First Watch — Restaurant in Nocatee

First, let me start by saying I consider myself a very understanding person as I have a history of working in the restaurant industry. There are certain things that are out of your control like being in the front of the house and the kitchen dragging ticket times out. However, my experience today was abysmal to say the least.

When the waitress first came over and took our drink orders it seemed the experience would change from the last few negative experiences at this location. Every other first watch I go to is usually positive. We placed our food order and waited as expected. I had a sweet tea to drink but was also sipping on coffee. We waited a little longer for food to start coming out which no complaints there, they were busy. Then, out of our table of 6, 2 of us were served. One of which was my 5 year old which was good. We didn't say anything at first because we assumed the other dishes were coming right behind it. A few minutes go by, one other person at our table was served. At this point half our table had food, the other half didn't. Roughly 5 to 10 more minutes go by, no food for the rest of us. Waitress would walk over and look at the table, but not address anything and walk away. At this point my drink was empty, never asked if I would like a refill, and never addressed the situation that only half her table was fed. The next time she walked over, I asked about the food. The waitress quickly and rudely said, "ya, it's coming". She walked away from the table over to the hostess stand and made a comment to the two young people at the stand and started laughing. Still, no refills no food.

After another few minutes, the food came out for 2 of us. My food was cold even though it came out 10 minutes after the first people at our table was served. My father's food did not come out. They informed him, mind you he had been waiting for about 40 minutes at this point, that they were out of biscuits....he had ordered biscuits and gravy. They waited until the entire table had its food to inform him of this. I have worked in many kitchens and that is not something you find out at the last second. Never got an apology from the waitress for the wait time, never offered to fix anything, never offered a manager....poorest service I have ever received.

I did not tip my server, lizz and I do not regret it. Lizz, if you are upset about your lack of a tip today I would rather give you advice to put yourself in the customers shoes on how they may feel about half their table having food, pay attention to refills at the table, and treat your customers with better respect.

After multiple negative experiences at this location, I will not return to this one. I will happily go to oakleaf, San Jose, or any other location, but avoid the nocatee one at all costs. Management here has no consideration for their customers and they need to re learn how to run a business.

Lastly, I asked for a survey when I left from the hostess. They instantly signed me up for the wait list which was supposed to give me a survey. A screenshot is included of this incident which the survey was never provided so I sincerely hope they...

ISSUE RESOLVED from my previous comment: Thanks to Brittany for finding my cup. Brittany called me and went above and beyond to find my belonging. I truly appreciate it. I wish this was my experience from the beginning, but unfortunately this doesn't change what I went through. Thanks Again Brittany.

ISSUE: On Saturday, I went to eat with my family as usual at the Nocatee First Watch which is located 4 mins away from my house. Unfortunately with 2 kids, and picking up their toys from the table, etc, I left something of mine that was given to me by someone very special who is no longer here to replace it, a water bottle. Even though a water bottle doesn't sound like much, it meant something to me!

I am leaving this review because the two times that I called, the person seemed like I was bothering them with my questions. Today, I called back to check the status of my belonging, and she said with a rude voice: you already called Sunday, I already told you we don't have it ... I am sorry but where is the customer service here? This is not the way you should speak, or treat a customer, a loyal customer! Two things are disappointing to me, First, the fact that they don't even care to look for my belonging, they did not ask me the name of my waitress, the time I went, NOTHING, Careless! Come on, waitress always clean their table right after a customet leaves. Second, the terrible customer service that I received when I called.

Anyone that knows me knows that I treat people with kindness and respect, We try to be good human beings, and I teach my kids the same, and sadly we did not get the same respect back. I truly appreciate people, and their actions, and trust me, I reward them! My waitress was nice, I gave her a great tip, because I truly think she did a fantastic job, but after that, everything went down the...

UPDATED, 12/15/21 I was pleasantly surprised to be contacted after my last review of this establishment. We had a great conversation that led to me scheduling another visit with our group. We could not have been more pleased. Our server was attentive and I don't really believe we had to ask for much during our meal. I do t recall her name but she was the only one that handled the 11 of us and did so successfully. Thanks First Watch Nocatee. I'm sure we'll return with our networking group again. I'm giving 2 🌟rating because the place was immaculate. It was early morning (about 7:30) so obviously it was clean and the waitress was friendly. However, the management here made the worst business decision. We showed up with 15 people...mind you there might have been 5 people TOTAL in the place. We asked to sit in the area to the left of the entrance which, of course, had no one sitting near there. The waitress said "let me check" and came back to tell us we had to have 2 servers (no problem of course) and we had to sit in 2 sections. The one we wanted, and one across the room, 8 in one section and 7 in the other. We told her we would be having a meeting and that split would not work. She shrugged her shoulders and said "sorry, that's all I can offer you." They passed up a potential $250 order and a significant tip for the only 2 waitresses on duty because they didn't want a large group of business professionals sitting in one area. 🙄 It makes zero sense, especially since I have gone to other First Watch locations (Baymeadows and I-95) with at least 15 people and we were immediately accommodated during a busy lunch hour on a Friday! But the Nocatee location couldn't accommodate a similar size group in a virtually empty restaurant. I could care less about...