First Watch — Restaurant in Fort Worth

I discovered First Warch in Plano and Very Glad to have one in the Ridglea area of Fort Worth. It's one of only few chains I truly enjoy and like to frequent. There are plenty of choices. Many are healthier and fresher types of faire than most other places in this city that serve breakfast which is my favorite thing to get there. I've always liked their food, have several favorites and love the patio at their Ridglea location. Not a real fan of the dining room there and WISH 😀 they had patio heaters as some cities have to be able to enjoy the patio more until the long hot summer. Not the best city for patios in Summer which seems Endlessly Extra Hot more and longer each year I've been here. 😐💥 I do enjoy the wholegrain bread immensely, however, what a shame their jam is Smuckers with no fruit texture rather than homemade chunky pears or strawberries preserves; so easy to make or at least the fruit compote they offer with only certain dishes, or something like la madeleine serves with their toast which isn't as good as at First Watch's while grain toast. We've had a number of their juice options too. I've had Nothing I didn't like. So say my friends who have been there with me too. The servers are very pleasant and attempt to provide great service. 😀 The trouble is we have never once gone there without having to return something to the kitchen.😞 We can't figure out what it is about their kitchen staff. 😐 Of course, we would like to have things that go together served together. We actually did an experiment to see if we went there often enough and knew a server if it would make a difference. I'm very sad to say it didn't. We felt certain that we meticulously explained to our server what we wanted, not difficult. We even coached our server as to how we would like her to tell the cooks, (hoping it would be helpful to her as well; less work for her and our orders right the first time with more exacting information). 😖 A particular friend and I often have breakfast meetings and then enjoy a bit of time just hanging out with drinks after breakfast, once the crowd has gone. We don't get our leisure, after breakfast time because it takes too long to get our breakfasts. We don't often have enough time to then just enjoy some time on the patio, which is another major reason we went there. We and our servers were completely perplexed by the errors. They just didn't make sense after all of the clarity we tried to provide through our server, who tried to help and it wasn't even highly intricate or difficult things to request. We each have some sensitivities, however, we would never place the orders we placed had they been slammed or even just busy. We had very little commentary that wasn't highly complementary about their offerings, it was only about the kitchen at the time that we just finally stopped going. Perhaps we'll try again in the future. Perhaps they'll have better cooks who listen and are more able to follow detailed information required to get the food we most wanted. Too bad...once they got it right it was really very good, even if we didn't get it at the same time. FYI...about the Cowtown" comment. The reason there's nothing else in town like it is because locals can't get over the "cowtown" thing. Ft. Worth history began as I understand, as an Army outpost then the railroad and the old Catholic hospital came, etc. before the cattle drives and the Chisholm Trail. Then Many other things happened as time went by including the Panther City thing and again decades and decades of other things that are now a part of local history. With many cities, many parts of history are remembered but other later things get to have appropriate meaning and things move on... Yet Ft. Worth seems forever stuck in Cowtown/Cowboy era & a few old southern style breakfast recipie options. It shows up in so many ways and Far too often in the food options here. Not fresh taste, much NOT healthy; many places with their versions of the same old...

Oh, First Watch, you really know how to disappoint. My recent visit to your establishment was a symphony of dissatisfaction from start to finish. From the overly sugary and burnt Million Dollar Bacon to the wilted greens in my side salad, this place managed to miss the mark yet again. And let's not forget about the cornbread with bacon and cheddar, which was about as dry as the Sahara Desert on a scorching summer day.

Now, let's talk about the Million Dollar Bacon. If the goal was to assault my taste buds with an overwhelming amount of sweetness, you definitely succeeded. The combination of excessive sugar and burnt edges made for a truly memorable experience, though not in a good way. Bravo, First Watch, for turning bacon into a candied disaster.

Moving on to the side salad, where the wilted greens stole the show. I must say, there's nothing quite like eating a sad, lifeless salad to really brighten up your day. The way the greens sagged on the plate, as if they had given up on life, was a testament to First Watch's commitment to delivering subpar produce. Truly, a culinary masterpiece.

Ah, and let's not forget the cornbread with bacon and cheddar. Dry as a bone, just like my enthusiasm for this entire dining experience. The addition of bacon and cheddar did little to salvage the desert-like texture. It's as if First Watch took a perfectly good piece of cornbread and decided to zap it of all moisture, leaving customers with a crumbling disappointment on their plates.

And let's take a moment to revisit the bacon replacement fiasco. Apparently, First Watch has mastered the art of being picky about their bacon replacements. It's almost as if they have a secret club where they celebrate serving mediocre bacon and denying customers a better option. Bravo, First Watch, for turning a simple bacon swap into a complex ordeal.

Last but not least, the service. Ah, the icing on the cake of this lackluster experience. Our waiter seemed to have better things to do than actually provide decent service. It was as if our presence was a nuisance, an inconvenience that disturbed their day. Oh, how delightful it is to be treated with such apathy when all we wanted was a casual and enjoyable meal.

So, First Watch, congratulations on falling flat on all fronts. From the sugary, burnt bacon to the wilted greens, and let's not forget the dry cornbread with bacon and cheddar, this experience left me thoroughly disappointed. If you have a penchant for disappointment and lackluster dining, by all means, give it a try. But as for me, I'll be taking my...

NOTE: I’m updating my review to 4 stars because the district manager went above and beyond to make this visit right. We still have not revisited this particular location to see if it is any better, but the other locations near us (Mansfield & Arlington) are well run and customer centric.

We have eaten at this First Watch many times in the past several years and have watched the quality continually decline under the current management.

Today, my meal had to be sent back for being completely wrong (eggs were way over cooked, waffle was grossly undercooked). When the eggs came out the 2nd time they were still wrong (over easy rather than over medium), and I chose not to eat them rather than sending them back for the second time.

The waiter was fantastic, apologetic, and did his best to make everything right; even communicating with the manager about the issue. The manager was too busy leaning against the wall with his head in a tablet watching for available tables and couldn’t be bothered to come over and acknowledge us or give his apologies for the multiple issues with our meal.

When my husband approached the manager after our meal to brag on the waiter’s customer service, the manager asked how our food was so my husband mentioned the issues we’d had. The manager then caused a huge scene raising his voice to the hostess staff telling them not to let my husband pay for the ticket. It was so loud that people all around the restaurant stopped eating and we’re looking around trying to figure out what was going on. My husband insisted, and paid the full ticket because that was not the point. He was trying to make a point of how great the waiter was and how he’d done his best to take care of us despite the multiple issues.

As a business owner, I rarely leave negative reviews for other businesses, but this one is warranted. If I had a manager that was so enthralled with his “job” that he was too “busy” to actually be aware of what was going on around him and too distracted to take care of the customers, I’d fire them in a heartbeat!

The whole time we were there, he was absolutely oblivious to his surroundings, the multiple issues with the food being served, and he never engaged with a single customer the whole time we were there until my husband approached him and he...