First Watch — Restaurant in Hoover

First off, the entryway is a disaster. The people waiting to be seated are co-mingled with the people waiting to pay, and also with the people trying to pick up orders, so that if you have more than 1-2 parties that haven't tried to be seated yet, its total chaos trying to determine who is next in line, if somebody is waiting to pay, or is simply waiting to be seated.

Also, I placed a to go order. Waded through the above-mentioned insanity of a waiting area to talk to somebody at the register to pick up my food. After 15 minutes, somebody finally recognized that I was needing assistance and informed me that I wasn't in the area to be seated. I explained I was there for a pick up order, and the hostess looked confused, explaining they weren't accepting to go orders. I showed my confirmation email, and she said that shouldn't have happened, they weren't accepting those orders. To my chagrin, I drove out, waited, and then was told "too bad" despite my card being charged. I was told I'd be contacted later in the day about refunds, but they'd need IT to do the refund, they couldn't do it in store.

I waited all day, and finally received a call, but they wouldn't be able to refund me for a few more days. So basically, at this point, I had paid First Watch $50 to....do nothing. I filed a complaint on their website, and was told I'd be contacted in 2-3 days. And through all of this, they didn't even offer to comp my meal, and acted like refunding me for a meal I didn't receive was an act of heroism.

After 3 days with no response from the local store or the corporate customer service, and the charge STILL pending on my card, I finally had to file a dispute with my credit card company, because First Watch was doing nothing to actually refund me, let alone try to keep my business. I will never visit this establishment again, and I strongly suggest you consider if you want to donate to First Watch freely in this economy with no return before visiting yourself.

EDIT UPDATE: So they asked me below to contact them regarding this. I already did 2 weeks ago with no response. So I contacted again and guess what? Still no response. They're posting here publicly to save face, but First Watch isn't answering anything at all customer service-wise. If you'd spend your time actually contacting your potential customers instead of posting on Google Reviews to try to save face, you'd probably get...

First Watch is one of my go to breakfast spots in town . I often treat my mom here on our Birthday the start our daylong celebration.

Today, my friend is in town . We were briefly talking on the phone ,we both said we were hungry , she instantly blurted out " First Watch".

I get the same dish every time I come .... The Chikichunga side of Pico, breakfast potatoes, and a side of Millionaire bacon . IM a creature of habit and change makes me nervous , despite that I opted for something different this go round. I don't recall how to spell it but I opted for the Summer Hash bowl ( Shi????) A bed of potatoes hash ,pulled brisket ,peppers etc . I should of remained faithful as I did not like this entree at all . It was plated nicely but I dis not enjoy the taste nor texture, the hash was big chunks of potatoes ...I already had a guess in my kind of what the meal would visually look like and or hoped for ,this wasn't it . I HATED to be that girl but I had to send it back . Don't let this detour you from trying for yourself ,my taste buds have a mind of their own and I had to satisfy it fully lol. I returned for my usual which was delightful as always. Chorizo, avocado, peppers , a sauce of some sort rolled in a toasty tortilla. Topped with said sauce and sour cream . I drizzle hot sauce and Pico on top . So good !

The star of this experience was most definitely the seasonal LEMON Blueberry cornbread. Again ,I was weary because everyone has a way of making their cornbread ,I grew up on jiffy ,I don't like the mealy taste of certain cornbread. This Here was perfect. Perfectly balanced with the tart of the lemon with the sweet burst of Blueberry in every bite ! Definitely gave desert vibes ,would pair perfectly with coffee ☕️ 👌. It's tipped with a dollop of honey like butter. Definitely recommend as a starter .

Despite a return to the kitchen, I loveee FIRST WATCH, every other experience has been nothing short of delicious , this time it was simply just the wrong choice for my taste buds in the moment. I would recommend...

This place actually gets zero stars! The hostesses need a class on customer service and the importance of communication 🙄 😒 asap!! My husband and I go in this morning for brunch. We get to the hostess stand and inform her that it's the 2 of us and we would like a booth. She says it will be a 20 to 30 minute wait but we will text you when it becomes available. So we wait 30 minutes. We get a text and the hostess proceeds to take us to a table. When we inform the hostess that we requested a booth she then tells us that they only have tables available as we pass by 4 clean booths. We inform her about the booths around us. She then says that they are already reserved. I then inform her that we didn't know that there were booths already reserved because she failed to communicate that to us. She begins to look at me in disgust and then proceeds to show us the seating chart like we're a bunch of 5 year olds. Then asks do we really want to wait another 20 minutes for a booth. We inform her that if that's what it takes. I inform her that we wouldn't have to wait again for a booth if she had just informed us about the reserved booths! She never apologized or was accountable for her actions. She just shooed us like we were pets and said y'all can just wait for a table. I then inform that we'll just leave and walked out of the door. It doesn't make you less of a human to be accountable or apologize. It actually means that you are a human with integrity that also has great customer service skills and communicate properly rather than condescend. This is the 2nd time this has happened! We...