First Watch — Restaurant in Virginia

Update: Went there this morning for breakfast and sat outside. Place was not busy. After three servers walked by us without acknowledging us and about 7 minutes of waiting, we left. Honestly, I am not sure I want to go back. The service has really gone downhill. It's unfortunate.

This place is literally 1 minute from my house. I have been going there since it opened and have been there many times. I love the food, and service always was good to outstanding. Until today. The server was nice enough. He did not bring me a water glass, so I used the extra coffee cup on the table. The food took about 25-30 minutes to come out, and my order was completely wrong. After flagging down another server, I did get the correct food quickly. But then our server did not check on us again until we had basically finished our food. We got the check and I asked for a to go cup for my coffee. Plates were never removed from the table, but our server took time clearing other empty tables. He never brought the to go cup. I asked another server and got one. When I mentioned these things to the young woman at the checkout to pay, she did not apologize. She simply said the server was new.

I understand being busy, but they need to be able to handle being busy. It is a weekend. They are going to be busy. Maybe the new servers need more training. Our server walked past many times and never looked in our direction. I will go there again, but I may avoid the weekends. If service gets bad enough, I may find a new breakfast place. I hope it improves from...

My first impressions were that I really wanted to like this place--it's close to where I live, it has a very extensive menu, you get a carafe of coffe at the table, and my waiter was friendly. And hot dog, they have a cherizo omelette for breakfast. Well, First Watch, you might as well take the Chile Cherizo off the menu. The amount of cherizo in this omelette was microscopic. Most of the innards were green peppers and onions, and they were cooked down to the point of mush. It was totally tasteless. That explains why it took so long for the food to come out--they had to cook those peppers down real good. And the so-called Pico de Gallo was just some sliced tomatoes with a hint of cilantro. And for this, I paid $10+. In all fairness, I'm going to try again, with a more traditional American breakfast. But in the meantime, you've been warned about this menu selection. Oh, and as far as atmosphere--it's clean and modern, but very noisy--maybe because there are no ceiling tiles. It's very open, kind of like a cafeteria.

Update: I went again, and my meal was much more satisfying--I had the Farmhouse Hash, picture added. It was good, two fried eggs on top of potatoes, with bacon and avacado added. My wife really liked the breakfast tacos. Service was fast-exactly 9 minutes. The noise level was up even higher though, as it was pretty crowded. Tab for these meals, with coffee: $28.49. I...

Came here for a morning date in late December. Felt cold upon walking in but figured it was just from being outside - nope. We found out later from a manager that the heat was out. Definitely wouldn’t have stayed if we hadn’t ordered by that time - there should’ve been a sign on the door or it should’ve been disclosed immediately.

The service was good.

They were out of their signature appetizer - at 7:45am. The other appetizer we ordered, despite specifically ordering it as an appetizer, came out less than a minute before our food did.

The food was bland and very unimpressive. My omelette was cold and liquidy. My husband, who never complains about restaurant food, said his pancakes had no flavor and weren’t warm. The bacon - a definite pass. The Costco pre-cooked bacon we microwave at home has more flavor.

The seasonal gingerbread donuts were fantastic. The only redeeming part of this experience, for sure.

The sodas were $3.80 each. Overall, a $42 bill for very underwhelming food and an uncomfortable atmosphere. At least McDonald’s would’ve been...