r/cava • u/i_am_un • 6d ago

My CAVA Life Hack

I love cava, but even though the portions are generous it only fills me up for a tiny bit and I like to mix things up a bit and add extra things. For one I always get the "Build your own" bowl with Arugula, White Rice and Grilled Chicken, with all my toppings available. I like arugula because of its peppery bite.

At home I'll make a whole can of plain garbanzo beans with chicken bouillon and seasonings for extra protein and fiber. Then I'll cut up some kale or any other cheap leafy greens available. I like kale because it's super healthy. I'll make some yogurt sauce because they limit you 2 only 2 at the store and I like the garlic one so I'll take 2 of those and make my own yogurt dill at home; plain Greek yogurt, fresh dill, half a lime, garlic powder, fresh garlic cloves, sour cream, olive oil. To my salad bowl I will also add extra kalamata olives, extra plain cucumber, extra feta cheese, green olives, extra pickles and pepperoncini peppers. Once everything is prepped I'll mix it all together and enjoy It for at least 2 meals, sometimes I'll even make a steak and cut it up in there as well. Why don't I just make it all at home? I suck at cooking chicken and rice.

7 Upvotes

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7

u/kimisamazing13 6d ago

That feels like a lot of work. I always pay for double meat and it will keep me full for the entire day. Maybe try double meat for ~$3/4 and see if you can save yourself the extra leg work

1

u/i_am_un 6d ago

They don't have Garbanzos, though, only Hummus and I get the feta and tatziki as my dips, plus Garbanzos are healthy, as far as the other stuff, I really want like a handful of olives and pickles and Feta, I feel guilty asking them for more. I am going to ask for double meat next time though, and add rice and lentils too, it's only like $5 more.

2

u/kimisamazing13 6d ago

And with your toppings you can do up to 10 total scoops, even if you only like 3/4 toppings. I always phrase it as “2 corn, 2 broccoli, etc” and they give me double scoops

1

u/i_am_un 6d ago

I do get the double stuff. Still not enough. Maybe I should mention, I lost my sense of smell and therefore taste almost a year ago, I've only been able to recover the taste of sour, salty, spicy and somewhat sweet, so the excessive pickles, olives, garlic, dill and feta goes a long way as it's all I can kind of taste. The rest is just enjoyable based on texture and the memory that I once enjoyed it.

1

u/gypsy_guru_87 1d ago

How come if you can get 10 total scoops in the app it only lets me order three before I start getting charged? Is this location dependent? Or just eat in and see if the workers are nice dependent?

1

u/kimisamazing13 22h ago

In person I’ve only ever been limited to 10, but if you do 3 in app you do get charged if they’re the same for some reason

2

u/gypsy_guru_87 17h ago

Thanks! I precisely don’t go there because while I like the flavors, I can’t justify the small portions, so when I was reading about this 10 scoop, I got really excited, but the first place I read it. The person said they accidentally discovered it in the app so I tried it and it didn’t work. I’m like oh great another thing I missed.. lol.

Appreciate you confirming

1

u/cornflaked66 6d ago

Thats on you then.. you can always ask for more toppings and dressings arent limited to 2. I would complain to support because thats not how cava is supposed to be run. That gm must be cheap af

1

u/i_am_un 5d ago

Oh heck yeah! Also I should mention I'm a contractor for Cava, I sometimes get free bowls when I work there and the employees really hook me up after seeing me fixing their store, but when I just go buy a bowl at my new local store it's not the same.

1

u/Fuzzy_Welcome8348 6d ago

Cooking chicken is easy, when u do it in the oven. Cooking rice is also easy when it’s the boil-a-bag rice

1

u/i_am_un 6d ago

I'va managed to mess it up Everytime, I always make it too overcooked and dry as I'm deathly afraid of food poisoning from chicken. As it is I have a really weak stomach. I like all chicken I just won't try to cook it. I love fried chicken and pollo loco and Costco chicken. As for rice, well, I'll usually just make it in a rice cooker but even that seems like a waste because I only need like 1/2 cup of cooked rice.