First Watch has become my go-to spot for breakfast and brunch, and for good reason. The food is consistently fresh, the vibe is relaxed, and the staff actually seems happy to be there. I have to call out the bacon specifically because it deserves its own moment. It's thick, perfectly crispy, and has that slightly smoky flavor that makes you wonder why all bacon can't be this good. No sad, limp strips here. And the hash? Absolutely stellar. It's one of those dishes that sounds simple but is clearly made with care. Great texture, seasoned just right, and it holds up as a main event rather than just a side thought. The whole menu feels intentional and fresh, which you don't always find at a breakfast chain. Portions are generous without being overwhelming, and the coffee keeps coming. Whether you're there for a quick solo breakfast or a slow weekend brunch with friends, First Watch delivers every single time. Highly recommend stopping in and letting the bacon and hash do the talking. Feel free to tweak any details to match your specific visit!​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ read more

My favorite place for breakfast! I have not been there for a while. Always love everything they offer. This time I ordered the seasonal item Maple bacon Sandwich on Croissant! Amazing! My friend ordered chicken hush is also good. Not much chicken though. Service is great! read more

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I have reviewed First Watch in Arizona and Alabama. Im in Missouri, my home state goi g to a reunion and was excited to review. Got in around 8am. No issues. You need to go early to avoid a line. This time I had the Biscuit and Gravy. The food across all the states is extremely good. Never had anything bad to say. Still needs more onions in the potatoes, but I like onions. Coffee. I said it before and ill say it again. The coffee at First Watch is not good. I have to add a lot of cream and sugar and I still get a bad aftertaste. Over 3 states this is consistent. Please think about getting sonething different. Even Folgers. Now, for a surprise. My water came in a large glass with ICE! Finally, they figured out cold water good. I got a booth, so my butt was spared. Attention by staff was good also. All in all this Missouri location pulled a head of the other two because, large ice water! The coffee is what keeps me from giving 5 stars. Seriously. read more

First Watch - Look, large water with ice!! - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Columbia, Missouri

Yummy, yummy food. Fast and friendly service! Mimosas were grand! Busy but efficient. read more

We came back for a week day breakfast and had a great experience. We were seated right away. I was surprised how yummy the food was! Service was good. Ambiance is a modern breakfast/brunch spot. - Million dollar bacon (5/5): MUST TRY. I typically don't like sweet combined with savory, but this is the perfect combo of deliciousness. - Lemon blueberry cornbread (5/5): This was also amazing, super moist, flavorful. - Parma skillet hash (4/5): This was very flavorful but a bit salty. This was so good with over easy eggs, lots of potatoes and sausage. Even the bread was yummy. - Farm stand breakfast tacos (4/5): The tacos were good but I feel like they needed a different type of salsa or other sauce. Maybe sour cream. I added cholulua, and it was greatLe. read more

RUN to get the Elote Breakfast Burrito available for a limited time!! Do not miss this thing! Chorizo, scrambled eggs, crisp potatoes, diced red bell pepper, Cheddar and Monterey Jack, black beans and fresh avocado. Wrapped in a grilled flour tortilla, covered in Vera Cruz hollandaise and topped with house-roasted corn salsa, Cotija cheese, house-pickled red onions, chipotle aioli, Tajin® and cilantro. read more

First Watch - Elote Breakfast Burrito - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Columbia, Missouri

look at pictures. Need I say more? Asked for mgr. She never came. Paid $13 for WET sandwich with rotten lettuce,wet bread. $13 for pancakes with no syrup even though my daughter asked for some. Never again. Rip off. Was told twice we would get something in mail. A month later nothing ever came. Owners need to seriously look into all the bad feedback, and make drastic changes or their going under. read more

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Use the app to get in line it's the easiest fasted way to avoid the long lines during peak times!

Always consistently good in house Take out is hot or miss due to corporate If not careful corporate will destroy this chain read more

We're new to CoMo and have already gone there twice. Go early to beat the brunch crowd or you'll wait. Lemon cornbread was fun to share, I wouldn't be able to eat a whole slice! Had the superfoods bowl and it was delicious. The traditional eggs bacon and potatoes were excellent as well. Ambiance on Stadium and Worley was great. Looking forward to checking out their location on the southeast side. read more

half of my salad was black and dead. the service was ok and mid at best as my drink wasn't filled once. ......... yea great expirience

Great food, service and establishment. The wait wasn't bad. The place is always full. Use the app. Make a reservation

We're in today. Not quite the quality of food we've had in the past. The million dollar bacon was cold and hard. Everything else was ok but nothing special. Autumn was our server. She did fine but didn't check back very often. Not as good as the Osage Beach location we usually frequent. read more

Wow! Our First Watches in St. Louis are not as nice as this! Service was exceptional, as well as the ambiance. We sat outside and it was lovely. The food was fantastic. We were there for breakfast. We normally don't go to chain restaurants when we travel but this was so good we'll be back on our next trip thru! read more

This place was very good. Great service, great food, reasonable prices... Except for one thing: I can't remember what I ate. Looking at pics of the menu I recall now that it was the Ham & Gruyere Omelette. But my only memory is just the impression that is was very good and satisfying. Across from me sat my nephew. He had pancakes. Or waffles, maybe. Whatever it was, it was quite yummy. (He wasn't able to finish so I helped out.) But as for the other FOUR people at my table? I can't recall their food. There might have been a mimosa involved. It was early. I had an empty stomach. Too little sleep. Mercury was in retrograde and the dish ran away with the spoon. Note to self: Take pictures of your food. read more

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I am normally a huge fan of First Watch and come here all the time. However, I waited just under an hour for a two top on a moderately busy morning. Multiple 6, 7, 8, and even 12 tops being seated before us after having waited for over 45 minutes at that time. Ended up having to take my name off the list because of the poorly managed and ridiculously rude staff. Will not be coming back to this location. read more

Neat breakfast spot with a variety of options to choose from. Breakfast was delicious and I will be back again! read more

First Watch - Farmhouse breakfast and egg sandwhich - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Columbia, Missouri

Great location with many options to choose from, when you visit. The menu was a new brunch menu, the service was fine I would ask for Tim he can also give some good suggestions. There is both indoor and outdoor seating options with a welcome environment but can become busy depending on the day and time. read more

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It does not disappoint. First time for some in our group, everyone found something to eat and it was delicious. Great timing with school being out, best time to go is early in the morning, or for lunch when school is in. Good food. read more

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I've been wanting to try this place for a little bit, so me and my mom went to the stadium location (I have been to the grindstone local, a great experience). Our first experience at the stadium location was mediocre. Our waitress was nice but we only saw her to get our order and to deliver our food (which we waited 40 minutes for oatmeal and yogurt bowls). They weren't even busy. I saw maybe 4 other tables. We asked for Togo boxes and check when we she brought our food because who knows when we would see her again. She did apologize for our wait. We decided to give the stadium location a second chance. When we went our waitress was rude and acted disgusted when we declined the offer for coffee. My mom asked 1 question about the menu to see if she could sub something and immediately rude behavior acting annoyed. Our wait for the food was a much better wait around 10 minutes. My mom asked for a coke and she brought it, set it on the table firmly and just walked away. The next time we saw her again she brought the check and left without saying anything. Very rude service but great food and plate presentation. If you're going to go to First Watch in Columbia make sure you go to the grindstone location NOT stadium!! read more

Food was great, server was great, small wait but nothing unreasonable. All of that was overshadowed by the fact that they jammed 9 people in a corner booth meant for four people. It was incredibly uncomfortable and difficult to even eat. We also had an 80 year old with this. You should be ashamed for making an 80 year old woman and everyone else sit so cramped and jammed up. It really put a damper on the whole meal and set a negative tone for the day since we were having breakfast there. There were plenty of open tables that could have been pushed together. I'm not sure why we didn't qualify for a comfortable place to enjoy a meal that we were paying for. I wouldn't recommend eating here. read more

The waitress was excellent even though they were extremely busy. Food was great and I would definitely recommend going here.

My wife and I often eat here on Friday's for a late breakfast. We always allow time to enjoy our time together. If time is short, this may not be the place. The food is always served hot and delicious. The large number of choices and seasonal changes provides opportunities to try something new. Prefer the Grindstone location but have had good service at Forum location. read more

Passing through from Florida and was impressed from the get-go on how polite and friendly the host was. We noticed the cleanliness of the restaurant, had a terrific server, and the food was delicious! (We highly recommend the Eggs Benedict, Cauli-Rizo breakfast tacos, and the Million Dollar bacon is a MUST-HAVE!!) Finally, I must add that the bathrooms were perfectly clean and smelled wonderful. Seriously, that's bigger deal than some people acknowledge. I told the manager, Zach, how wonderful our experience was. Stop by-you'll love it! read more

Well worth the visit. Fantastic BLT with egg. Ice coffee was delicious. Looking forward to the next meal.

I will never step foot in there again!! We arrived and was seated by the bathroom even when the entire dining room was empty other than the booths. I requested a different seat. We ordered and the waitress appeared to be kind. We sat there for 30 minutes and never received food!!! We sat down and ordered before the other guests around us ever got there. But they all received foo!.... Let's just say I was very upset. I got up me and my son I tried to pay for the drinks and they said I was okay. Im thinking for a total of 35 to minutes total in that place. I don't know if we were racially profiled. I just don't get it!!!! Never even got an apology!! That's what took the cake!!! Wouldn't recommend for people of color!! read more

Just go to the other location in town. I've gone here before and tried it again. Every time it takes SO long. Last time our server never came back to check on us so we literally waited 30 minutes (even though it wasn't busy) and asked the host to give us our checks. Last time, we just ordered sides and it took up 40 minutes to get our food. The other location is so much better. Customer service is great, food is fast! Just save your time and money. read more

My first stop at new Columbia location, immediately west of Stadium Blvd's McDonalds. Same interior design, menu and food options of original Grindstone location but much less crowded. Great roofed patio area for spring, summer, fall. Wonderfully worded, descriptive menu, makes you want to order everything, even the calories listed. Bailey served me with a smile, offering suggestions. I ended up with yogurt Sunrise Bowl, topped with fresh fruit variety and granola. It also included huge blueberry muffin, moist freshly baked. Coffee carafe with some 4 cups @ $2.99 on the table ready to pour. Similar quality to Starbucks but 1/2 the price... read more

An hour wait with empty seats available. won't be going there anymore. Hostess was rude and not helpful.

Wait was very long, over 45 minutes for avocado toast. Multiple tables were seated after us and received food before us. I completely understand being busy, but not once did our server check on us or apologize for the long wait. A frustrating experience overall read more

Waited two hours for a table after being told 1-1.5 finally was seated and by that point I put my order in as soon as the waiter came to the table. My 14 month old was so hungry and tired after waiting over 30 min for our food I knew she wouldn't even eat it. I asked that it be packed to go instead and waited 30 more minutes. 3 hours later I left the restaurant without eating a bite of food and a very upset child. My advice, don't go here on weekends and doing bring your children. Worst restaurant experience of my life. read more

We went here frequently for lunch and have never had any problems with service until this week. We went in at 1:30. They didn't close until 2:30. We asked for a booth and she said no they didn't have any and they were all open, but she went on to say one area was closed. They were getting ready to close. I asked for the booth in the corner of the section that was open so my 84 year old mother wouldn't have to sit in the middle of the room as she has a tremor. She threw the menus on the table. my mother and I both ask for water with lemon and the waitress told me that lemon might not be available because it was too close to closing time to one... I ordered a 1/2 sandwich and soup. I asked that my half sandwich be toasted on bread which they've always done in the past, and she said OK. We ordered gingerbread donut holes and she said it was so close to closing time(its 1:30 they close at 2:30) they would just have to put them under the warmer and try to keep them warm rather than bring them hot like the menu states. I told her I expected hot not warm food otherwise I didn't want them. My sandwich was delivered and it was not toasted so I asked her to toasted again and she told me it was toasted so I asked her again to please take it back and have them toast it longer. I wanted to have color. Her manager carried it back out to me and told it had been toasted and threw the plate on the table. I asked her again to please toast it where it had some color and then the manager laid into me letting me know I needed to quit abusing her server. I looked at her dumbfounded, because we had not, I just asked a sandwich to be toasted and donut holes to be hot. I told the manager I didn't want the donut holes to cancel them if they were not able to cook an hour before closing time. She pointed to the door and told me to hit the road. By the way my 84 year old mother is in the middle of eating her lunch! If this is how your management acts I will not be back. read more

They take care of all their to-go orders before their customers. We waited for 75 minutes to get a table and over an hour to get our food. It may not be like this during the week but do not go on a weekend. read more

We were told we could not make online reservations, but people are coming in saying they had online reservations. Waited an hour , absolutely ridiculous. read more

Bad service. Was not acknowledged sitting at our table for 20 minutes. Not busy at all. WaitEd on others before us. We left. Not going back.

I ordered food for pick up and it gave me a time to pick up after I had already ordered and paid. I go inside to pick up my food and they tell me it will be half an hour before it's ready. I understand restaurants get busy but I just drove here to pick it up at the time they provided me after I had already paid online and then they tell me I have to wait half an hour. Not to mention the gentlemen up front told me it would be half an hour and then just walked away... like okay thanks? He should not work up front at the register because he can't even talk to people and explain things in a professional manner. I tried to ask him if I could cancel my order and get a refund and he said just said no and walked away... Which that would be fine if they hadn't given me a pick up time then changed it to 30 minutes later than what the pick up time had originally suggested after I had paid. I would not have ordered online if I would've known the original wait time was incorrect. read more