First Watch

Rise and shine! First Watch used to be my Go-​To breakfast and brunch place. Cannot count the number of times I’ve been to this restaurant and it’s always been good. Over the years, though, I ventured out to other places to try their food. The lines at First Watch are terribly long on the weekends and that was a deterrent for me, as well.
Is it fantastic? No, not by any means. But it is good and satisfying. Portion sizes are huge. There is always plenty of food. It is hot, flavorful and you will leave feeling full. This is a nice place to take in a slow morning, reading the paper over a cup of morning coffee. And you will never have a plateful of grease leftover after your meal, either.
The staff has consistently been friendly, nice and patient. They are not pushy and are trained well. The kitchen is in the open so you can see what is going on
Behind the scenes. It adds a very personal touch to the restaurant, too.
I’ve never had any trouble with my food or service at First Watch. Eating here has always been a pleasant experience. I think
It’s time for me to be a regular again!

My boyfriend and I always join his parents here, they come every Saturday morning! When we do join them this place is always a delight to be. They are friendly, most of the time it’s open seating anywhere, many different options and substitutions for things. Especially dairy products, soy products, caffeine products, you name it! They always bring out a pitcher of water and coffee and are constantly refilling. Depending on the season they will have a specials menu and this time they had Chilaquiles as a special. Being from texas this lite up the room for me! I wouldn’t look at anything else. I was impressed for sure. The tomatillo sauce was tangy and everything it should be. Love this place, I will always come back!

It’s all perfectly OK (except for the crepegg… that’s an abomination). That said, First Watch is more notable for what it isn’t rather than for what it is. So — while the servers are perfectly nice and the kitchen competent enough on all the breakfast basics — there are just so many places in Lawrence to go for breakfast where the overall experience, food, and dining room layout are significantly better, that it is hard to be too impressed by this chain offering. In fact, although I had a perfectly fine breakfast here, I’m finding it hard to think of somewhere in town that I would pick after First Watch in a list of breakfast places… and I am finding it difficult.

We have family in Lawrence and whenever we come visit we have breakfast here. MY favorite is 1 blueberry pancake (they r huge) and a side of patty sausage. Always excellent and fast courteous service. On weekends get there b 4 9AM.

So I’m going
a little bias here because my sister & brother work here. I was traveling through after attending a wedding in Missouri. We came in between breakfast & lunch so there wasn’t much of a wait. And they were kind enough to let me sit in my sister’s section. She was sweet & gave us a hug but didn’t let our visit get in the way of her job & other customers. Mt oldest got the kids turkey sandwich & loved every bit of it. My middle got pancakes, her favorite & enjoyed it. Food was great, service was friendly, helpful & efficient & the restaurant was clean & welcoming. I would come back even if my siblings didn’t work here

Great food and great service! It’s the perfect place if you’re wanting a fresh healthy meal.

We have yet to come here when it wasn’t packed. We thought we’d have a quick breakfast on our anniversary before Jeremy went to work. It’s a Monday and it was 10am. They still had a wait, several large groups, and getting our food was so slow. At least the food is good but they never seem prepared to be so busy. We both, and they forgot it was the day after graduation. So if you want some good pancakes made fresh with no microwaves in the kitchen but don’t mind waiting then First Watch is for you.

The food was great and the wait on a Sunday morning (Mother’s Day) wasn’t bad — aprox 15 minutes. Our server, Timothy, was awesome. He was upbeat, positive, and made our visit enjoyable. Even in the face of a VERY busy morning, all of the staff (especially Timothy) was awesome.

Visiting from Colorado and looking for a healthy option for breakfast. Unilocal pointed me to First Watch and we weren’t disappointed. Wait on Saturday morning was about 30min — they really try and get things moving quickly by taking your order ahead of time. Coffee and Tea available for free was nice while we waited. Menu selection is excellent and everything tasted great! Server wasn’t very friendly and kind of made us feel like an inconvenience to be there, but other than that I’d highly recommend.

Great place for breakfast or lunch. All pretty healthy choices they have everything from turkey burgers to quinoa salads. Breakfast has home fries and eggs. Whole wheat pancake. Highly recommend!

Excellent for breakfast! Best Granola and yogurt. Be sure to pick up an extra bag on way out. I liked it so much that I asked manager to make up extra bags for me to send to friends. If you have hungry fans with you in the AM stop here!

Usually about a 30 minute wait on Saturday/​Sunday peak hours. They are great about getting people seated quickly. Service is great!
Food is very fresh and flavorful. Big menu with lots of classics as well as unique options.
I recommend the Breakfast Scramble with the hollandaise sauce– very good! Omelets are also great! Coffee and Water carafes are left on the table which is great for my family and I since we drink about 100 cups of coffee each. Defiantly a place I stop every time I am visiting Lawrence and I highly recommend!

First Watch is a great place for breakfast or brunch. They have a lot of specialty items if you’re interested in trying something specific to the place, but if you’re just looking for a place to grab a standard bacon, eggs, and toast breakfast, FW is still great. Their wheat toast is incredible and they seem to actually know how eggs should be cooked when you order them.
The staff were all very friendly when I went in (a Thursday morning at 10), and it wasn’t busy at all at the time. I’m sure it gets packed earlier and later than we were in, but it doesn’t seem like a place that would get very loud even with a decent sized crowd in there. The décor was nice and the atmosphere was very relaxed, which is always nice when you’ve just woken up.
My only complaint is also a boon to my visit; they positioned us in the booth directly behind the doors into the kitchen. It was nice to be tucked away into a spot out of the view of customers but well in the view of staff. Unfortunately, this did lead to some inevitable awkwardness of perhaps getting more attention at our table than we really needed. That can happen when you make eye contact with every staff member that walks out of the kitchen doors, but they certainly didn’t make me uncomfortable.
All in all, great experience! Will definitely return when I want to go somewhere to eat breakfast at breakfast time.

I generally think First Watch is overhyped, but my first (and only) trip to this location was pretty good. My biggest complaint is they don’t provide fresh cream or milk for their coffee, just the individual creamers on the table. I don’t understand why breakfast places do that. The coffee wasn’t that great either.
My friends both got pancakes, which are the size of your plate, so they let me have some. One of them got the lemon ricotta pancake. So. Good. I went for a bowl with sausage, potatoes, peppers and onions with cheese on top. It was pretty tasty and I didn’t feel loaded down afterward.
It’s not my favorite place, but I’d go back if I were in the area and looking for a breakfast spot.

I’ve never been a huge First Watch fan, but I’ve never hated it. This location fits that perfectly — it’s fine. I was here with a large group at lunch, and it was mostly dead aside from us. Orders were done efficiently, all of them came out right, and they came out pretty quickly considering how we slammed the kitchen all at once. I was impressed.
The food was, as I mentioned, fine. I had a Tri-​Fecta, which came with one monstrous pancake (I had pecan), two eggs any style (I chose over easy), and bacon/​sausage. The pancake itself had tons of pecans, but was overall «meh» in flavor. The sausage, a single link, was good. The eggs were where I have praise and critique — it’s often difficult to get eggs over easy done right, and they nailed it. However, the eggs themselves, flavor wise, were only «meh».

I’ve been here 3 – 4 times now and each time other than the first it hasn’t been my decision or choice. For that reason I’m less than enthusiastic. The food and service is just OK, sometimes sub-​par on the food. The coffee is truck-​stop grade and to top it all off, they’re really proud of their prices. The décor is drab strip-​mall design at its finest.
The bar for breakfast in Lawrence is as low right now as its ever been in the past 30 years and First Watch is right in the mix of it all competing for mediocrity. Where are you o Paradise Café? Those of us that remember will never be the same.
Yesterday’s breakfast, $ 5+ for a small bowl of oatmeal with a few dried cranberries and maybe a fourth of a banana. Side English muffin. It was just OK, wasn’t really warmed to proper temperature. Wife had a hash dish ($ 9+) with plenty of potatoes that carried the flavoring of too many other things cooked in that same oil or pan or possibly a grill not properly cleaned. Unpleasant lingering taste. Probably the best thing going is the pot of coffee they bring to the table which saves them a lot of service grief. $
$ 20 before tip for the two of us.
Still, some people seem to dig it as the restaurant was half full at 9:30 a.m. so what do I know? I just know it’s not anything special. Going out to breakfast for me is sort of a luxury because I put in most of my (self-​employed) work during that time of day. There’s nothing special going on here.

One of my favorite breakfast places in Lawrence. I know it’s a chain restaurant but they simply do breakfast right. Much more affordable than other popular chains and just as good as the local restaurants, as well.

This is a breakfast place that is apparently very popular. I was there twice while in town and there was a wait both times. The food was really good though. I had the pumpkin pancake the first time which I loved, and the eggs benedict the next time which was just soso (not my favorite sauce ever). They were super friendly there, and very good with my 14 month old who likes to make a mess of food at restaurants.

By far one of the top five breakfast spots in Lawrence. Their menu cheapens the experience a bit by making them seem like a big chain (are they?) and the presentation is a bit lacking, but I’ve found the food great or satisfactory, depending on the dish. In general, definitely a dependable go to. Also, they recently discovered quinoa.

I’d been to a First Watch in St. Louis before and had an okay experience there, so either my standards have changed or the one in Lawrence is just worse. There are some bonuses to First Watch. It has a large interior (kind of reminiscent of a Denney’s though… old school chain restaurant with high-​chair tables stacked everywhere for kiddies) and caters well to groups. When you order a cup of coffee they give you a whole pot (for us caffeine-​addicted souls out there), and it’s really not bad coffee. Service here was friendly and expedient, though they did seem to want to usher us out quickly because of the large wait, which was irritating.
Menu selection was large but I’d expect no less from a place like this. They serve standard breakfast fare — omelets, waffles, french toast, biscuits and gravy. I had the Floridian French Toast (sourdough with wheat germ, topped with berries); though it was huge it was a pretty underwhelming plate of food. The bread was dry, unflavorful, and they gave me a side of watery and artificial blueberry sauce that grossed me out. Their «maple syrup» is probably some equivalent of Aunt Jemima’s High Fructose Corn Syrup With Food Coloring. Given the quality of the food, I’d say prices are on the high end, ranging from about $ 7 – 10 for each item.
But, I suppose this is what I get for going to a chain store.