First Watch — Restaurant in Durham

We visited this location on Nov 4, 2023, on our way home to Clemmons NC after picking up someone from RDU. The experience at this particular location was not good. We were seated quickly around 9:40am, and when we arrived it was not crowded. Plenty of wait staff, but there appeared to be confusion in the kitchen. No manager in sight. We waited about 10 minutes to have our order taken. Very pleasant and smiling wait staff. Our breakfast orders were simple: two of us had scrambled eggs, waffle, bacon, coffee. One of us had eggs, bacon, home fries, toast, coffee. We waited over 45 minutes for two of the breakfasts, which came out barely warm. The third breakfast was nowhere to be seen. We finally had to ask about it. Then waited about 10 minutes more. That breakfast came out hot, so they must have let the first two breakfasts sit and then forgot to make the third one until we reminded them. We saw many other people who had also waited forever and had to ask about their food. Meanwhile, even though there were empty tables and plenty of wait staff, the line of people waiting to be seated filled the entry area and went out the door....several people gave up and left. At some point after two of our breakfasts came out, a manager appeared who we hadn't seen or heard in our entire time there. He didn't come to our table. When we finally finished eating it took awhile to get our check and when we went up front to pay there was a long line of people waiting to pay, and no cashier. We finally had to ask if someone was going to handle the cash registers and only then did someone show up. All told, we were there for an hour and a half, for a simple breakfast. We love First Watch and have never had these types of issues, even when the other locations we've been to have been completely full and we've had to wait to be seated. We live an hour and a half away and there is a First Watch near our house. We could have driven to our local First Watch in Clemmons, eaten, and gotten home about an hour faster than it took to eat at this location and then drive home. Next time, we'll skip this location and drive the hour and a half to the one...

I visited on Halloween morning. I love Halloween but it is also the day my brother died. I really wanted a nice breakfast so I could accomplish everything I had to do that day. When I entered the establishment the hostess was vaping. She was on her phone and when she felt ready she acknowledged me and seated me. After she set my drink down everything went downhill from there. While I was trying to order the hostess who also doubled as my waitress proceeded to tell me that I could not receive my meal with chicken only chicken sausage. When I explained to her that I had ordered it that way several times in the recent past she abruptly walked off and into the kitchen. After speaking with the chef for a while she then serves other customers and finally comes back to me and says "you're right". I also requested cracked shell eggs and she responded with all of our eggs are shell eggs. I knew this was not true because they use a liquid egg product but I didn't feel like going back and forth with her. So when the food was brought out with the liquid eggs I told her that those were not the eggs that I wanted. She grabbed my plate and stormed off to go tell the chef. He was visibly and audibly upset and made a big deal about having to cook the eggs again. Long story short. She didn't relay my complete order so there was an item I didn't receive until after I complained. I've never been treated this way. There's more but it's just too much. There was a waitress there that decided to offer better service and I'm grateful for her. I will never go back to this particular restaurant again. I'm not sure of the hostesses name but she was white and had a faded, maybe lasered outline of flowers tattooed on her neck. If she is still employed there she needs to be in the back of the house. She does not represent this establishment...

First time visiting this location and chain for that matter. I was surprised to see how busy it was for a Thursday morning, but I was able to beat the rush and was seated immediately. It's bigger inside than I thought it would be and very clean. There's covered outdoor seating, too.

I had a multigrain carrot cake style pancake, scrambled eggs, and chicken apple sausage patties. A Tri-Fecta. The pancake was gigantic, as you can see from the picture, and brought about half of everything home. I was somewhat disappointed in the pancake as it was supposed to have pecans in it, but I only saw one sliver in what I ate, but it had an abundance of raisins, too much, really. The pancake syrup was served warm. The chicken apple sausage didn't even have a hint of apple taste, just a savory flavor. The scrambled eggs could have had some fluffiness, otherwise okay. I really liked the Pineapple Express drink, which is fresh juiced pineapple and orange with coconut water, lime, and agave with a mint crystal rim. I kept adding water to it to make it last longer.

My waitress, Meghan, was very welcoming and friendly. I was seated next to the kitchen and think the wait staff and manager could keep their volume down when talking disparagingly about past employees. It's not a good look for them or...