First Watch

I always had a great experience eating here since its opened, they are amazing with their gluten free options! I usually get the french toast and million dollar potatoes (made gluten free!). And its always delicious ☺️

I cannot express how frustrating and disappointing my experience was at First Watch due to their absolutely useless “allergen menu.” Let me be clear: this is not an actual allergen-friendly menu, nor is it in any way helpful for someone who has food allergies or intolerances. It’s a list. A static, unhelpful list that does absolutely nothing to help diners navigate their options safely. On the back of their menu, there’s a QR code that supposedly provides allergen information. What it actually does is take you to a webpage that simply shows which menu items contain which allergens. No interactivity. No guidance on how to modify a dish to make it safe. No customization options. Just a glorified spreadsheet of disappointment. In the restaurant, their in-house “allergen menu” is no better—it’s just a paper version of the same ridiculous list. No suggestions, no modifications, nothing labeled as gluten-free except for two breakfast bowls. Two. That’s it. And if you have celiac disease like I do, good luck figuring out what can actually be made safe for you without having to interrogate the staff and hope they can give you an accurate answer. What makes this infuriating is that before First Watch opened in my city, I had looked at their online menu, and they had tons of items listed as gluten-free. My husband and stepdaughter went opening weekend, and he came home raving about how many gluten-free options they had, so we were beyond excited to finally go together. It took two weeks of trying just to get a table because of the overwhelming hype. We finally got seated after an hour-long wait the second weekend, only for me to discover that deciphering their allergen information requires the skills of a brain surgeon. I shouldn’t have to reverse-engineer a menu just to figure out what’s safe to eat. First Watch could learn a lot from Red Robin, a chain that actually cares about its allergen-sensitive customers. Red Robin’s allergen menu is interactive, allowing you to remove allergens and see what modifications can be made in real time. They make it easy. First Watch makes it impossible. For a place that prides itself on being “community-focused,” they certainly don’t care about the allergen-sensitive members of their community. Do better, First Watch. This is unacceptable.