First Watch — Restaurant in Montvale

Food quality: 1/5 Wait time: 1/5 Service: 3/5 Price: 5/5

You get what you pay for, and prices are cheap, so don’t expect much. Denny’s and ihop have comparable / higher quality food than First Watch.

I tried reserving a spot the night before, but it would not let me do so. I woke up the next morning and it said it was a 2 hour wait. So I put my name on the list, waited 45 minutes, and drove over. When I arrived they said there were a bunch of people on line in front of me. I expected that since they said it was a 2 hour wait, so I decided to wait outside the building instead of the foyer to maintain social distancing. Anyway, I finally get the text that my table is ready so I walk back into the main foyer area by the cash register. The main attendant then proceeded to seat 3 parties that arrived after I did due to poor queue management. I was then informed to wait just a moment until another table freed up.

The parties that were seated before me were simply more aggressive and assertive giving the host a hard time and “being all up in their face” and walking up to him. There was no designated line, so the host just spoke to whoever was closest without paying attention to when folks came in. Which I can understand would be difficult to do when it’s a madhouse on a Sunday afternoon.

Anyway, that is why the service was a 3/5. I had a lovely waitress that was incredibly polite. If I could break it out into 2 separate ratings, I would put the front of house queue management staff at 1/5 (which could be corrected with appropriate queue management systems and a designated line), and I would put the wait staff at 5/5.

With respect to food quality, I ordered the trifecta - this is a choice of meat dish (either bacon, sausage patty, or Turkey sausage links), eggs, and either a Belgian waffle or pancake. I went with scrambled eggs, Turkey sausage links, and the whole grain pancake. When the food arrived, it was a single Turkey sausage link, (a very small one, think of the size that you’d normally be served 3 or 4 of. The humongous plate looked barren), the scrambled eggs looked like it was only a single egg portion that was watered down too much with milk, so it was a very thin scrambled egg, and the pancake was served as a single large pancake, but it had broken in half when the guy tried to flip it, so I had two portions of a pancake that were placed next to each other to form a single round pancake. Imagine your tore a sheet of paper into a 60/40 split and then just placed the two sides together. That’s what my pancake looked like. The eggs were thin. Pancake was poorly flipped / in 2 pieces. And it was a single sausage link when the menu lists “links”, plural. I was also not provided any syrup when the pancake was served, and had to wait for the server to come back so I could ask for some. That was about 5 minutes of my pancake getting cold before I could eat it (the single sausage link didn’t last long enough to keep me occupied before the waitress came back to check up on us). So food quality is a 1/5.

I was on a date, and the price for 2 meals and a side order of bacon came out to $30 and change. I left a $10 tip for the waitress because she was great. Very reasonably priced for a brunch, but not high quality by any standard. It’s a fast food place looking to turnover customers as fast as possible, so expect to be rushed. I was handed a receipt while my date was still finishing her meal before even being asked if we’d like a cup of coffee or anything after. So price is a 5/5 (although I’d prefer paying more $ in exchange for...

Good morning everyone i am not pleased to say my experience this morning wasn't the greatest at this particular location. I enjoy eating at First Watch in different states from Florida to NJ; and tried this location for the 1st time and was very disappointed. Here are some things I disliked at the Montvale First Watch location that could have been improved.

*Customer service is very important and working in the food industry as an executive our waitress Isabell(a) could have used more training and tips that include the following:

The restaurant was not busy but she could have been more attentive. Ex : A. We waited 30 minutes to be greeted and serviced, we were served french toastand pancakes with no syrup for the entire dine in service. B. The hot chocolate machine was not working but she still served us hot chocolate that was basically cold water with a splash of color; definitely not the correct serving temperature for a hot beverage. After informing her twice and sending it back that it didn't taste good she then told us she was aware that the machine wasn't working but still served us the bad product, wasting our time. C. She didnt refill the coffee. D. She missed silverware settings and the dishware such as cups and utensils were not properly washed/ cleaned. E. She only provided the check but never asked if we wanted to order anything else to go- which we did initially.

The short rib hash was burned and the server didn't apologize for the service or offer a remake or any substituiton. (Although the line cook/and chef are responcible for the hash being burned. I would have appreciated an apology and a more hospitality oriented repsonse than "So." about the meal we paid for.)

**Positives: The hostess however at the front door was very nice and kinder than our waitress and had no problem providing all of the ammenties like a to go bag and syrup. The avcado toast was good. Not to keen about having to grab another waitress to tend to the needs for our table but the hostess was kinder and got us a few things.

The hash/potatoes and bacon were hard and burned. The bacon tasted like they made it at 8am and was serving it around 10am and wasn't fresh.

To my followers, I enjoy First Watch very much and its one of my favorite breakfast spots even better than iHOP. I took my family to rave about this company and was excited, but this location in Montvale dropped the ball and did not meet my normal expectation of eattitude and service for the brand and for the company. Hopefully they can improve on the following things like serving temperature and quality checking food and a bit more hospitality training. I will continue to go to First Watch but probably not this location...

The food and ambiance was amazing… however the staff was the complete opposite. The hostess had a bad attitude right away upon our arrival and sat us at a table that was wet/dirty. We asked to move and he said ok. Then we were seated for 7-10 minutes before being approached by any other staff. We had to flag someone down just to get water. When our waiter did arrive he said “you getting coffee or something?” with such attitude. When he came back to take our food order he just said “ready?” .. did not ask if we had any questions, nothing. Not even baseline pleasant, straight up abrasive. Then when we were eating he just brought us the check without asking us if we wanted boxes (both of our plates were half full) nor if we wanted to order anything else .. and then never came back to our table again. We wanted to get to go drinks so we flagged down a different waiter who was nicer and explained the drinks to us and added them to our bill.

When we went to pay we split the bill through their system but both tipped 20% via the credit card machine but the person working said oh no don’t do that (but it was already done) since it meant we BOTH Paid 20% tip = 40% tip for the waiter! He didn’t even deserve the 20% honestly. The cashier then just walked away, no explanation. Multiple people kept going behind the counter but not helping us as we waited. A line started to form behind us. The staff seemed disheveled… finally after 5 minutes our waiter came back to fix the issue in the computer. We asked if the second tip could go to the other server who helped us, as he talked to us way longer and explained the drink specials and helped us pick which one we wanted. WELL.. this man replies “UHHH THE ONE WHO MADE YOUR DRINKS WAS ME, not him” .. his whole demeanor was hostile and my guest and I were verbally upset and many other guests were present for this interaction. I felt uncomfortable since my arrival based off how rude the staff was acting. I have never ever experienced such behavior by employees at any restaurant before. Very distasteful, horrible experience… I wish I just...