First Watch — Restaurant in Daytona Beach

A Great Restaurant with a Patio Problem

I’ve been to First Watch several times before—this most recent visit on Sunday was actually my fourth. The first three times, I came for lunch and had nothing but great experiences. The food has always been top-notch, and service was just as good. That’s why I decided to bring my wife for Sunday breakfast this time.

Now, we all know Sunday brunch hours can get busy, especially with the morning church crowd. So when we arrived and saw it was packed, I didn’t mind waiting—that’s to be expected. After a short wait, we were seated on the patio, and that’s when things began to feel different.

It took several minutes before anyone even approached us for a drink order. When we did get water, one of the glasses was cracked. We flagged it, and while they did replace it, the delays kept adding up. The new glass of water sat so long that the ice melted and left water all over our table. We asked for napkins, and again had to wait so long that I eventually got up and grabbed them myself. At this point, no one had even taken our food order yet.

When someone finally came, we placed our order, but then the real waiting began. I actually timed it—after 45 minutes of no food and little to no updates, I had enough. I told my wife I’d give it a few more minutes, but when nothing changed, I picked up my umbrella and we left.

It’s disappointing because I know this restaurant can do better. The food is still great. The service inside seems solid. But the patio? It felt like being in a phantom zone—staff rarely came out, and we were left to fend for ourselves. I stood there watching how active and attentive the staff were inside the main dining area, while we on the patio were basically forgotten.

I’m not writing this to bash the restaurant—again, the food quality speaks for itself, and previous visits have been excellent. But the outdoor seating experience really needs attention. I hope management sees this not as a negative review, but as a concerned customer’s feedback. Fixing the patio service could make a big difference in ensuring all guests have the experience First Watch is known for.

— A concerned but...

My fiance and myself went here for breakfast the day before hurricane Milton. First off I've been in the restaurant industry for over 20 years and I've been very very many places. I got to tell you when we walked in the door I could already tell we were some place that cares about its people and its guests. The hostess Had Me and My Girls sat within 30 seconds my server was at the table within the first minute and a half, I asked the hostess what I should eat and I asked my server what I should drink since we were prepping for a hurricane at 11:00 in the morning and they do have alcohol. The hostess told me between my three choices which were eggs benedict and Italian parmesan hash skillet are there seasonal millionaire dollar breakfast sandwich, she told me the sandwich was the hottest thing selling in the restaurant right now so I ordered it and it was amazing my fiance ordered the Floridian French toast that had strawberry kiwi banana everything on it it was amazing. For only being open from 6:00 to 2:30 in the morning as a breakfast brunch / lunch place the presentation on the plate was amazing the little details like hot honey on my sandwich and I do mean spicy not temperature mixed with the Apple bacon and arugula and the cage free runny eggs and also what might be the best sausage patty I've ever eaten in my life on the sandwich these are the little details that make the plate special. For drink I had a pomegranate tequila sunrise which was very good my fiance had Cinnamon Toast Crunch milk which is actually an iced coffee drink with some fair amount of rum in it for the morning which was...

I love the food here but this location is EXTREMELY unorganized and the environment is horrible. Only reason I kept coming back is because it's right by my apartment. First of all everytime I come here they're out of everything. I've spoken to the manager about this and she said they strive to make sure nothing runs out but hasn't done anything to improve the situation cause they're always out of everything. A lot of the people here have attitudes and are not personable at all. Also last time I came here I ordered avocado toast because last time I was craving it they were out. The avocado was so brown and tasted rotten. Today I decided to give them one more try and I called to make sure there was no wait time because I had been busy all morning and was craving French toast. A lady answered the phone and I asked her how long the wait time was and she told me there was no wait time. I came in and the man at the front said it would be a 10-15 minute wait and when I told him I just spoke to someone that told me there was no wait he gave me the worst attitude and instead of apologizing he said "it's only 10-15 minutes " I wouldn't have minded waiting but he was very rude so I left. Definitely will NOT be returning to this location anymore I'll make the drive to port orange. This location needs to train the staff on respect and hospitality and needs to get more organized and also needs to make sure they have enough of...