It is your typical Chipotle-style set-up. When you walk in, you see all of your topping choices on the wall. All are indicated as gluten free, dairy free, soy free, vegetarian or vegan. So cucumbers are listed as dairy free, vegetarian, and vegan. In fact, everything vegan is listed as all three. Why? Because anything that is vegan is vegetarian and dairy free, silly marketing folks. I guess they don't think their customers are smart enough to know that so they use three symbols that all mean the same thing when used together. That seems silly. The problem with this setup is that by the time you get to the front of the line, you can no longer see the list and its symbols so you have to keep walking over to the wall to figure out which dressing is vegan, for example. Not the best set-up.
When I got to the front, I first had to choose a rice, both of which were vegan. Then you choose your protein. The only one that is vegan is the falafel so I went with that. Then you get three spreads. I chose the red pepper hummus, spicy harissa, and regular hummus. Then, I got to choose all the veggies I wanted so I got cucumbers, pickled onions, mint, olives, and tomatoes. I also added quinoa. They didn't remind me that I could also get a dressing at the end so I forgot to do that.
The falafel balls are really unique as you can see whole chickpeas in them. I thought their falafel balls were really good.
But how was it overall? Eh. There was way too much rice -- like 3/4 of the bowl was rice. There were not enough falafels -- only four. There were not enough veggies. And the spreads were fine, but nothing particularly special.
So for $8 or so, I'd rather just go to Roti as their falafel bowls are awesome. Cava Mezze is okay, but in the world of fast casual, I'd choose Roti or Chipotle over them.
Cave Mezze Grill
3105 14th Street NW
Washington, DC 20010
(202) 695-8100
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