice from a backup container and change their gloves.
— No gluten-free information on the menu
I love coming to Cava!! They make sure to change their gloves and get new bowls when I mention Celiac and almost everything is gluten free (just not the pita or falafels). They also gave me my bowl for free once!!!
— Most/All
— Excellent
I came here when I was visiting Austin and got a bowl that was delicious! The falafel is sadly not gluten free but a lot of their food is and they have a detailed allergen menu. I told them I have a gluten allergy and they were very good about it - they changed their gloves and answered all my questions. There is definitely some risk of cross contamination cuz they do pitas also, but from what I saw the serving spoons don’t touch the pita.
Me and the other celiac person I came with both felt good after eating here!
— Somewhat
— Gluten-free items are marked on the main menu
— Most/All
— Good
great greek place! they have bowls that you can get and if you tell the workers you have an allergy they automatically get new ingredients from the back. the only gluten containing item here is pita!
— Very
— Most/All
— Excellent