The Original Egg — Restaurant in Siesta Key

To start- I do have a personal love of family owned small businesses. What we ordered- Children’s sliders w/ fries Children’s pancake Biscuits and gravy with corned beef and hash, sunny side up eggs, white toast w/butter and home fries w/ cheese Eggs Benedict and home fries w/ cheese Pecan chicken salad melt on a croissant

Children’s sliders- these were “ok”. A bit much bread (brioche which is great) but not proportionate to the meat (a bit “bready”). Fries were great- hot, perfectly crispy, and seasoned right

Children’s pancake- this was huge! Cooked perfectly, golden on the outside and fluffy on the inside

Biscuits and gravy- a bit underwhelming. Gravy could use more seasoning/pepper, but biscuits were cooked nicely. Corned beef and hash- this was good-nothing spectacular but nothing wrong with it either. Hit the spot and what you would expect. Home fries w/cheese- perfect. Needed a bit of salt but rather add our own than have something over-salted

Sunny side up eggs, white toast- cooked perfect. Toast was a perfect golden toast.

Eggs Benedict- this was where things really fell short. Poached eggs were way over-cooked. Cut into them and no runny yolk at all. Resembled soft cooked boiled eggs. Hollandaise sauce didn’t have any flavor and was minimal and appeared to have been put under heat lamps or in the oven to stay warm as it appeared dried out a bit (possibly why the poached eggs were overcooked also). No butter on the English muffins- which, butter wouldn’t be typical anyways but coupled with the lack of sauce, and over cooked eggs, made for a very dry Eggs Benedict.

Pecan chicken salad melt- this was “ok”. It was fresh tasting, all white meat (which I love in my chicken salad), but lacked flavor. I suppose I expected a bit more since it’s supposed to be “award winning”. I didn’t dislike it, but as a huge chicken salad person, was expecting a bit more out of it.

Coffee was wonderful- hot, strong, and fresh. Fresh squeezed orange juice- amazing!! (A little expensive but well worth it!).

Server- very sweet, attentive, and personable. Also, seated quickly by hostess but we did come on a weekday between breakfast and lunch when it wasn’t so busy.

Atmosphere- wonderful. Comfortable, family feel, local artist’s works available for purchase adorning the walls. Bathrooms were clean.

Our overall rating would be a 8/10. We’ll definitely be back to try more things. I also realize the majority of their clientele probably prefers or needs more lightly...

If you plan on eating at the original egg, make sure you give yourself an hour before they close because their closing procedures will not be an inviting environment to relax and finish your food. My friend and I visited on 7-9-2023 at 1:32 pm to try a different brunch spot to only experience a “let’s go, can’t digest my food, rushed mentality”.

Few of the things that we experienced was our food coming out late with them turning on the music which made it feel like a techno night club with music blaring in the background, the owner shouting out across us patrons at her employees to turn the chairs over, and being given a check and told “no rush but we are closed”. It gives us the vibes of feeling unwelcome, we are closed and it’s time to go.

Our food was good; however, our server seemed pressured and distracted by her boss, which was evident through asking multiple times for the avocado and a to -go-box 2-3 times before we given those items.

When checking out at the register, the owner ventured behind the counter to finalize her sales for the day, we had no courtesy extended to us “thank you come again, or how was your food ladies”. We were never even acknowledged by the woman, until my friend made a statement of feeling rushed during our brunch experience at a newly visited establishment. The owner never apologized, but only made an excuse that her employees took care of 500 patrons and they were ready to go at the end of the day. She never took ownership and never made eye contact when speaking to us, and was only focused on closing up and getting out of there. We responded with telling the owner that we have never had this experience at first watch and she responded with laughter and said “I don’t compare myself to them”. But we sit and think about this as we write this review “maybe you should. Because the professionalism at first watch is at a top level of customer service, treating the patron with respect even after closing time.

Proceed...

We waited over 30 minutes for our food after we had to stop a waitress to place our order. After questioning her as to where our food was she brought over the manager/owner who just gave us excuses as to what was taking so long. She gave us everything from Covid to the cook who came in drunk the other day , picked up his check and walked out to every restaurant is having trouble and they are all short on staff. I had to look for someone to pay our check then when a young lady was finally taking care of the lady in front of me and having trouble the manager/owner just barged in front if het to take over. Then it was our turn to pay and she asked how everything was and I responded terrible. She looked up and said “Oh it’s you. She went on to give more excuses as.to why things were not going well. I told her she needed to improve her management skills; which she disputed by saying she had owned the restaurant for 10 years and never had a complaint which are both lies. She was very rude and argumentative. I will never return there. Other restaurants have survived the staff shortages, etc. and done so with good service and polite interactions. I eat out very often and can’t tell you how long it gas been since I have complained in a restaurant. The manager/owner appeared frazzled and was not able to handle how bust the restaurant was. She lost her composure with a customer who had been there many times in the past. Also the food was below average; my egg was overdone, the so called hadh brown dish was so overdone that I had to cut it with a knife. The sausage and toast were fine and...