When first approaching Cava Mezze Grill, one might be fooled of what lay inside by the trendy, lounge-like aesthetic of the exterior. However, inside is a still trendy, loft-like Greek restaurant, complete with white brick walls, wooden tables, a view of D.C. streetlife, and grey-scale photographs that cling to the walls. Cava has a very minimal aesthetic. In fact, it seems like the type of restaurant you would see when scrolling down your Tumblr feed. The indie/alternative music choices such as “Black Dirt” by Sea Wolf, and “Jungle Feva (Metics Vocal Mix)” by Highie Izachaar played at a low volume to encourage conversation, and a wooden foosball machine only added to this vibe.

Cava has a very nutritious appeal, complete with no fried foods and a nutrition calculator on their website. The operation of this restaurant does resemble Chipotle (excluding the obnoxiously long lines and loud atmosphere), in that your meal is passed down from employee to employee as you pick and choose what to add to your meal through a glass divider.

I myself decided to try two different dishes by ordering the chicken, tomato, onion, and tzatziki mini pita and soup. Every bite I took of the pita was extremely fresh. I could taste the smoke in the grilled chicken, and the cucumber in the tzatziki. The Seasonal Soup on the other hand was very deceiving, as it appeared thick on top, however contained a very watery consistency and tasted of marinara sauce.

While my meal was quite quaint, my friend, on the other hand, went in the opposite direction and ordered a grain bowl (essentially a larger version of a burrito bowl from Chipotle) containing rice, lentils, tzatziki, hummus, roasted red pepper hummus, braised beef, pita crisps, tomato onion, tomato, cucumber, Kalamata olives, crumbled feta, lemon wedges, Greek vinaigrette, and Sriracha Greek yogurt to top it all off.

Despite the abundance of different foods in each of our meals, we both came to the conclusion that all of the flavors were extremely similar in taste, and had nothing of bold taste to offset those flavors. I washed my meal down with a Natural Maine root soda from their soda fountain, and to no surprise, that was the most flavorful thing I digested.

Despite the light entrees, Cava Mezze Grill serves as a nice getaway; if you’re looking somewhere to go for a quick bite to eat on a rainy day in D.C., this is the place.