First Watch — Restaurant in Coppell

Today was my first time at this breakfast spot and it did not meet my expectations. It fell short of the most basic etiquettes.

I walked in and asked for a table of one. The female hostess said it’ll be about 10 to 15 minutes. Then the male hostess said it will actually be about 20 to 30 minutes. So I waited the full 30 minutes before I was able to be seated. I saw two pairs of parties of two being sat before me and I arrived way before they did.

When I was guided to my table (a four seater) by the male host there was someone else’s dishes on the table. The host took the dishes away, and then I sat down, noticing that the table hasn’t even been wiped before I sat.

My server’s name was Natalie and I immediately felt rushed when she spoke to me. She introduced herself and asked me what I wanted to drink and if I was ready to order from the menu. I literally just sat down after waiting 30 minutes. I didn’t even have time to look at the menu, yet she was already asking me for my order.

When she came back to take my order, I said I wanted the omelette called the works. I asked how many sides does it come with and she said one. So I got the mixed greens which were supposed to be drizzled with a lemon vinaigrette.

My order was brought out by a male server and he asked if there was anything else he could do for me. I then asked him if he could get someone to wipe down the table because it was sticky. There was also a piece of bacon from the last customer left on the table. The male server told Natalie the issue before he came and wiped the table. I pushed everything aside- my meal, the glass bottle container, the glass cup, the decaf dispenser, and my coffee cup so that he could wipe the table. After he wiped the table, I repositioned everything back on the table and waited for the table to dry.

Natalie came to check on me after. She asked if there’s anything else she could do for me, and I told her that I just asked the male server to wipe the table because it was sticky and dirty. She then responded by saying, “yeah I heard about that, but is there anything else I can do for you?“. Her attitude was pretty dismissive as she brushed over the fact that my table was dirty. It was as if me asking for my table to be cleaned was an inconvenience for her. I didn’t appreciate that. And I absolutely don’t appreciate her rushing me after I waited 30 minutes to be seated.

As for the omelette that I ordered, it was very dry. The mixed greens were bland and did not have any lemon vinaigrette on them. The order came with toast, which confused me because I thought the order only came with one side as Natalie said. I asked her about this and she said that the toast isn’t considered a side and that it comes with the dish and you can’t substitute it. The only thing you can do is change the type of toast you want. This is news to me as usually a toast is considered a side at any and all restaurants.

Overall, my first experience at First Watch was extremely disappointing. Most of the things I just mentioned are basic etiquettes of dining. 1. Never rush the customer 2.Make sure the tables are cleaned and wipe down before a new customer sits down. 3. Don’t act like it’s the customer’s responsibility to deal with your attitude or the short falls of you...

Edit: We went back to give them another chance after management reached out to apologize. We had a much better experience this time. Although the service was still lacking, the food was done well this time and the atmosphere is clean and inviting. The servers seem like they need more training though. I went to the bathroom and saw a server sitting in the ground playing with her phone. We could hear servers arguing about who was going to take our table after we had already been seated for 7 minutes. It was just under 10 minutes before anyone came to greet us and get our drink order (I was timing it since this happened last time). After we were greeted, the service was good. Although we were being helped by multiple servers after the greeting so we were unclear who was actually supposed to be our server. It's also very awkward walking into this restaurant as the entry way is small and crowded with people filtering in and out and standing in the way. The hostess area could definitely be reworked to better accomodate people waiting, paying at the cash register, and going in or out. Honestly, the food is so amazing that we will be back but we will only be going here when we are feeling very patient.

Original post: The service was terrible. It took 10 minutes to be greeted at our table. The hostess rudely told us to go outside to wait for our table before this. We had multiple come up to our table and each time we would order something, they would forget something. We had order my boyfriends juice three times. The server was obviously overwhelmed because she was triple seated, one table being an 8 top and a 14 top. Our food took a long time to come out and when it arrived, both of our meals were extremely cold. My boyfriends over-medium eggs came out barely cook with the white still completely liquid inside and his fruit was dropped all over the floor. We sent the food back and when it came back out, the quality was very noticably lacking compared to the first round of cold food. My omelette barely had any filling the second time and the beans were still cold. My boyfriends second plate came with untoasted, soggy bread. The potatos were crunchy inside for his skillet and the eggs were undercooked, again. Also there were no mushroom in the market skillet and two pieces of sqash. It was as if the kitchen spitefully recooked our dishes, purposefully lacking in quality. We waitied for 15 minutes after we finished eating and never received a check so we had to have the host at the front look it up for us. It felt wrong paying for a meal that took almost two hours from start to finish and that was disappointing and barely edible. I'm a frequent customer to first watch, at multiple locations and this is the first time I've been let down. It was a huge let down too. A manager never even came to talk to us about all the awful screw-ups. Very...

Server told my child that they do not have any bacon available for the kids side of bacon that's included with the pancake. I think the exact words were "We don't have any bacon." Since my son is a very picky eater he did not want any other side options.

Well, we were seated by the very busy entrance to to the kitchen and watched as plate after plate left the kitchen with full sides of bacon. When my son kept asking why we see bacon when we're told there is no bacon for him, I tell him I'm not sure.

I ordered a Monterey sandwich and guess what came on it? That's right- bacon! But they have no bacon?

So I don't like confrontation and just gave my son some of the bacon from my sandwich and told him I would ask when we're leaving what's going on.

So I ask the server, who still insists that they have no bacon even though my sandwich had bacon on it and my son was forced to watch 20+ other meals (including pancakes) go out of the kitchen with sides of bacon.

I press a bit more and the server and ppl next to us are then looking at me like I'm crazy for not understanding. So server then elaborates that there is bacon and then million dollar bacon and even when they have both, if they are low on supply they are told (by the owner as directed by First Watch) to tell people that they do not have it for sides. Ok... so maybe that makes more sense?

But really... if you're going to tell an 8 year old that you don't have bacon, maybe you shouldn't seat them where they see all the food coming out of the kitchen and maybe you shouldn't put bacon on their parents sandwich?

You need get the lies your telling your customers about your bacon supply on busy days straight or at least make a little more effort to cover up that you actually do have not one, but two different types of bacon right there in the kitchen... just not for my son. Really frustrating and to know that this comes straight from the owner and First Watch leadership!

Oh and guess what else? We still paid the same price despite no side. Not even an offer to discount it.

The only thing that could add more insult would be if the Owner or First Watch corporate mgrs come on here to diplomatically apologize and insist that this is not their policy when it comes to bacon and they'll be correcting this in their next staff...