First Watch — Restaurant in Florida

First Watch has had huge growth for a reason. They are known for their fresh ingredients, healthy and delicious menu selections. Unfortunately, we must have picked an off day. Definitely was not all bad but expected much better than what we got food and service from this location. The restaurant itself was busy, and the staff did a great job handling the crowd and getting people seated as quickly as possible. Once seated, it took some time for someone to approach us and get ordering going. Ok, it's busy,and we understand. The problem we had was seeing people sat after us already ordering before our server even gets to us. Order gets placed and seems to take forever for our food to come out. Again, we understood it was busy and food would take time. Not a problem! Then we see food flying out to tables near us that ordered long after us. Finally my food comes out and it is cooked wrong. My eggs were ordered over easy as I like to have some yolk to dip my toast in but instead got hard dried fried eggs and wrong bread. The bread wouldn't have been an issue, but the eggs were bad. I'm looking to have my issues taken care of, and my waitress vanishes. Wait another 10 minutes, and she realized something was wrong. She said "ohh the eggs were overcooked, right? If she knew they were not correct, then why serve them. Simple breakfast turned into a frustrating meal. The million dollar bacon was amazing, seasoned potatoes amazing, and sausages were good too. Going with no drink refills and serving bad eggs made this experience not pleasant. The waitress working the area next to ours was a freaking superstar! I wish I got her name as she was simply amazing to watch her in action taking care of business the way I know First Watch should expect. To finish off the morning as we leave to pay the person at the register is simply miserable. She ri gs us up.and i hamd her 2 gift cards and she had a attitude because yes I wanted to use both. We shouldn't be told on what payment method we choose to use at any time. Listen I know First Watch is a great restaurant chain, but this was not the First Watch experience I expected. Would I eat at First Watch again? Of course! Just expect and want the level of service and food I know First Watch...

Everything was fine...until I ordered. I get the feeling I didn’t spend enough to be worthy of any amount of customer service, because once I placed my order I was completely ignored. Aside from my waitress dropping off my check, she did not come back to my table; not to bring the food (which took a long time), not to refill my son’s drink and not to check if the order was right or if anything else was needed.

There was no complimentary water here—at least not for me. Guests at every other table were given water. I was not. This could’ve been an oversight. I decided to ask for water, but of course no one would serve my table. After I was finished eating, my son waved down a server and asked if I could get a glass of water. She seemed inconvenienced, but said yes. She then brought me a jug of water—no glass. I guess this could’ve been a second oversight, but being made to drink out of the jug felt like a punishment for having the nerve to ask for water.

I thought I’d mention the disappointment in the service on my way out, but there was not much opportunity to. The guy at the register was actually still speaking with the customer before me as he reached for my bill and credit card. He rang it up and laid it down in front of me without a word. A woman who appeared to be a manger was standing directly in front of me talking to my original waitress. I waited to say something, but neither acknowledged me at all. It was clear by this time that I was not welcome in this restaurant and they were just waiting for me to go. It was humiliating.

Again, I was only treated disrespectfully after placing my order. I was greeted at the door and my server was friendly until after taking my order. After that, I wasn’t worth anything at this place. So my advice here is, if you want to eat at First Watch on Cortez call ahead and ask how much you’ll have to spend in order to be treated with courtesy. (Here’s a hint...$30 for 2 people isn’t enough.) Or just go to the Lakewood Ranch location. I had great customer service there the day before the aforementioned incident at Cortez, and I always have. I’ve certainly never felt ashamed or unworthy...

Update: Usually have had good experiences with this place, except the last time was terrible. We were at GT Bray park near concessions which were closed that day, where Chick filet and some other places deliver. We were watching my son's baseball game and needed to get food for all of us plus for my son who was playing. Since concessions happened to be closed, we decided to order food from First Watch nearby. We were going to order for pickup, but the app said delivery was free since it was over $50, so we decided to order for delivery to the park concessions. I ordered and paid, it did find the address in maps and made me enter it a few times but then went onto the next step without any error messages. After an hour of waiting, we called for status of the order and were told that the food was sitting there as a pickup order. I explained that we selected delivery and entered the delivery address in the app and it didn't say anything about an issue with delivery and it even suggested the free delivery. We were told, well the food is sitting there if we want to pick it up or we can contact their delivery company for a refund. My son was very hungry. We talked to a manager who did agree to have warm food when we pickup. He said the app selected pickup so they weren't able to deliver it unless we canceled, got a refund, and reordered it as delivery again. We picked up the food and noticed they did not include any utensils or napkins we had requested. Since concessions was closed, we couldn't get any there. We searched the car and food 1 spoon only, so we all had to eat 1 at a time to use the 1 spoon to eat and bathroom sinks to wash it. For the price we paid for the food, we should not have had to go through all that hassle.

Like the new design of the restaurant since I've been here years ago and...