First Impression Of First Watch.

My wife and I were out doing some errands this afternoon and stopped in to check it out. The space is quite open and kind of natural/industrial looking. The tables are wood topped in the chairs are metal with an assortment of some benches and cushion seating in some areas.

Overall it's a balanced menu between breakfast items and lunch items although most of the breakfast items are a little different than the type of items you usually see on a breakfast menu. They have their own take on most of them which is good in theory but at least to us breakfast is one of the meals that you want food that you're comfortable with instead of something radically different.

They have their own take on a breakfast Juice which they call Day Glo which is a combination of carrot, orange, lemon and ginger juices. It was quite good but priced a little high at $3.99 per glass. Tea, coffee etc. were all $2.59. I had the bacon/onion hash which is served with 2 eggs cooked to order, a toasted English muffin and a small bowl of fruit. My wife had the eggs Benedict but rather than having it made with Canadian bacon they use a thin sliced Black Forest Ham. The poached eggs were a little overcooked but acceptable and the hollandaise sauce with a good texture but lacked the bright lemon flavor you expect. Total cost for our breakfast was $31.50 which included a 20% tip.

Overall we still like Wild Eggs better but this is certainly a good alternative depending on where you are going. It's certainly in a very convenient location for anybody out traveling outside of the Waterson on the east side of town.

I too liked First Watch, but overall the flavors were a little less bold than Wild Eggs. The build-out is really nice, with a Panera Bread or Starbucks-ish feel to it. Nothing to dislike about the food, service or atmosphere, but I think they may struggle to get the hyper fans (myself included) that Wild Eggs enjoys.

More like Panera than Wild Eggs I think. I went at lunch today. Short wait for a table at 11:30. I ordered a Chicken Salad Melt with a side of seasoned potatoes. While technically it was as described, it wasn't exactly oozing yumminess. My open faced sandwich had a sad little strip of bland white cheese trying very hard to melt over a pale tomato slice, on top of quite possibly the least seasoned chicken salad I've ever eaten. I don't know that I've ever added salt and pepper to a sandwich before, but today I did. The seasoned potatoes were served hot but calling them seasoned was a stretch. The salt and pepper shakers got a work out. My friend ordered a Monterey Club, and again, it needed help. Not sure if the entire menu is low salt but our choices certainly were. Looking around, the breakfasts looked pretty good. Service was OK, you pay at the register as you leave. There was nothing to actively dislike, but I can't say I'll be eager to return. Kind of like Bob Evans with arty chalkboards, mineral water displays and mildly uncomfortable bistro chairs.

More like Panera than Wild Eggs I think... it wasn't exactly oozing yumminess... sad little ...bland white cheese trying very hard to melt over a pale tomato slice...The seasoned potatoes were served hot but calling them seasoned was a stretch. The salt and pepper shakers got a work out... Kind of like Bob Evans with arty chalkboards, mineral water displays and mildly uncomfortable bistro chairs.

Great review. Love the selected quoted parts- thanks!

Made it out to First Watch today and I agree with the "Panera" style comment, much as it is in Columbus, OH. Before going I checked online and was thrilled to find complete nutrition info breakdown by menu item! With a few backslides I paid for before getting back on keeping the spreadsheet, I've kept a daily log of intake (calories, protein, fat, carbs, etc.) since 1998 to stay healthy. So this is a HUGE factor in favor of making this a regular when outside the Watterson. I was pleased the turkey feta omelet was not a "salt bomb". At 220 calories plus another 110 with the plain English muffin I felt like I had found "my people"! They have hot sauce on the table (OK, must have some sodium, too) that I used a lot. Sodium is one diet factor I have been unable to get fully to heel. I keep a weekly summary and at best I am usually at fed guidelines and sometimes up to 125%. More than anything else sodium is the hardest to control. Thanks to First Watch for a good meal that fueled rather than dragged me on the hour of aerobics that followed at the J-town LAC. Usually my wife and I eat out after a workout rather than before because most restaurant food is a drag on performance. Not so at First Watch if you pay attention and they give you the tools to do that with!
The online nutrition tools are a big challenge to local outfits for me. If I can look it up online rather than spend time afterwards trying to research two or three online recipes and SWAG an average to get a good estimate of nutritional content (OK, I'm retired so can spend the time) then I'm inclined to patronize the healthy chain.
When you take local to the logical conclusion you get to one's own body. That's the overriding factor here.
Blessings to First Watch!

We have 2 of these "First Watch" places here in Lexington, and they have been here for a couple of years. We went once and haven't been back... everything was fresh and okay but the food had an assembly-line, committee-approved quality to it that I did not like. The sunny-side-up eggs, for instance, came out in a perfect circle with no hint of carmelization. And the bacon was -exactly- done; it looked pretty but, once again, there was no carmelization. First Watch reminded me very much of the kind of breakfast that you get in the type of "medium high-end" franchise hotels that you visit during business conferences... adequate but impersonal and a bit depressing.