First Watch — Restaurant in Sarasota

Today we went to First Watch for breakfast. Our waitress, Sabrina, was nice & friendly! She got our drinks right away, answered our questions, and gave us the perfect amount of time to decide what we wanted for breakfast. I have a lot of allergies, which I told Sabrina about, and I saw her write every allergy on the order ticket. My special order omelet arrived at our table, it was incorrectly made. I saw onions in the omelet, she took the plate away, and Sabrina apologized for the kitchen 's mistake immediately!! Then the manager on duty, Jaryd, came to our table, she too apologized for the kitchen's error. She also compt our meals, which we did not expect!! The manager, Jaryd, action was first rate, and made me, a person with many allergies, feel understood, and respected!!! I had my gluten free toast and fruit while I waited for my new omelet to be made. Anyone who has allergies know that Sabrina and Jaryd, and the other staff at First Watch will make sure that your food is safe for you to eat!! That is extremely important!!! Even if you don't have allergies, it is clear that the staff will make sure your meal is exactly what you want!! Thank you Sabrina and Jaryd for the great breakfast & experience we had this morning!!! (A small note the night before we went to a fine dining restaurant, and my meal arrived with chives on it, which is an herb, and chives are in the onion family, which I am allergic to! My waiter said they would re-plate the scallops, and give me just new rice, because of my onion allergy the chives were on the scallops too. I insisted that my entire meal be remade!! Instead of taking my food away, and remaking it, he argued with me that chives are an herb & not an onion!! In the end a whole new dish was made for me. So, First Watch did a much better job of taking care of a kitchen mistake, than a fine dining...

The First Watch in downtown Sarasota is the one I’m reviewing. I’ve had mostly good experiences here. The food is good and although it can be kind of noisy, the atmosphere is pleasant. The million dollar bacon and bloody maries are both first rate. I’ve had two really bad experiences here and the last one might mark the end of my relationship with this restaurant. If you go on a weekday morning you’ll probably be fine. If you go on a weekend morning, you’re playing Russian roulette with your dining experience. Some of the wait staff are good or at least average. The problem is that nearly half of the wait staff don’t know what they’re doing. The first bad experience I had was with a waitress who didn’t speak English well enough to take our order. She was a really nice person, but if you need help taking an order, you shouldn’t be a waitress in the busy section of a restaurant. She also brought the bill with our food. The restaurant has a policy of bringing the check halfway through your meal that incentivizes the wait staff to turn tables over. It’s a really bad policy. The last time I ate there (possibly ever?) we had a waiter who was so bad at his job, we stopped eating and left halfway through the meal. He brought the check with the food, got both of our orders wrong, and couldn’t figure out how to bring the person I was eating with a black coffee. Mind you, this guy had the largest section on a Saturday morning. My advice: if you want something decent on a weekday, go ahead and give First Watch a try; if you like sure things or it’s a weekend, go to Boulevard Cafe, Station 400, or C’est La Vie. They all have better food...

I never like writing negative reviews😭 But unfortunately, we had a terrible experience at First Watch on Sunday after church.

We had come in with a large group and after waiting 30+ minutes let them know it was okay for them to split us up if that was helpful.

We waited more and were finally called to be seated. We were scattered all over the restaurant which was completely fine. My table was the first to be seated while others waited longer still.

This is when the issues began. Our waitress, who was very nice, obviously forgot to put in our order. How do we know that? Because all of our friends at larger tables who sat long after us were done eating before we even received our food. And we had small children with us. We waited an hour.

We didn't receive our food until 5 minutes before closing. The food was admittedly delicious, though I had to ask for syrup. However, at that point, we were so tired, so hungry, and so frustrated that we couldn't even enjoy it.

There was no honesty, no apology, and frankly it was disrespectful. Of course we still tipped as we know that people's livelihood depends on it, but it was out of obligation and not commending for a job well done.

While we used to love First Watch, we will not be back to waste more money or time on another afternoon...