First Watch — Restaurant in Jacksonville

I was hesitant about posting a negative review because the first time here was a decent experience, but after reading a handful of the 1 star reviews, our experience isn't uncommon. To start, we are waiting in the lobby, the hostess, who has zero personality, sees us waiting and asks if we are waiting to be seated, as if we are bothering her. Asked to be seated outside cause there was an empty table outside, and she looks up and repeats "outside" like she was confused. So we finally make it outside, and waited around 15/20 minutes without anyone even acknowledging we were there. All while during this same time-frame, the seat directly next to us received drinks then had their order taken. Another table had their server check on them so after the third time a server was near by without acknowledging us, it was at this time we decided that Panera would probably much rather have our money. To top it of, I then got to tell my 3 year old who was super excited to be getting a waffle that we had to leave, and deal with a hangry 2 year old because we already wasted 20 min and are no were closer to eating. As we leave, my spouse felt it was a good idea for some reason to politely inform the lackadaisical hostess that we are leaving, and her response as "ok, thanks for letting me know". You would think that if you were hired to do a job that has the sole responsibility to 'host' customers, that there would be some sort of customer service skills that they ask about in an interview, or maybe some customer service training! At the very least maybe hire someone super awesome personality. This is just me, but if I was in a host role, and someone told me they were leaving because there was a lack of service, I would do everything I can to remedy the situation. I would maybe say something like, Oh, I am so very sorry, what can I do to get you to stay? Let me go get our manager and make them aware of the situation, while I am at it, if you decide to stay, what would you like to drink, I will personally grab that for you, or let someone know to take of if it asap. Maybe then the manager comes over, offer their apology and says something like, Ill personally take your order to ensure it gets in right away. But I guess my expectation of what customer service should be now days is just a bit too high. It is very evident after reading the other bad reviews about this location that this is a known issue that is just being flat out ignored. I guess they are willing to ignore the handful of customers who are not treated well, as long has the...

Terrible!! I wish I could give fewer stars. Let me start by saying I used to come here every few weeks. It has gone down hill so much I'm so disappointed. Went for brunch yesterday morning (Jan 25, 2022) and very first thing right off the bat our drinks were dropped all over the table by our waitress. 2 Bloody Mary's all over our table and our waitress used our napkins to clean it up. NEVER BROUGHT US NEW NAPKINS!! We asked and never got them.

Food came out and my order was incorrect. I ordered eggs Benedict but they were cooked until the yolks were hard. I sent them back but by the time I got them replaced it took so long my food (even the potatoes) were cold. Unreal. I wasn't asking for the extraordinary here... Don't drop my drinks, get my order right, give me napkins and if something was wrong just fix it! Truthfully as soon as I said my eggs were wrong my whole plate should've gone back so they could replace the toast at the same time so it wouldn't be served cold.

After I paid for my wife's meal I discovered they still charged me for the drinks that we didn't even enjoy because they spilled them, $8 EACH!! Cheapskates. Terrible terrible service from the wait staff to the kitchen. I'm letting everyone I know to avoid this place. So many nicer as well as professionally staffed brunch restaurants I will never come back here and what's worse is I used to come here all the time! When my military friends came in town this was where I took them. Went from one of my favorite breakfast spots to literally couldn't boil an egg properly.

NEVER AGAIN. GARBAGE SERVICE. HILARIOUSLY...

It really pains me to write a negative review about this place because the recipes are so delicious and creative but the execution is almost always off at this place. My family has been coming here for a while and my parents refuse to go with my sister and I, frankly, because we are tired of having to complain about the same things. We are not very picky people and we have worked in both food and retail and have an appreciation for what these folks do. However, I'm tired of making excuses for this place like "they were really busy" or "they're new here." Most of the time, at least one of us gets food that's cold. The water glasses and vases are almost always visibly dirty and/or smell. The two photos show food inside the water vase for the one that was delivered AND for the replacement (which we didnt get til after we were almost done eating) which was the same time we finally got syrup for our almost gone pancakes. They always correct things (eventually) and have a positive attitude but c'mon management...how many complaints have to be made before you realize your execution is off? I cant even get my parents to go anymore and my sister and I are ready to give up ourselves! PLEASE fix this..the recipes can only make up for everything else for so long!

Spoke with the manager today and made him aware of our concerns. He listened and didnt make any excuses, comped our meal and assured us that we wouldn't have that same experience next..looking forward to giving it another shot so I can give this the 5 stars that I think...