Watch Out!!
Reviewed 9/6/16
Welcome to the very first FriscoEats.com Mystery Diner Review. Sorry to say, but this one is, well, a brunchtime bummer.
The victim, er, restaurant our Mystery Diners visited was the recently opened First Watch, in the space previously occupied by The Egg & I, on Preston Road, just north of Lebanon.
The restaurant bills itself as ‘The Daytime Cafe’ because of its corporate-wide operating hours. Like many breakfast/lunch exclusives, this one is open from 7 AM to 2:30 PM. Unfortunately, this gives the managers and kitchen staff only a little less than eight hours to practice their craft. Perhaps this new entry to the market needed a little more time to work out the kinks before they re-opened their doors.
The first thing the previous restaurant’s patrons notice is the redesigned interiors of the space. Beautiful natural woods are found on the floors, and the beams and accents are of the distressed variety. Very Texan. There’s even a big Texas flag on the wall. Other than that, diners would never know they weren’t in any of the chain’s Florida locations. Nothing Texan on the menu, other than a few meals that offered green chiles. Not even huevos of any level of spicy kick. But we know that jalapenos in the eggs aren’t everyone’s fancy, so we appreciated what was offered.
The chain prides itself on its ‘from scratch’ meals. From scratch generally is a good thing, except when one’s order is not properly filled, or when the order comes out dry, cold or tasteless. Our team encountered all four of these issues. Before we get to the meal, though, our arrival experience must be told.
Upon walking into the restaurant around 11 AM on Labor Day, a big day by most breakfast restaurant standards, we found a healthy waiting line greeted us. Approaching the host, our party was told that the wait would be approximately 15 to 20 minutes. This was the standard that we overheard, as told to other guests. In fact, we asked around the waiting patrons. All of them had been told the same thing. Normally, this would be a good sign of a growing eatery, but not in this case. The dining room is sectioned into two areas. The main area was about half filled, while the second section boasted only two tables of patrons. Many of the remaining tables were filled with the remnants of previous diners. Quite appealing for those sitting at nearby tables. The rest were simply empty.
We considered the possibility that the staff was of skeleton size because of the holiday, but that, too, was incorrect. The staff seemed to consist of at least four servers and two floor managers. There was absolutely no sense of urgency to seat, or serve, anyone. That said, our Mystery Diner party was seated at the very conclusion of the promised wait timeframe.
Our server did not seem rushed, but she did seem disengaged. She was professionally friendly.
Our party consisted of four; two men and two women. Both women were watching calories, so they were cautious while making their orders. My partner ordered a veggie omelet, exactly as on menu, except she requested no cheese in the preparation. Cheese was included, nonetheless. It seemed, though, that the chef had noticed the special order, and had tried to scrape the melted cheese from the dish before serving, leaving the omelet disfigured and cheese remnants throughout. When this was pointed out to the server, she offered to ask the chef if he would “check the omelet for cheese.” We can’t make up this stuff.
A gentleman in our party had eaten breakfast earlier in the moring, so he chose the very high calorie (350) cup of tomato basil soup and a “lightly dressed” green salad. He discussed the dressing options with the server, who told him that the salad normally sported a lemon vinaigrette that was “very good.” Regardless, our friend chose another option, the chipotle dressing on the side. His meager meal arrived after all of the others, but the dressing was of the lemon variety. The server told him that she would bring out the correct dressing, but that never happened. Regardless, the soup was worth the calories and the greens were fresh and room temperature.
We must admit, the pumpkin spice pancakes were to die for! The batter was fairly light when griddled, and the cinnamon and pumpkin flavors…well, those were heavenly. Again, though, we asked for the pancakes to come out sans butter, but they were dolloped with the stuff. We scraped it off. The bacon was crispy and salty goodness, although its temperature indicated that it had been pre-cooked and kept under a hot lamp for a time.
The fourth meal, basically a frittatta, was cold and rubbery, but the accompanying fruit was fresh.
Two of our diners tried Sunrise Select juice beverages, made from a mixture of healthy fruits and veggies. Both repported they were good, although the green color and texture of the kale drink might not have been everyone’s first choice. On the topic of beverages, our entire table was pleased when a giant bottle of ice cold water was served with the initial pouring service. It was replenished when that ran out.
The managers seemed to be openly perplexed about various diner complaints, which led us to believe that this restaurant might get better as time goes on. It may be simply a matter of training and time open, but they might have done well to have retained some of the Egg & I staff. We didn’t recognize any faces from the old crew,
The prices were reasonable, with the entire check coming to a meager $57 for the four of us, including tip. It was much faster to pay the host than to locate a table with him. Oh, and, yes, there was plenty of surface parking in the lot.
We’ll give it another try after it has been open for a bit. Until then, watch the Real People Review section for updates.