First Watch

One of the few types of restaurants my entire family can agree on is breakfast places.  My kids like breakfast food and so do hubby and I. So of course, with a new place right by our house, we had to give it a go.  It is a chain, but hey, it’s new, and sometimes you just take what you can get you know?

So it was Sunday, pre-church letting out time, and we walked in without waiting more than a couple of minutes (we even got one of the 3-4 tables outside because, shocker, it was FREEZING inside the place). I will say, the staff has been well trained and are extremely friendly and professional.  Both the host and our server were on top of exactly what was going on. 

So, to be honest, my favorite, and standard, breakfast fare is classic bacon and eggs, potatoes and toast—and of course they offer that here but the menu seems to focus more heavily on variations of omelets and other variations on the egg theme.  In fact, there were so many other options that both hubby and I varied from our usual and got something different. I really liked the heavy amount of avocado making an appearance on the menu (sandwich places, you will usually be written off by me if there is no avocado anywhere on the menu) and I went with something featuring it, the “chickichanga” ($8 ish).  It was basically a breakfast burrito that is supposedly filled with chicken, chorizo, whipped eggs, two kinds of cheese, onions, green chilies and avocado.  There was a substantial amount of chicken, and avocado, and even cheese—but as far as the rest of the ingredients—especially the egg—it was hard to find much of it. It tasted pretty good  (I mean, I like chicken, avocado and cheese) but for breakfast, I was looking for something a little more eggy.  I had the “vera cruz” sauce on the side (I have my doubts about sauces like this at a breakfast place), but it actually wasn’t bad.  It had a nice tangy tomato base and added a bit of juiciness that you needed (there was also some sour cream that helped).  I was glad I didn’t get it on top though, because it would have made the tortilla soggy.  If I had it again (and not sure whether I would), I would certainly get it on the side. Oh, the potatoes on the plate? Complete filler in my opinion.  They were cubed and had no discernible crispy bits, which is what I want in a breakfast potato.  I had one or two and stopped eating them.  Definite room for improvement here.  There was also a little bowl of fruit on the side of a couple of our dishes.  It was fine but the thing that freaked me out was that they were all arranged with the exact same fruit in the exact same way in all of them.  How do they do that?  (I have visions of a fruit assembly line where each person has responsibility for their pieces of fruit.)

Hubby had a special that was basically biscuits and gravy with 2 eggs cooked to order and a hunk of sausage link on top.  The individual ingredients weren’t bad—the eggs were cooked exactly how they should be and the biscuits had a nice crispy buttery texture and flavor—but the sausage was dry and tough and the gravy was just okay (an example of why I don’t get gravy very often—nothing special here).  You’d be better off with just some eggs and biscuits and some meat on the side.

Honestly, I would say the meat is one of the weak links here (no pun intended).  The kids had bacon with their kids meals (one had eggs and bacon, the other a chocolate chip pancake, all $4.49) and while they seemed fine with it, I just couldn’t get much flavor from it.  Maybe I am becoming jaded with all the wonderful bacon options out there, but this was weak.  And not really crisp at all.

The orange juice was good—tasted fresh and pulpy (much to my son’s chagrin) and they leave a pot of coffee on the table which made hubby happy. And like I said, the staff was very friendly and professional.  It was breakfast, and it was ok.  I am sure at some point I will end up here again, but can’t say I will be rushing back anytime soon.

First Watch

3309 East 86^th Street

Indy 46240

317/643-9792

www.firstwatch.com