by Bottom Line: The Spicy Lamb Meatball Pita from Cava may come up a little bit short on the heat, but it is fresh and tasty with a Mediterranean twist on fast food.
Cava is a growing Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant that has been expanding for several years. You may have noticed that they have taken over locations previously owned by the now-defunct Zoe’s Kitchen, and that is because they bought out that chain. Cava follows a similar template where they essentially offer a Subway-style version of Mediterranean food where you can choose your toppings for their pita wraps and salads.
I have been meaning to try the place for a while and noticed that they have several items that offer some heat. The Spicy Lamb Meatball pita looked particularly interesting, so I decided to go with that on my first visit. It comes with lamb meatballs, hummus, tomato and cucumber, pickled onions, cabbage slaw, pickles, garlic dressing, and skhug dressing all wrapped in a warm pita. I also ordered the Spicy Greens salad for my wife and decided to get an order of the pita chips with the spicy harissa dip.
As for the pita, that is one large wrap. They stuff quite a lot into it, and it will definitely fill you up. The meatballs are decent in size and they deliver some good taste. They have a touch of grassiness, which could be from the herbs added to them, or it could just be the lamb. But they are not gamy at all, as lamb can be, and do have a bit of a kick.
All of the other ingredients come together in somewhat of a mess, but the wrap is still quite tasty. It was hard to separate out the skhug dressing (which is basically a Mediterranean chimichurri) from the hummus and the garlic dressing, but there were definitely some herbs in there and some creaminess. Next time, I may ask for the skhug and garlic dressings on the side so that I can use those more like dipping sauces and can distinguish the flavors. The pickled onions particularly stood out with a nice tartness as well as some sweetness. The veggies were definitely fresh, and the pita bread is nice and pillowy and adds to the experience instead of just holding everything together. But this is definitely a mess of a wrap (another reason to get the dressings on the side) and not something you should try to eat while driving! And despite all the fresh ingredients, it does seem to lean on the heavy side.
As mentioned, the meatballs have some kick, maybe a little above Mild on my scale. And the skhug dressing has a bite as well. But once everything is brought together, the wrap as a whole comes up less than the Mild level. Some bites have extra heat if you get more meatball and dressing, but overall there is not too much burn. The average mortal would probably not have much trouble working through this as far as the heat is concerned, and chiliheads would probably prefer it to be kicked up a bit more.
I sampled my wife’s Spicy Greens salad, which includes crispy falafel, creamy red pepper hummus, lentils, crunchy greens, Crazy Feta, Fiery Broccoli, skhug dressing, and hot harissa vinaigrette. The falafel is the star of this bowl, delivering a nice kick and good flavor from the chickpeas and other ingredients ground up inside. Overall, this was sort of like a Greek salad with a lot of extra stuff and plenty of fresh vegetables. I even liked the lentils, despite the fact that I am typically not a fan of that legume. As for the heat, the salad came up to about Mild on my scale.
The big winner overall, though, was the harissa sauce. That is basically a paste with chilis, tomatoes, and other spices, and their version is plenty rich with a nice acidity and a little bit of tartness. It also had some good sweetness along with a kick, getting it up to Medium on my scale. I could make a meal of this and their pita chips along with the falafel, their pickled onions, and maybe the tomato and cucumber mix.
Now, there are plenty of fresh vegetables in these selections from Cava, but they also bring a pretty high tally of calories. That is from all of the dressings and the pita bread, which pushes them to the heavy side. The Lamb Meatball pita comes up to 865 calories, which is rather hefty, especially when you look at those 47 grams of fat. But you can easily split this into two meals, which will keep the calorie count down. The Spicy Greens Salad is 780 calories (53g of fat!), and that is another one you can spread across two days. Then the pita wedges are 280 calories and the harissa is 210, so if you are not careful, you will be shopping for a larger size of pants after a trip or two to this establishment!
Cava has been expanding across the United States, and you can check for a location near you at their website. Their fresh food with a Mediterranean theme is tasty and healthy (if you don’t overindulge), and they have several options to kick up the heat on their menu items. And while they may not set your mouth on fire, they offer some unique fast food selections worth checking out.
Nutrition Info:
Spicy Lamb Meatball Pita
Calories: 865
Fat: 47g (11g Sat/0g Trans)
Protein: 40g
Carbs: 70g
Sodium: 2020mg
Spicy Greens
Calories: 780
Fat: 53g (7g Sat/0g Trans)
Protein: 24g
Carbs: 21g
Sodium: 2180mg
