Toast Review

I'll just summarize this by saying our experience was pretty much a catastrophe, and the lapses in service outweighed the food.

If you're familiar with Tartine, you know that there is limited space. Somehow Tartine pulls that off, but Toast was a complete clusterfrick. There was no discernible hostess, so we pretty much stood around waiting for some sort of directive or acknowledgment from an employee for about fifteen minutes before one waitress informed us that a table was being cleared for us. Almost immediately after it was cleared, two women walked up and helped themselves to the said table. So, we subsequently decided to seat ourselves at another table before we waited any longer

While we waited for one of the overworked waitresses to make it over to us and clear the table, my friend and I decided to make the experience more bearable by grabbing drinks to go from Flaming Torch. By the time we got back ten minutes later, we had been finally moved inside to a table.

Our waitress was working her arse off, but the food took nearly an hour to come (and that appeared to be the case for other tables as well), which is inexcusable for a breakfast joint. While it was busy, it was hardly packed to the brim. There was clearly a complete communication breakdown between the kitchen and the front of the house, and there didn't appear to be any sort of manager or chain of command.

The Aebelskivers were very tasty and a good starter, but our enthusiasm was dimmed by the hour wait. I had the hanger steak, which was generally delicious, and the lyonnaise potatoes were superb. Girlfriend had the brie and prosciutto baguette, which was very good (albeit also available at Tartine, minus the wait). My friend and his girlfriend both had crepes which were impressively large and looked quite good, if not for the large black hair sitting squarely on his crepe.

To make matters worse,I ordered a side of ratatouille that never arrived, except on the bill. Our hurried waitress was doing her best, but it was evident that the place was understaffed and whoever purported to be manager was in well over their head. Not until the end of the meal did I notice there was a nearly undetectable side board advertising specials, which we were never alerted to. Our waitress was apologetic and friendly, and comped my friend's crepe (and removed the ratatouille from the bill).

So eventually we paid and got out, after spending 2 hours at what should have been a casual, 45 minute breakfast stop. While some of the things we experienced were clearly anomalies, such as the hair, I could tell from looking around that other people were also getting weary of the wait for their food. The service was also extremely inconsistent- some people coming in 20 minute after us were being served 20 minutes before us, and so on. Likewise, most other customers also seemed to wander in and out waiting for an acknowledgment from a server which didn't come for ten minutes. I can't recommend going any time soon until these issues are cleared up. You would be better off sticking to Tartine or another brunch spot.