get there early before the Cougars and their personal trainer BoyToys cramp the style. keep your eyes on the food to avoid unfortunate encounters with coin slots, muffin tops and the ocassional cameltoe.

knowledgeable staff that love to talk about the food. too bad they also love to whisk away your drinks before they are empty – tsk! tsk!

oh dear, did i just eat a pigeon heart?

make a donation to PETA after a full meal here.

For our 5th anniversary we decided to try out Cava on a last minute recommendation from close friends. I called around 7:30 and managed to secure an 8:00 pm reservation for two.

When we arrived we had to wait a few minutes to be acknowledged,even though 2 of the staff clearly noticed us from the bar area. The gentlemen that seated us was not the most cordial fellow either, and when he sat us between two other tightly packed tables (even though a good portion of the restaurant was open) I knew things had not gotten off on the right foot. Now normally I would have piped up and asked for another table, but for whatever reason I decided to just go with the flow.

Shortly thereafter our waiter arrived to take our order and help us with the menu. He seemed very nice and was very willing to help us decide. In the end we chose 7 or 8 dishes.

The popcorn was really good and an interesting way to start the meal. That was followed by a crostini dish which was very good (although the tomatoes could have been of better quality). We then had the cuttlefish salad which was excellent, although maybe just a tad overcooked. Next was the sardines done 2 ways. We both really liked the grilled version with olive tapenade and found the other version not to our liking. And…this is where things really started going down hill.

After our last round of tapas, we found ourselves waiting for about 10 minutes. I thought it was a little strange, but just figured that this was tapas style after all and maybe we were meant to take our time. At the 20 minute mark our drinks have been empty for some time and there is still no sign of more food or a waiter – yet I decide to remain patient. After 25 minutes my girlfriend decides to wave down the gentleman who has been delivering our food to ask if he knew when our next dish was expected. He apologized for the delay and went to check. Finally after a half hour our waiter comes over to explain that the computer is down and that is why our order did not make it to the kitchen but that the rest of our order should be out shortly. Now this would be all fine and good if he would have explained this to us maybe 10 minutes into our delay, but 30 minutes is crazy. To add to all this, we know for a fact that this computer was down well before we arrived as we overheard a waitress commenting on it when we first sat down! Now if you know the computer is down, I would think it the restaurant’s responsibility to work around the problem. Maybe hand deliver the order to the kitchen? Just a wacky thought.

After roughly 35 minutes since we last saw food on the table, our next 2 dishes show up. I don’t recall what they were, cod cakes and a clam dish perhaps…the point is that at this point I have completely lost my appetite and I am getting really worked up. My girlfriend is still hungry and picks at the food, but we both decide we’ve about had it. From there I went and found the waiter and explained (without losing my cool or raising my voice or anything to that effect) that we would be foregoing the final dish (48 hour braised beef cheek I believe) and provided him with the reasons why. He again apologized and did not charge us for the last 2 dishes we didn’t really eat.

Now I really don’t know if the service we received was typical or just an off night, but either way we won’t be going back and I ask you to take our experience into account when deciding on whether or not Cava is where you want to be spending a special evening.

Conclusion: Food is good, but not good enough to account for poor service.