Beyond Wellesley—Dedham restaurants

Cava

724 Legacy Place
Dedham, MA 02026
781-205-4766

March 2023 visit

Cava located in Legacy Place, the popular shopping and entertainment spot in Dedham, is a fast-casual restaurant that serves Mediterranean-inspired food featuring a wide selection of greens and grains in bowls, salads, and pitas. The restaurant is part of a chain, one of over 250 in the U.S., follows a format that Sweetgreen fans will find familiar. Customers move through a cafeteria-style line as crew members put together the ingredients for custom orders or Cava creations.

The three founders, who grew up together and fondly recall goofing off in their Greek church’s Sunday School class, pride Cava on three things in particular—their nutty-flavored pita, packed with nine sprouted grains; the simplicity of their hummus recipe (chickpeas blended with nutty tahini, fresh lemon, raw garlic, and kosher salt); and their skhug, described as a “good-on-everything Mediterranean essential made with jalapeño peppers, garlic, and cilantro” (pronounced schoo-g).

We tried out the flavorful spicy lamb meatball pita with hummus, tomato, cucumber, pickled onions, pickles, garlic dressing, and skhug. The staff let us try out a teaspoon of the green condiment before we committed—our heat-tolerance profile goes only up to medium. The jalapeño pepper was certainly present, but not overwhelmingly so. As promised, between the spicy lamb and the skhug, the pita meal packed a bit of a punch, cooled off slightly by the hummus. The pita was phenomenal, a warm hug of homemade flatbread.

The lentil avocado salad bowl, made with a generous half an avocado, was tossed with falafel, roasted seasonal vegetables, roasted eggplant, hummus, tabbouleh, spinach, other greens, and skhug. The salad was too heavy on the cabbage for our taste and a little light on the black lentils. But the essential draw a healthy fast-casual joint is fresh ingredients, and Cava does not allow a leaf in any stage of wilt to escape from the serving station. The only thing that can derail the customer experience at Cava would be a slowdown in the line. That didn’t happen while we were there. Staffing numbers were adequate, service was friendly, everything grooved along.

More about Cava:

• About 20 minutes from Wellesley Square
• Plenty of parking in its popular Legacy Place shopping area location
• 40 indoor seats
• 2 small outdoor tables overlooking the parking lot
• They do a brisk online to-go business
• Kids’ meal available—a mini version of their build-you-own pita, with a side of pita chips or carrots
  sticks. Choose milk or juice.
• Fountain sodas, as well as creative fountain drinks such as a juice made with pineapple, apple cider, fresh mint, and lime. Also a selection of Spindrift seltzers

Horse Thieves Tavern

585 High Street, Dedham, MA
781-708-9185

• • Our Valentine’s Day Dedham date, which included a stop at Horse Thieves Tavern.
    

    ---

    Oscar’s

    380 Washington Street, Dedham, MA
    781-686-9705

    March 2023 visit

    Oscar’s is a casual and cozy high-end pub serving lunch and dinner in historic Dedham Square. The menu features comfort food like braised short ribs and mashed potatoes, fettucine alfredo, Irish beef stew, and more. Craft cocktails and craft beer are served up at the 12-seat bar and ten indoor tables (see if you can get a spot by the fireplace). In good weather, there’s a six-table patio area. Make reservations Thursday-Sunday to get into this popular spot, but it’s walk-ins only on Friday and Saturday.

    

    We can highly recommend the grapefruit and blood orange mule, a vodka-based craft cocktail made with ginger beer and lime juice. An appetizer of brussels sprouts with bacon lardons and ancho-chile sauce was generously portioned, but we could have done without the sweetness of the ancho-pepper based condiment, which distracted from the earthiness of the cruciferous veggie.

    A word of warning: the staff might hustle you in and out of there in record time if you don’t take a firm hand and manage your own dining experience. Our app arrived before our drinks. Our main dishes arrived minutes after our brussels sprouts were delivered. Before we knew what hit us, leftover boxes were presented. So do what you must—don’t order your app until after your drinks arrive. When ordering your app, claim to want to “see how we feel after that” before placing a dinner order. Otherwise, it’ll be a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’m kind of dinner out. Not saying there’s anything wrong with a quickie every now and then, just thought you should have a head’s up.

    Things about Oscar’s we liked:

    • the brandy and onion braised boneless short ribs with mashed potatoes, carrots, and broccoli
    • the sautéed shrimp with white wine-butter sauce served over a beautiful flat pasta
    • the under 20-minute drive from Wellesley Square
    • the fact that we could have caught a movie at the Dedham Community Theatre, in walking distance from Oscar’s
    • the Dedham Square vibe—we enjoyed a constitutional after our meal to aid digestion
    • easy on-street metered parking (free after 6pm