Toasted — Restaurant in Calabash

9-8-24 We had came to this restaurant thinking we were about to be treated well and have some good food along with a good time. As a soon as we had walked in we were already feeling unwelcome to the place. The “owner” of the restaurant had came up to us with a funny attitude that we had picked up from the start and we tried to deal with. He then was bothered at the fact that it was 20 of us that had to be seated and he stated that I had said 16, I had already called to make a reservation and when I was counting how many were going the lady on the phone kept rushing me asking me how many people was it going to be, so I gave an estimate from 16-20 people. He then said we all 20 had to fit in the table and chairs he had provided but all of us 20 didn’t fit so we had people sitting on corners of the tables with chairs because those were the only available spots for anyone to fit, he then said a comment saying you can’t sit on the corner of this table this is not McDonald’s. Then he started to complain to us that he couldn’t give us more space because his “regular” customers were going to be there soon so we decided to get up and leave and like any family they are going to stand their ground and defend themselves he started to argue with my dad as we had already decided to leave he then kept following us outside telling us things. To begin with if you have a restaurant and you are so worried about “regular” customers then just make it a private restaurant. Secondly it might’ve not been McDonald’s, but McDonald’s by far beats you in service by the way the owner acted towards us he acted like the ones that be taking orders upfront on the Cash registers. Thirdly some of my family members had asked if they could grab an alcohol drink and he said no because it was Sunday and had to wait till 12 yet he had 4 people at the bar drinking alcohol ??? And he claimed he won’t racial profiling us but made this whole scene how were we suppose to feel according to him? We had 2 marine family members with us that day 1 is infantry active and the other is a mechanic active and this is the way he treated us, our marines fight for goofballs like this ? If I could go negative stars on this I would. I will say his aggressive attitude was going to get fixed if the right people won’t stopping us he is not superior in no way to treat anyone how...

My boyfriend and I just found this place a few weeks ago and we were so excited to try it again. We bragged about it last night to our friends and family and told them they had to try it. We had a long wait the first time we were there but the food was so worth it so we weren’t worried when it took 45 min to seat us. We played games on the phone at the table while we waited, very excited about breakfast. We had gotten a beer and a tea and asked the waitress about another beer. An hour in, we hadn’t received the beer. Both of our drinks had been empty for 30 min at this point and we knew our waitress was doing the best she could and was extremely busy and very sweet. The manager brings the beer over and my boyfriend joked “Hey I’ve been looking for that for about 30 min!” expecting the manager to laugh back. Instead the manager said it had only been 7 min and they were extremely busy. We thought the remark was strange and ignored it thinking maybe he was confusing us for a different table since it had been way longer than 7 min. He asked my boyfriend if he still wanted the beer and he smiled saying yes thinking the manager was now joking back with him. The manager held the beer up high and said again “Do you still want the beer?” taunting my boyfriend who was still smiling but now also looked confused. When the waitress came back, we told her what happened and she apologized. She spoke to the manager a few feet from us and he loudly said “Well he can go then”. Our waitress looked so embarrassed because she knew I’d heard him and again apologized profusely. We told her she was not the issue at all and we were very pleased with her service and she was super sweet but that we would just take the bill. At this point, it had been two hours with no breakfast, one beer and one tea and a rude manager for no reason. We had looked forward to going back since the last time we came. We were incredibly disappointed since we had thought finding a place like that was a gold mine. We hope the manager was just having an off day because menus like that and the quality of the food and drinks are hard to find. We felt bad for our waitress and left her a tip since it had nothing to do with her. We hope her tables and other customers are not treated like that...

I went to Toasted for brunch after they first opened after church and it was fine but nothing to write home about other than the FANTASTIC FLIGHT OF MIMOSAS!!! That was more than fine for a little day drinking!!!

I went recently for an early dinner and the food was OUTSTANDING!!! I had the crab cakes! Crab Cakes $ 36, Two 4oz Crab Cakes served with Risotto of the Day and Apple Chipotle Slaw. Topped with Homemade Pimento Cheese. There were REAL LUMPS in the crab cakes and barely any - or maybe NO? - breading inside. The risotto was perfectly done! I don’t normally like pimento cheese but theirs was yummy!

Everyone else at the table was equally impressed by their meal. Two enjoyed prime rib. Three raved about their fresh fish specials.

We had a bit of a discussion about the Béarnaise sauce. I ordered it for my crab cake to be served on the side. I did not like it although the owner hyped it. I felt it was way too watery.

I look forward to going there again and trying other dishes.

The service was PERFECT! The wait staff was friendly but professional. Any questions we had that she could not answer she asked about and came back with an answer. The owner was just a bit too chatty but a really nice guy. He certainly had enthusiasm and judging by his dinner menu I think he is quite talented.

The price points are a bit high and I object to that only because the atmosphere is … well … way below par. Hard to describe the dining room but it says nothing about fine dining. In particular the bathroom was creepy - not necessarily dirty but needed a deep cleaning and painting. I didn’t go in the bar area.

I think as the owner experiences more success with his evening dining the atmosphere will improve. Right now the food is fantastic so if I were you, I’d go and enjoy it!

I think he needs to update his website as dinner menu is not on there? Elsewhere I found screen shots of the dinner...