Is First Watch a good company to work for?

First Watch has an overall rating of 3.7 out of 5, based on over 1,926 reviews left anonymously by employees. This rating has decreased by 3% over the last 12 months. 63% of employees would recommend working at First Watch to a friend and 61% have a positive outlook for the business. The best reviews about First Watch have been left by employees working as Director of Operations , Black Apron and Cafe Manager .

Does First Watch pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, First Watch employees rate their compensation and benefits as 3.2 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at First Watch. This rating has decreased by 6% over the last 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at First Watch?

63% of First Watch employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated First Watch 3.7 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.5 for culture and values and 3.4 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at First Watch?

Server (632) , Server/Waiter (294) , Operations Manager (124) , General Manager (70) , Line Cook (65) , Busser/Runner (46) , Server/Waitress (36) , Manager (34) , Director of Operations (30) , Dishwasher (27) , Cook (26) , Waitress (21) , Food Server (18) , Black Apron (16) , Busser (15)

What are the pros of working at First Watch according to real employee reviews?

"Money is Good and consistent." ((in 182 reviews)); "The pay is good and there's a program that pays for 20% of your college tuition." ((in 92 reviews)); "great food and people to work with were awesome" ((in 64 reviews)); "I loved my coworkers and the hours are great!" ((in 59 reviews)); "Great product and a culture I can be proud to represent." ((in 53 reviews))

What are the cons of working at First Watch according to real employee reviews?

"poor management and had managers try to make job difficult" ((in 141 reviews)); "Managers have a lot of responsibility and spend most of their time in the kitchen rather than being up front dealing with customers." ((in 74 reviews)); "long hours (serving shift is open to close because it is breakfast/lunch only)" ((in 40 reviews)); "Upper management is so completely out of touch it's almost as if they have never worked in a restaurant (spoiler: most of them haven't)" ((in 28 reviews)); "Lots of cliques and Favoritism." ((in 25 reviews))

What are the top reviewed First Watch locations?

Tampa , Orlando , Sarasota , Jacksonville , Raleigh , Louisville , Columbus , Houston , Cincinnati , Kansas City , Phoenix , Charlotte , Dallas , San Antonio , Atlanta , Saint Louis , Austin , Knoxville , Bradenton , Lexington-Fayette , Scottsdale , Naples , Tucson , College Station , Miami , Richmond , Fort Worth , Katy , Nashville , Overland Park

First Watch reviews

3.7

63% would recommend to a friend

(1,898 total reviews)

Chris Tomasso

69% approve of CEO

61% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

3.9

Diversity & inclusion

3.7

Work/Life balance

3.5

Culture & values

3.4

Career opportunities

3.2

Senior management

3.2

Compensation and benefits

First Watch has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 1,898 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The First Watch employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Restaurants & Food Service industry (3.4 stars).

Ratings by demographic groups

Race / Ethnicity

Gender

Sexual orientation

Disability

Parent or family caregiver

Veteran status

Reviews by job title

2K reviews

4.0

Apr 17, 2026

Great staff. Horrible management

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

The teammates are amazing. I can’t say anything bad about 90% of the staff they lead a good culture as long as it is followed and created by the manager.

Cons

Managers work way over the pay. The salary of a OM or GM is not worth the amount of work and stress put into it. I’ve been in the business 20 years and multiple roles. I can honestly say that I have never worked as many hours after close and on my “days off” the “you first culture” definitely does not apply to salary staff. And don’t ever think you’re not expendable.

First Watch Response

3mo

Thanks for the feedback. We are happy to hear waht a great team you had, but it is also important for us to understand your concerns. We pride ourselves on our “You First” culture and are so disappointed to hear that you felt that way. We'd love to learn more about any experience that led you to feel like we don’t care for our employees., and it sounds like we really dropped the ball somewhere. Would you mind reaching out to us by calling our anonymous employee hotline at 844-484-8963 with more information? Thanks again, and we hope to hear from you soon.

4.0

Apr 8, 2026

Consistent pay and easy workload, but veteran bias exists

Server

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Pretty consistent pay, easy workload, quick turnaround with guests. Management is consistently nice.

Cons

A pretty significant disparity with veteran servers. They make much better money and have better shifts/sections because they get to choose. Decent program set up but bad scenario for new servers.

First Watch Response

3mo

Thanks so much for the great review! We’re happy to hear that you appreciated the pay, customers, and management! If you would call our anonymous employee hotline at 844-484-8963, we'd like to follow up and better understand and address your concerns. Any feedback helps us to re-evaluate our approach, and we're grateful for yours.

3.0

Mar 31, 2026

Daytime shifts with decent tips, but poor management

Server

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

daytime shift only, decent tips on weekends

Cons

management overhired and then slowly stopped scheduling me, I confronted them multiple times until i finally quit.

First Watch Response

3mo

We appreciate your feedback here. While we're glad you enjoy the daytime-only hours, we’re disappointed to hear your experience with the management team wasn’t a positive one. If you wouldn't mind calling our anonymous employee hotline at 844-484-8963, we'd love to follow up and better understand and address your concerns where possible. Your detailed feedback will help the leadership team work to improve the experience of each employee.

Viewing 34 - 36 of 1,898 Reviews

Jobs at First Watch

Middleburg Heights, OH

First Watch

First Watch reviews

Ratings by category

Ratings by demographic groups

Reviews by job title

Great staff. Horrible management

Consistent pay and easy workload, but veteran bias exists

Daytime shifts with decent tips, but poor management

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