Cava is putting a $17.60 price tag on its new Greek Goddess Salmon Bowl, one of two featured items the Washington, D.C.-based chain built around a yogurt-based dressing that borrows from the American green goddess classic.

The Greek Goddess dressing uses Greek yogurt, lemon juice and a proprietary blend of herbs and spices. Cava says its flavor profile mirrors the Greek Goddess dip the company already sells in grocery stores — a rare case of a restaurant menu item engineered to echo an existing retail product rather than the other way around.

The dressing arrives on two dishes:

• Greek Goddess Salmon Bowl, about $17.60: glazed salmon introduced this past spring over saffron rice, arugula, red pepper hummus, traditional hummus, pickled onions, spiced broccoli, sumac-cabbage slaw and the new dressing.
• Greek Goddess Steak Salad, about $16.90: grilled steak over Power Greens (butter lettuce, baby kale, spinach and other greens), hummus, tzatziki, tomato-cucumber salad, sumac-cabbage slaw, olives, feta, pita crisps and the dressing.

Both checks land well above the typical fast-casual average, positioning the items at the premium end of Cava's board. The chain is also adding a seasonal Pomegranate Apple drink, made with the juices of those two fruits, priced around $3.95 — a beverage attachment play that lifts check averages without added kitchen labor.

Cava operates roughly 500 restaurants across 30 states and the District of Columbia.

"Our new Greek Goddess dressing puts a fresh spin on flavors rooted in our heritage and gives guests another way to enjoy the ingredients they already know and love," Co-Founder and Chief Concept Officer Ted Xenohristos said in a statement. He framed the launch in the chain's broader positioning: "Our menu is inspired by the Mediterranean tradition of bringing together bold flavors, vibrant ingredients, and food that makes you feel good. That balance can feel almost mythical, but it's simply the Mediterranean way."

What does the launch change for operators?

The move shows a familiar menu-engineering pattern: a single new condiment generates two premium-priced entrées plus a retail tie-in, spreading development cost across multiple revenue streams. The $17.60 salmon bowl reuses the glazed protein Cava introduced in the spring, which limits new inventory and prep complexity to the dressing itself.

To promote the salad, Cava will build a pavilion inspired by ancient Greek architecture in Madison Square Park in New York City, handing out samples of the new items and pita chips to passersby.

The rollout lands as chain restaurants broadly face slowing sales — the Technomic Top 500 recorded another difficult year in 2025 as consumers pulled back on dining — though beverage-led and chicken-focused segments have kept growing. Cava's answer is premiumization through limited-complexity additions rather than discounting.