Toast Oxted — Restaurant in Tandridge

On first sight, ToAsT is a café in Oxted, Britain's 20th wealthiest town, situated in a sweet, old-timbered tourist-trap high street. The menu was "quirky" and used typewriter font with odD cAp shiFts meaning I had to check the prices as they were cunningly displayed as 7.2 and 8.5 and 12 rather than in an easily legible format which we all know and use, such as £7.20, £8.50 and £12.00 - the last of these prices referring to the meat-heavy "full English".

Two women running the café when we were there were seemingly opposites. We were greeted warmly by a server who was professional and helpful. The second lady wasn't impressed with my double-checking the prices, and acted from then on as if merely addressing us was physically painful, or in some way beyond reason or taste.

Portions looked generally medium to small for the price, and there were no decent vegetarian options aside from cheese, which oddly enough for a place called ToasT didn't come on toast. In fact, that was the enquiry which seemed to cause mild panic, even despair of some kind to appear on the face of our server. So we quickly ordered the soup of the day, which was tomato, and which came with two thin slices of bread.

The soup, full of tomato skins, had no redeeming features after the initial taste of herbs. I had asked whether this soup used the same cumin-drizzled tomatoes as advertised elsewhere in the menu, and whilst she fought to keep her 'smile' in place, I'd got an affirmative from our trusty server, but I couldn't taste anything apart from oregano. Not even basil.

My two slices of sourdough were quite dry, one slice on the plate largely unbuttered, covered up by the more buttered one. Slightly dreading to request more butter, I requested more butter. This significantly improved the meal, which nonetheless was difficult to eat because, served in two enamel milk pans with large rusty dents on the insides (presumably fashionable but made me worry about hygiene) the soup stubbornly remained too hot to eat for about 10 minutes. We took to energetically stirring the soup and blowing it. I would have liked more bread, as I was quite hungry, but I wasn't sure of the price, and by the sarcasm displayed by our attendant, I feared to make any such request.

The food had its revenge two hours later, as the soup made a hasty exit, caught just-in-time to avoid a ruined day.

In a nutshell, toAst is a stab at being Shoreditch hip in a small rich commuter town outside the M25, and sadly, despite some glowing yummy mummy reviews, it's not more than a stab. OK for a quick coffee, possibly a nice place to ignore your child and talk about Waitrose, most of the food I would avoid. Despite our cheerful greeting, it was a shame about the disparaging, poor service from server 2, who would perhaps be more suited to work in hygiene, or...

Isn’t it sad when a favourite foody place goes dramatically down, and without any warning? What happened to the wonderful, vibrant, atmospheric, cosy place Toast in Oxted used to be? Where did the 4-page long menus go? What happened to the 10 varieties of cakes displayed at the counter? What happened to the scrubbed to the “bone” clean benches and tables? To the well-maintained facilities? Toast used to be my and my family’s favourite place for breakfast, lunch or afternoon coffee/tea. Unfortunately, at the last week’s visit the first thing that struck me was the dirt… than the lack of clientele (it used to be packed for lunches)… and than the baby age of the waitresses - no adults managers present! And than - the state of the furniture - dirty tables, sunken broken sofas, lower dirty lightening. But the absolute winner was the new menu - of which there were ONLY 3 items for lunch - a chicken burger, a salad, and some unrecognisable pork dish. Gone was the international cuisine, the richness of meal choices and varieties of tastes, of savory and sweet dishes. A few toasted sandwiches listed under “Smaller dishes” added to the lack of imagination - at the exuberant price of £40 for 2 sandwiches and a small portion of sweet potatoes. But wait, there is more! Once we made our severely limited choice for food, the waitress comes back and says both of our dishes have ran out. We should choose something else…out of one remaining option! And more - we were kicked out at 2:15pm “because they were closing”! Closing? It used to be opened for afternoon tea and coffee until 4:30-5pm! How well the balance of quality of food and service against the price have been thought out by the new owners: when food quality goes down, up goes the price. No wonder we were the only two clients at 1:30pm lunch time there! Such a shame! Bring back the previous creative management team and staff, and support them, so they revive this used-to-be lovely place back to its unique and energetic quality of...

Hands down the best brekkie ever!!

Moved to the area a year ago and have tried on a few weekends to get in but tended to always be full…this is no bad thing as it shows how amazing they are. Just bad for us given we couldn’t get in :) Today we cancelled our sons footie club and opted to head down for opening! Lurking at the door before they opened, friendly staff advised when they’d be open. When doors opened they were super warm and we were the first in. Lovely subtle festive decor, nice layout and child friendly! We ordered quickly and food came out quickly…as did all the tables around us!

Now on to brekkie! Pancakes, maple syrup and bacon for our son (Delish!), Turkish eggs for my hubby which looked amazing and he said was delish, I had no chance sharing as he didn’t want to! I don’t blame him as there was no way I was sharing mine! Avocado slice brekkie which was avocado smash with a hint of chilli and feta, then I opted for a poached egg and bacon on the side…. WOW!! Truly I’ll be thinking of that brekkie for days!

Only problem now is weighing up standing on the side lines watching our son play footie every Saturday….OR an amazing brekkie at Toast!! I know what has my vote!! 🤣

Hope to be back soon!!

Thank you to the super friendly, warm and accommodating staff - icing on the cake!

(My rubbish photos don’t do it justice,...