First Watch — Restaurant in Ocala

This will be my first negative review of any business. My experience with this location was unacceptable yesterday with no apologies from the staff nor attempt to remedy the situation. My co-workers chose to support this restaurant yesterday morning because of the reviews and word of mouth. We were excited to try. We called a week ahead asking if they could accommodate 10-12 people seated together with enough warning. Although they did say they could not take reservations, the individual told my co-worker to show up 1/2 hour early so they could prep the tables. He showed up at 9:30 and informed them he was there and that 10 people were coming. At 9:45, another co-worker stepped into the lobby to give the hostess an update that 6 people had arrived with the 4 more coming. She was met with a blank stare. It was a busy morning, but at this point, the restaurant had three warnings of a large group arrival. At 10:00, everyone arrived at which time, we were told the group would be split between two tables....20 feet apart with several tables in between! The hostesses were extremely put off that our group would actually want to sit together although they had been told a few times! Our group watched several other parties be seated in locations where our group could have been seated close together but was not. At this point, we were attempting to help the hostess with suggestions but again was met with blank stares and a stock answer of "we need to wait then". Confused, we all decided to wait for a bit longer since we had heard it was worth the wait. Most of the party stepped outside since it was crowded and they did not mind the cold. Three individuals decided to remain inside the lobby against the wall near a tall table to wait. The hostesses (already annoyed that we actually wanted to sit together) asked these ladies to "go wait in their car or something" since they were practicing social distancing. All three ladies had masks on and since they were eating together anyway. we all had been waiting for 30 min. already, and they assumed (wrongly) that the restaurant's error in judgement would be fixed soon. I cannot begin to explain how rude these hostesses were with US. How dare we give them a week's notice, then another 30 min prior to arrival and then an additional 30 min. or so AFTER we all arrived and did not want to be split up! We chose to call around to other locations and MiMi's Cafe was more than happy to have us although they were busy as well. We had an excellent breakfast and enjoyed our time together but not at First Watch. As educators in our county, we will not be supporting First Watch Ocala. It would be polite to have the manager or owner reach out to one of us to remedy this, so we shall see how customer motivated they are. The way we were treated was appalling to...

Filthy! Filthy, filthy, filthy, filthy! I don't understand how this place has so many positive reviews because it certaintly doesn't deserve it. I don't even know where to start with this one but I'll give it a shot. There's stains and sticky garbage all over the floor(it made my boots squeak with every step.) I was seated at a table that was not clean, filled to the brim with dishes, silverware and napkins that were covered in food bits and grime. The chair and the table were sticky and very uncomfortable. I remember sitting there for almost 20 or 30 minutes before a single person acknowledged my presence. They finally came over and cleaned the table(Which should've been already done). I looked at the menu and decided to order some juice because I love myself some good orange or apple juice with my coffee. They didn't have any juice. They ran out(strange but okay.) I decided to just get myself some coffee while I look over the menu for what I want to eat. It took almost 20 minutes to receive my coffee and it was cold! This was the point I was deciding to cut my losses and to just go elsewhere but foolishly I decided to stay for the food. I ordered the breakfast burrito and boy was that a mistake! The eggs on the burrito were runny, the bacon was undercooked(it was literally still pinkish and raw! Undercooked pork can kill somebody! The chef needs to pay better attention to what he's sending out of the kitchen.) The cheese? Had no flavor, not savory not salty but nothing. I decided to tell the waitress that the food wasn't good(I only took one or two bites) and asked her if she could remove it from my bill but she gave me an attitude and didn't remove it from my bill. You would think the courteous thing to do for a customer after you screw up their order would be to take it off the menu but nope! I ended up getting ripped off and paying for it anyway even thought it was inedible. I decided this was my cue to leave and went to the payment counter(where I waited an additional 20 minutes 🙄) and got out of there as fast as I could. When I went back to my hotel room I ended up having bad diarrhea just from a few bites of whatever they served me. I'll never go back to this...

The food is excellent! I placed a to go order because it was super crowded (no distancing practices in place, at all🤷🏾‍♀️) A chicken pesto quinoa bowl with a "Morning Meditation" to drink. The woman who took my order simply asked "What do you want" no greeting no hello, nothing. This was my first visit and they came highly recommended. I placed my order and when asked what my name was I told her and spelled it. However she couldn't get it right and just put some random name in for me🤷🏾‍♀️ I went outside to wait because it was again very crowded and no distancing guidelines were being exercised. After about 20 minutes I went to check to see if my order was ready and it was sitting waiting. I was asked for my name However I wasn't sure if the order that was grabbed was mine because the name written on the bag wasn't mine. I was told, pretty aggressively that it had to be because noone else had placed a to go order. I received my order without my drink or silverware or a napkin. I checked When I asked if I could receive silverware the hostess came over to me and tried to look in my bag. Now I am a 51 year old woman and I wouldn't ask for anything If I didn't check to see if it was missing first. I pulled the bag away and asked again if I could please have my silverware and I did not appreciate being checked behind as if I were a child to see if in fact I didn't have silverware. When I voiced this annoyance by saying I wouldn't have asked if I didn't check, the hostess (who wasn't wearing a mask, by the way) says "well I needed to see if you overlooked it." I was trying to get out of there because there were people all up on one another. So much so that when I turned to leave I was met face to face with a woman only inches from me. A customer should never be checked behind when asking for something as simple as plastic silverware. The food was excellent. I couldn't even wait to get it home. I ate in my car. However the service I received left a bad taste in my mouth. I may or may not return considering this was my first visit, I haven't...