Toast'D Up Breakfast, Brunch and Events — Restaurant in Loganville

Food was terribly mid. Ordered salmon with a side of cheese eggs and a toast basket. They argued with my mom saying they did not have that available as a side and to choose something from the sides. I ordered the toast basket off of their sides from the menu that is on their website. They lied and said their menu has never been updated and they never had the toast basket as a side. But I guess they weren’t aware that they have never updated their menu to reflect what they currently offer. I told them to give me regular buttered toast instead, but I received a side of French toast with nasty soupy peach cobbler that has too much sugar. I don’t like French toast. the French toast is also soggy.

The salmon fillet dry, underseasoned, and overcooked. Publix has better pre-made salmon fillets in the frozen section. I also tried a little bit of their macaroni. It is overcooked, too salted, and has cheese sauce with a layer of cheese on the top. For the price point it was, it should’ve been a baked southern Mac and cheese dish. not kraft Mac and cheese with melted cheddar on top. Scrambled eggs and cheese I have are also over salted and overcooked with no cheese.

They also apparently automatically added a $17 gratuity for a takeout/to go order. You should neveeerrrrrr add automatic gratuity, let alone 20% gratuity, to a TAKE out order. Add a take out fee if you need, but forcing the customer to pay a tip for picking up food is crazy. I’ve went to actual high end restaurants that do reservations only and not even they add an automatic tip to bills. But their food is actually good so you would WANT to tip anyways. Maybe pay your staff better instead of forcing customers to pay an automatic gratuity. It’s not even a tip at that point because gratuity literally means extra payment given as a token of appreciation for the service provided. Charging people 20% tip when they’re picking up food is no longer a gratuity that point.

The bill was over $100 for three people. Insane price for food that doesn’t compare in flavor to something like Waffle House. Not surprising at all though, because the small menu they offer looks like every single other standard brunch menu from other brunch places in the area. Nothing on their menu was new or unique from other restaurants. It was all food that I’ve had before at other better brunch restaurants.

Also, music is WAAYYYY too loud in the building. It’s annoying and headache inducing. I was otp with my mom as she was ordering, and literally could not hear her bc the music in the background was so incredibly loud. And the out-of-date menu they currently have on their website as of 10/6/24 needs to be 1) updated with the correct food offerings, and 2) replaced with a PDF file because the current PNG file Is blurry and incredibly difficult to read. Also they need to hire someone to do a redesign of the online menu too (preferably a graphic designer). It’s too gaudy, has a very poor layout that’s not clear, and it’s very visually busy. It’s also hard to read if you have poor vision or trouble reading super small font with low...

This was a hard review to write because I was floating between 3 and 4 stars, but I gave it a few days and had to decide on 3. I'll start with the positives, the food was incredible, my drink was unique and strong, and the server and the chef were very sweet pleasant people. So if the food, service, and atmosphere were all top notch, why did I give 3 stars? Well, I hate to sound cheap but it all comes down to price. I just got back from rosemary beach where a LOT of rich folk live. Every place I ate there was very expensive, even just a bacon egg and cheese biscuit would be $10. However, I was shocked when I came back home to this little new restaurant that was even more expensive then than the fine dining I saw on vacation. Bacon egg and cheese biscuit with no sides is $12, $18 for chicken and waffles. Most mixed drinks range from $14-$18. Breakfast sampler is $40. My wife got an omelet for $13 and wanted to add the "hickory maple bacon" that was $6 extra, the bacon was the only disappointing food item, I've had better bacon at waffle house. So for two adults, we had two meals, and two cocktails, with a side of bacon, it was around $70. I didn't plan on putting that much on my card that day but I was fine with it. With everything I just said the food was so good and people so friendly I was leaning 4 stars. However, they waited until after we ate to inform us they charge an automatic 20% gratuity on all orders. This took the total on my card to $84. I had $12 in cash for the waitress I thought would have been fine, but they just decided to charge it on the card and not really give a choice for a cash tip. So in total, the food was great, and the people and atmosphere made me feel very welcomed. But for 2 adults, $85 for breakfast and drinks is just too steep for me to recommend to any of my friends or family. The only way the owner could justify these prices is if the owner of the building is charging more then $2000 a month, and if that's the case then I advise the owner to try to find somewhere new as soon as possible. This is a wonderful restaurant, but it will have to really reevaluate and rethink its prices if it wants to be anything more then a place to have special events. For $85 you could get far more for your money at other places, like First Watch or Le Gabrielle. If it was just a few dollars cheaper, or at least had an early bird special or lunch special, I could see myself coming back. But at its current price, I'd only come here for a special event. But then I start to think about paying that much money, there are so many other options. You could get Korean BBQ all you can eat for less then this. I don't know, there is a lot of potential but it's not worth the prices they are charging currently. I'm going to check up here and there to see if they have any...

Today, my daughter and I had brunch at Toast'D Up Breakfast, Brunch, and Events. When we walked in, we were greeted by a waitress who seated us and handed us our menus. She went over the menu items, and we placed our order for both dine-in and takeout.

One of the items I ordered, the Peach Cobbler French Toast, was not to my liking, so I requested that the leftovers not be bagged up. I told the waitress I didn’t like it but was willing to pay for it anyway. She was helpful and informative—until the bill arrived.

When the check came, it totaled a whopping $312 and some odd cents. We had ordered several meals, so I expected the bill to be a couple of hundred dollars, but something still didn’t seem right. That’s when the waitress casually mentioned, "Oh yeah, there’s an automatic 20% gratuity that we all split. That’s the policy."

I immediately asked, "When was someone going to tell the customers that? It would have been nice to mention it when we walked in or at least have a sign on the wall or table."

She then responded, "It’s on the menu."

I asked where, and she proceeded to point to some fine print at the bottom of the menu. At this point, I was upset. I told her that this was a deceptive practice and asked, "When you go to restaurants, do you read the entire menu line by line all the way down to the fine print like a contract?"

She admitted, "No, I don’t."

She apologized but her empathy was lost on me. She was aware of this policy and told the customers nothing. They are leaning on it being listed on the menu in writing so small that not many can see it.

I then used words like deceptive, extortion, bad business, and theft because that’s exactly what this felt like. I asked, "What if a customer didn’t have enough money for their extorted food? Would you just call the police?”

She stood there speechless.

The owner or manager, Asia, knows exactly what she’s doing by not clearly posting signs about this policy and by not instructing the staff to mention this whale of detail until after customers have finished their meal. The waitress knew exactly what I was upset about when the bill came. Apparently this is a point of contention that she knew of all too well.

To make matters worse, I had asked the waitress if they served real butter with their meals, and she happily said "Yes."Only to find out later that they don’t. Instead, they serve some amalgamation of margarine and oil that they are hesitant to even bring out to customers.

Ultimately, the waitress refunded me for the French Toast and offered a couple of food items to go for our troubles. That was not enough. Black-Owned Restaurants in Georgia have to do better and not rob their customers in the name of policy.

This whole experience felt like a back-alley stickup, and I will never eat...