The Friendly Toast — Restaurant in Salem

I've been to multiple friendly toast locations and today decided to go to the one closest to home.

They opened at 7:59 which was very pleasant as most businesses open a few minutes later. Not the world changer but nice to notice.

Seated immediately and our server Kelsey was quick. She gave us the suggestion of the pumpkin pancakes and later suggested the tumeric honey hot sauce.

Coffee was fresh and hot. We ordered Tots, egg rolls and the pancakes.

The pancakes were perfection. The perfect blend of texture and flavor. The maple syrup and pumpkin butter was like the magic of fall in each bite. Definitely order these.

The tota were phenomenal as always. Perfectly crisp and cheesy. The onion topper was sweet and punchy. We added the honey tumeric hot sauce and it's a great complement. The sauce is more watery than I would have guessed so be careful and maybe not shake it. It's got a great flavor. The color might throw you but it's worth it. A bit of hot with a smooth balanced flavor. It was surprisingly great.

The egg rolls came perfect and were plated great as an indication of the perfect flavor. These are always on my list and always will be. One of my favorite simple dishes.

This place was super crowded yet so maybe the 8am arrival...

The restaurant theme was very cute and creative but that’s just about it. My waitress was very grumpy and repeatedly stopped in the middle of doing something to chit chat with other employees. when the manager came over to just check up, she was right there behind her making it uncomfortable to ask for a new waiter. The apple juice tasted like toilet water, i took one sip before trying not to spit it out all over the table and i didn’t touch it after that, the eggs were barely scrambled and ice cold. I got the classic breakfast that comes with a toast, eggs, a meat, and home fries. I ordered an english muffin and I can promise you that it taste nothing like one, the homefries were just sad, and i’m pretty sure the bacon was turkey bacon. I really wish I had something positive to say about this restaurant but there really isn’t anything besides it was nicely decorated, I would definitely recommend a different near by restaurant/ breakfast diner. It was not worth the price $42 dollars for 2 people. I don’t know everyone’s situation and I wouldn’t make fun of anybody but I also think my waitress could dress more appropriately for work rather than wearing a christmas shirt that...

Decent tasting food in small portions, good service, very cool atmosphere, and extremely expensive compared to most other breakfast places in the area. I'm talking $17 base price for an omelet, and $14 for the classic eggs/toast/potatoes/meat combo. Bloody mary was $13 which is OK pricewise.

Also they have counter service so you can skip waiting in line.

I actually changed my order during ordering because the server was trying to convince me to order a simple customization (add tomatoes and spinach to an irish benny) as a benny w/ a side of corned beef hash, which would have ballooned an already expensive $17 benny to over $24!

As I ate and the manager publicly gave some waiters a pep talk next to me about the need to "upsell! upsell!" it made me realize why the server pushed me to order in a certain way. That's irritating.

This place could have been four stars but the small portions and extremely high prices coupled w/ the aggressive upselling...