First Watch — Restaurant in Sarasota

Please read my entire edited review. My extremely over priced food arrived cold and the service was just passable. My friend likes the French toast but I find the local Perkins variety at least as good or better and it's nearly always served hot with warm (artificial) maple syrup and room temperature apricot as well as berry. I'll go back to First Watch only when friends want to.

6/1/20 I'm updating this review because First Watch customer care requested that I revisit the restaurant to allow them to make things right. I want to post publicly that I will go back. The request was extremely well written and very sincerely apologetic. The writer gave me her work email and offered to send a gift certificate. I will post again after I have tried another meal. In fairness to the restaurant, I need to add that real maple syrup is available on request for around $1.25. Perkins does not offer that option. Neither does any other very local restaurant such as Bob Evans. I also must add that First Watch is extremely accessible to people with any kind of disability and specifically to those who use wheelchairs.

7/20/2020 I went back and had their version of an everything bagel and lox. It was good but not even close to a New York Nova lox bagel. This version featured some sort of pickled onions that were slightly overpowering, overshadowing the other flavors. The cream cheese was not real original Philadelphia cream cheese but some kind of off-brand approximation. They also offered some homemade donuts which looked and smelled delicious. I think I might have preferred them to the bagel. My friend and I will go back but I don't think First Watch will ever be one of my favorite restaurants. On a positive note, the service was good and the food this time was a great improvement over the meal that generated my...

2024 Update. First Watch is still my go-to place for good healthy food especially after Sunday service. No mimosas or sangria today because I'm driving but they look good. I opted for the Morning meditation, and the Million Dollar Bacon...OMG. Stick, sweet and full of pepper. So good. Some fresh fruit on the Lemon Cream Ricotta pancakes, a had waffle, eggs and fruit for the little guy and his mom had the Salmon Frittata with a salad. This place is consistent. Our server Yemi was excellent. I'll be back again and again and again.

Friends invited us to meet them at First Watch for brunch. We had never been and nearly went to thewrong location because we were unaware it is a chain. I am interested to see if the other locations have the same or similar interior design. The places was comfortable, a bit noisy but lively, had a great aesthetic and a great menu. There is a good mix of healthy choices (many organic) and traditional food items. I was impressed by the freshness and presentation of the juices. Beautiful AND delicious. The toast that came with my dining companions meals was a thick and hearty slice of whole grain bread. I had blueberry and lemon pancakes with real maple syrup and turkey sausage. The pancakes were delicious. I didn't expect links and was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the atmosphere. It seems like a lot of people like this place to meet and dine. I see thereare locations in Georgia as well....

Unfortunately this is the first time in many many years that I felt the need to leave a bad review for somewhere where I’ve eaten. This morning, we had 4 different people serve us, and it seems like there was no awareness of who actually was looking after our table. It took 20 minutes before someone even acknowledged we were sitting down. I asked 4 different members of staff for water. In the end, I went inside and asked the hostess.

I tried to ask the manager what was going on. She’s always a lovely person as I’ve spoken to her before however, I didn’t really feel like there was an acknowledgement and understanding of how bad the service was today. It wasn’t an individual server it was just a collective mess.

Unfortunately I don’t think that our last server realised we’ve been asking for water for 45 minutes and off of 3 other people prior so I think he was annoyed with me going inside. I hope he gets this message as I tried finding him when we left but I couldn’t see him.

I don’t like writing bad reviews as I always try to give the manager the opportunity to address the problem first, but in this instance, I didn’t feel like it was done.

The food was generally nice but the poached eggs massively overcooked and hard inside. I won’t be coming back here for a while, as today was a bad visit. I’m hoping they sort out their service for outside as it wasn’t...