First Watch — Restaurant in Anderson Township

Incredibly disappointing experience. On Sunday morning, our family of five decided to have breakfast at Furst Watch-Anderson. At 11:03, I entered the First Watch app to register our place in line.

I received a text immediately stting our wait would be 38-53 minutes. At 11:10, we arrived at the restaurant whereupon our adult son notified the host and hostess that we had arrived. The hostess registered our arrival on her tablet.

Initially, the First Watch App indicated that 15 parties were ahead of us and our anticipated seating would be 11:56 a.m. As we waited in the foyer/entrance area, we saw the parties dwindle down. At 12:05, the FW app indicated there were "0" parties ahead of us. We anticipated being seated yet.

But much to our surprise, three parties were seated AFTER the FW app indicated "0" parties were ahead of us.

As my son was about to ask the host and hostess to reconfirm our status in line, the hostess asked us our name. She quickly said, "we don't have you confirmed as arriving." My son's reply was "ma'am, I checked in with you both when we arrived."

The hostess walked away and then returned with the tablet murmuring "this thing is not working...it doesn't work...it hasn't been working right." Then she committed that we would be seated shortly.

At 12:16 (20 minutes past our projected seating time), we were seated. At 12:22, a waitress took our order. At 12:30, the waitress returned with four if our five drinks

At 1:02 p.m., 40 minutes after our order was taken, four of the five entrees arrived. My daughter in law's soda nor meal had yet to arrive. After inquiring of another waitress, the delayed soda arrived five minutes later. When we asked about the missed meal, tge third waitress said "yeah, it's coming."

At 1:08 p.m., my daughter in law's meal arrived. We departed the restaurant at 1:48 p.m.

Suffice it to say, First Watch was very busy this Sunday morning. Yet their host and/or hostess did a poor job managing customer flow despite our using the app and sitting directly beside the hostess stand since our arrival and through our seating. We should not have had to wait long after your app and computer system indicated a d others were seated ahead of us even after your app indicated "0" people were ahead of us in line.

To not see our waitress again until the delayed meal was delivered is unacceptable. Better geographic table assignments for your wait staff vs having them assigned to tables all over the restaurant would allow for better table management.

We never saw a manager or supervisor walking the dining area or checking on guests during our over 2-hour visit. Unacceptable.

Lastly, it is very nice that FW offers free coffee to waiting guests. What would be even better is if someone on your staff assured coffee cups were restocked regularly. Absent a coffee cup for anyone waiting and getting no response from the host/hostess, I called the restaurant and asked the lady who answered to kindly place coffee cups up front. Her reply, "Yeah, there is coffee up front." My reply, "there is but there are no coffee cups to put the coffee in. It us possible some coffee cups could be brought up front?"

Five minutes later, a young lady brought SIX styrofoam coffee cups and sat them down in front I'd the coffee urn." So, after waiting for two other guests, my son went to get some coffee. Guess what? There was no coffee in the coffee urn.

Perfect! Whose job us it to keep the coffee and water containers as well as coffee cups refilled? On Sunday, it appeared no individual(s) were assigned this responsibility. Nor was there a manager or shift supervisor adequately managing things.

Our food, once we were seated a d our food arrived, was good. Service, efficiency, proactive customer flow management, waiting and host/hostess effectiveness, and waitress training could all...

Today, Sunday 2/2/25 was crazy busy. We have been coming here after church - and on weekdays - for a number of years. I have never seen it this busy. I wanted to place a carry-out order and figured it would be 20 minutes or so. Since we go there regularly, we know everyone pretty well. Today the manager, Jim was processing orders in the kitchen and Julia and Harrison were manning the front area with check-ins, seating and check-outs. All I can say is that they "rocked it." They were courteous, informative, letting people know the kitchen was backed up and so it would be an abnormal wait. Most people understood and stayed. Others chose to come back another time. I never heard any complaints while waiting in the lobby area. When you see the level of activity needed and met, you appreciate the efforts of everyone involved. The servers and clearers were also on top of their game. Anyone who spotted a table opening up, they were on it to help clear and get others seated ASAP. Despite the incredible amount of people showing up today, it really still functioned like a well-oiled machine. Kudos to Jim...

Used to really enjoy First Watch. The first strike for me came when they updated their menu a couple of years ago. Not too big of a deal except that my favorite menu item, Burrito VeraCruz was gone. However the food quality remained similar... ces la vie The second strike came this year when we repeatedly received bad service from the wait staff week after week. There are two wonderful servers at the Anderson location (wish I could remember their names) but we rarely see one of them, and the other is routinely stuck at the hostess stand. Every other server seemed to profile us and give minimal, if any effort. The third and final strike, since we don’t get the service that the price point demands for a brunch restaurant, we decided to simply order to go. We could avoid the painful waits and terrible service. Well, the item we typically get, AM Superfoods Bowl is a nice portion when served in the dining room. When we received our order to go, it was served in a small cup and I feel we got about 60-65% of our meal. Not acceptable. I am sad to see the decline of a once great...