Critic's Review
I've been to the First Watch in Boca; a place that you can barely get in on weekends. When I got in on a weekday, I was wholly unimpressed.
I used to like the Sea Ranch diner at this location; an old place with outdated decor and retro prices. But they're gone and now First Watch is open in it's place.
On a beautiful June day I was surprised to see nobody eating outside. If you've never been here before they have a strange mural that's painted like a blue sky, creating an interesting "view" in the courtyard. I opted to eat inside.
Surprisingly dead; it is off-season but I expected the new place to be more crowded at 1:30pm. The first thing you notice is that the decor is certainly improved; kind of a typical breakfast place that's nicer than the decor in Boca for certain.
I asked if they serve breakfast until close; and they do, so I ordered coffee and checked out the menu. One big criticism of this operation is that their website menu doesn't have descriptions for some of their specialty items."Market Hash" for $9.99 doesn't tell me anything I need to know about it. They have a special blackboard; an overambitious crepe and an ill-conceived salad with protein and fruit.
I'd gotten an omelet in Boca and it was very short on ingredients, so I decided to go with the Classic Breakfast. I don't go out to breakfast much anymore and this is my "usual"; 2 eggs over easy and link sausage. It comes with a buttered english muffin and potatoes. While I was deciding my coffee arrived; I planted the empty creamer and roll-up wrapper at the end of the table; this isn't the kind of place where they pick up such things as it was still there when i finished eating. I like the whole pot idea; there's nothing more annoying than servers randomly "topping off" coffee and ruining the cream ratio.
Music isn't bad, "Satellite", Shawn Colvin and "Morning is my destination" were among the recognizable tunes. My server brought over my eggs and I was surprised in more ways than one.
As you can see, the eggs were completely incompetently prepared; not over-easy and a yolk was broken and cooked hard. This is one of my pet peeves; An egg is 12 cents; when you break a yolk throw it out and make another. It's not a porterhouse steak. Also, these where steamed by putting a top on the pan rather than turned; "over easy" requires that you turn the eggs over.
They have the good sausages, but they were not freshly cooked. You can tell when sausages are cooked and then reheated, because they lose all of the fresh, fatty taste that makes sausages so good.
The potatoes were tasty, but I also expected something fresher; these were the same kind of potatoes you get an any diner; sitting on the grill all morning, overcooked with onions so well done that they lose their influence. The muffin: Not Thomas'; enough said.
Looking at this breakfast and the one I had in Boca, I have to say that this place simply doesn't deliver on their tagline. It's all a lot of hype; The food I got at the Sea Ranch diner was better for $2 less. This is a corporate store (ie not a franchise); so you can't blame it on a bad franchisee.
At least the place looks nicer.