Cava Wine Bar and Restaurant

Excellent food, service, atmosphere and wine menu.

Just not a fan.  
The restaurant is cramped, hot and lacking.

Visited with 3 girlfriends on a busy Saturday night. Tables feel like they're stacked on top of one another and the heat the pizza oven throws off is unreal.  We went through water after water trying to cool off...on a freezing night in February!
I think the wine list is pretty nice, with some nice Italian choices.
Menu was comprehensive.  Others were pleased with their choices of a simple salad and pizza.  I though my scallop dish had entirely too much pepper, giving the dish a one-note, forgettable flavor.  I pushed the scallops to the side and ate the risotto cakes and beets the dish was served with.  I though that was a random pairing but I liked them well enough. Another friend ordered seafood risotto and she thought the rice was too gloppy but the seafood was prepared nicely.

For desert we split a chocolate lava cake and tiramisu. The presentation of the tiramisu was pretty but the lava cake arrived deflated and melting all over the plate. Our waiter scurried away after he dropped that mess on the table.

Service was okay. Nothing special. Would not return.

I visited this restaurant recently with a large group of family and was extremely impressed with both the decor and the wait staff. However, for an Italian restaurant I thought the updates on some classic flavors were a little too crazy for me. However, I would go back to try some other dishes. I recommend this place for a group of adults, adventurous eaters, and couples looking for a romantic spot to dine.

Decor: Slightly subterranean with lots of exposed rock. Felt a little bit like I was eating in a cave. Tables weren't too close though, which was great, and the dining room had excellent romantic lighting.

Service: Attentive and unobtrusive. Everything came out on time and piping hot, so no complaints.

Food: Not a fan of some of the crazier combinations. I started out with the grilled octopus -- it was cooked perfectly but I though pairing it with a lentil salad, avocado, and cherry tomatoes wasn't quite right. Plus the dish was more about the lentils than the octopus. My dad had these great flash fried artichoke hearts, but the sliced raw jalapeno they came with again was very strange. I thought a great pepperoncini would have been much better. For my main, I had pasta with chicken and wild mushrooms which was just ok. I thought it was a little bland and the "wild" mushrooms looked pretty ordinary. For the price, I would have loved to eat a couple delicious morels.

However, my boyfriend had one of the best duck dishes to ever touch my lips. It was perfectly roasted and absolutely succulent. It came with a side of butternut squash with some kind of vinegar (?) mixed in that gave it the perfect acidic note. This is what I would definitely order the next time I go. My aunt and uncle also swear by the butternut squash soup, though I didn't get to have a taste.

So, all in all I had to give this restaurant just three stars for some weird pairings that I don't think worked very well. But, everything we ate was cooked perfectly. My advice is to peruse the menu carefully and be open to untraditional Italian.