There's a lot to like. In general the food is better than it was as the Broadway Diner. Toast is breakfast and lunch only; closes at 3. Ingredients tend to be fresh. Menu is more focused, less selection than typical diners, which helps improve quality. Service is usually good to excellent; occasional new business glitches. Management is normally very attentive and helpful; checks tables. I could see upgrading my overall rating to five stars at some point.
The food: favorites are the onion soup ($5), chili ($6:50), California scramble ($11), Traditional Cabb salad ($10), Greek Salad ($10), buttermilk pancakes ($8, $6 for a short stack), the BLT ($9). Smoked salmon eggs Benedict ($12). If your a salad and seafood person; one stand out item is the fresh blackened tuna salad; really nice combo of flavors with a excellent dressing ($15). The fresh made corned beef is excellent (sometime not served hot enough) Fan of their coffee ($2.50), seems to have improved since their opening. Love the carrot cake pancakes. Note; their bread supplier is excellent. Yes, the toast is great at Toast.
Disappointments are; Mediterranean Wrap ($10) not enough hummus; dry as a bone; to my surprise, the "homemade" veggie burger ($11) is a bore, bland, bready texture. Yes, there is such a thing as excellent veggie burgers. (Yikes the frozen Costco veggie burgers I make at home are far better). Mexican salad is just ok ($12).
Amazing job on completely gutting and redoing the old Broadway Diner. They are clearly working on a few details on the outside, but my hat is off the the owner for keeping the character of the Red Bank icon and improving its facilities: thank you. Expanded counter. Much better bathrooms. Looks great. Keeping the big panoramic windows. Tasteful choices and keeping the tile fish wall design, that I am guessing is original 1948. One quibble; place can be loud acoustically. Thumbs up for not having a TV hanging above the counter. Bottom line; fun to be here.
What I miss about the Broadway diner? Lower prices; but they were the best bargain in Monmouth County in my view. The excellent veteran service team. The management at Toast seems to prefer a younger, hipster staff. I miss having a 24 hour diner, I see a lot people still walking up to the doors at night looking for the diner. But only having 2 single-seat restrooms I do not miss.
I prefer this site to the Asbury Park Toast location; where I have had some terrible service experiences (I avoid posting poor reviews). The food is the same.
Congratulations to the Toast team for such a successful opening. The Resturant business is hard and unforgiving. I will...
Read moreI visited Toast on December 1st with my mother and my two brothers as a small little goodbye before going back to school post thanksgiving break. Toast is close to where I live so it seemed like a great place to go, as it was quite easy to commute to. Walking into the place, it was crowded, expected at noon. Pleasant conversation of said crowd filled my ears quickly, making it a nice scene to sit down in. I had expected a wait, yet staff was very eager to assist my family, and got us sat down very quickly. Maybe it was just luck of the draw, but the speed of the staff was quite excellent. Once sat down, we received our water hastily, and our waitress, whom I regret to not get her name, was super nice and very “on it” with her service. I ordered the “Challah French Toast,” my two brothers got fried chicken sandwiches, and my mom got a breakfast sandwich. It did not take too long for our food to come out, and it was absolutely nothing short of amazing. The french toast itself had almost perfect consistency, with slight burns on the edges, but no taste that syrup couldn't mask, so honestly, no complaints. My entire family too was verbal about how good their food was. Overall a great experience with no real complaints. Be sure to visit if you ever get the opportunity, the place is priced quite fairly and especially for...
Read moreWent here for brunch with a party of 5. The wait was twice as long as quoted but not terrible. Made me think that the place was great.
We were sat and then basically ignored. Two other tables were sat after us, one on each side, and I had to catch the waitress leaving one with their full order to get her to take ours. Never once checked on a drink refill the entire meal.
Food was okay but not great and had some high and low points. I got the Cuban sandwich which was made by a person who had heard of Miami but had never been. It wasn't pressed, the pork was so dry it was leather, and the bread was burned. Pretty sure someone forgot it in the broiler.
The pancakes someone got and the disco fries were both very good. I'd get those again.
Had to wait forever for a check, then again to get it picked up. Honestly the worst service I've experienced in the area.
Overall, I don't like to judge a place based on one server, so I'd try it again to see if the service was just her, and there were some very good things on the menu, but next time I'll stick to more traditional diner food. That seemed to be their sweet spot vs more "exotic" fare.
P.S. it feels weird calling a...
Read more