First Watch — Restaurant in Fairborn

I don't typically write reviews and have always had a good experience at other locations but unfortunately our service here earlier today was laughably bad. We started out just ordering drinks since we needed more time with the menu and when we received them we realized that we did not get straws which alone is a very minor thing, but it took our server at least 15-20 minutes to come back to our table for our food orders at which point we asked for straws. The food that we did receive was as good as expected but there must have been a royal mixup in BOH with our orders because the food was significantly different from what we ordered. My boyfriend ordered the steak and egg hash with scrambled eggs and no sides or substitutions but received over easy eggs and a piece of gluten free bread (the dish is listed as coming with parmesan ciabatta which he was excited to try) as well as a side of million dollar bacon? We were genuinely so confused and my order was even more messed up but the server who handed it out (who was different from our original server which probably contributed to the confusion) believed everything to be correct. I am vegetarian and ordered the traditional breakfast without meat and received a plate of bacon and mixed greens... she said she thought I ordered no eggs and to sub for greens which again I have no idea how such a thing could have been interpreted, especially considering our receipt had everything listed correctly. We just asked for mine to be redone since I couldn't eat it and she ended up pulling out her own notepad to retake my order which was really weird to me considering she could have just talked to our actual server. She offered to sub the meat for greens which I was fine with. The second time around it was our server who came by with my order but it was just eggs and potatoes with no toast or greens. She said the toast was "still coming out" which was kind of odd since I wouldn't expect toast to be something that takes long but I never ended up receiving it. She did not apologize for or even mention the mixup with both of our orders, which leads me to believe the other server did not tell her about what happened. Our server also did not check in on us after receiving our food and only came by once to drop off the check. It was near closing time at this point so we didn't want to make a fuss but it's pretty upsetting paying full price for incorrect orders with missing items even after having it remade. I could understand more if we had arrived later and stayed past close but we came right around 1:30 and left a few minutes before 2:30. I really don't think I've ever received such poor service at a restaurant and it's clear there are some major communication issues among the staff since the order mixup could have easily been avoided or at least better amended. Overall a really bizarre experience that left us frustrated and not wanting to return to...

Food was exceptional, second time coming here. First time wasn’t that great, because the menu options were overwhelmingly and I was looking for something simple. This time was better I ordered from the classics menu, I forgot what my meal was called. But I’ll let the pic speak for themselves. Chicken Patties and the Kale Tonic is a must!

Edit:

You have good breakfast, food taste fresh BUT depending on what I order the food can not be so great. Omelettes are sometimes over cooked/burned. Entrees sometimes don’t match what’s in the description of the menu. I understand things can run out and items aren’t available but this wasn’t expressed by the waiter. So I expect to get what I see on the menu. On my most recent visit, June 11, 2022 , ( Saturday) Hair was in my salad/eggs, this has also happened before on multiple occasions. I just thought it was a mistake the first time. But, Utensils are not that clean. And they are never clean! My Hot water was brown, looks like coffee was in the kettle before and it wasn’t properly rinsed out, that’s a no go. Jar of water also had food swimming in it. The place is ALWAYS busy as it would be and the space is very crammed. Waiters are always rushing so maybe that’s why the food/utensils aren’t clean because they’re not taking time to properly clean them.

Word of advice, please properly train your employees to do things properly. Slow down, and maybe get a bigger venue so everyone is not jammed packed into one space.

As I’ve mentioned before food is great but sometimes it’s not clean and that could be a turn off. This was my third time eating here. So some of the things I’ve mentioned before, I experienced the first time but because my meal was good, I overlooked it.

Staff is very friendly and no matter how busy it is, my wait is never too long, and I get seated right away. I just wish you guys were a bit more clean. I shouldn’t have to eat with dirty utensils and dirty water, coffee cups, hair in my food ON multiple occasions.

I don’t think I’ll be returning. This has happened one too many times and now I question if all my food was even clean, on the times I didn’t see anything in it. On my last visit I did felt a little sick after my meal, which I didn’t even finish. Kinda disappointed, this place had potential.

Lowering my rating from a 4 star...

I only have two complaints ....

Goetta is not offered as a side (it is at the Cincinnati locations). On this particular visit, my side of fruit consisted of one grape, one small pineapple chunk and the rest was honeydew. FAIL.

Other than that, things were good.

Since it was a Sunday morning, I knew it could be busy. I was happy to see on Yelp’s page that there was no wait at around 9a. By the time we arrived at 9:15a, things had changed, but only slightly. We were told it would be a ten minute wait for a table of four. But I’m pretty sure we only waited about half that.

We were able to start an order the second our waitress arrived (something I or refer to do when I have the kiddos). However, we only put in for my toddler’s pancakes. We waited until her second visit to put in the rest of our order. While his pancakes came out in no time, I our two other plates took quite a bit. My boy was done eating and twiddling his thumbs for quIte a few minutes before the rest of our food arrived. Thank goodness for the crayons to entertain him.

Our food was great! The chickichanga and the Belgian waaffle are my two favorites. So dad and I ordered both and shared. This is what I I’ve gotten for most of my recent visits. :) The potatoes and fruit that cone with the chickichanga were the perfect finger foods for my 14 month old. So everything worked out!

The service was friendly. But be prepared...