For those of you who don’t know, the old Broadway Diner on Monmouth Street in Red Bank closed a year or two ago. The latest occupant of that space is Toast, serving breakfast and lunch only, this is their 3rd location, the first being in Asbury Park, 2nd Morristown and now Red Bank.
Long story short, I was under impressed. I’m not sure why it seems everything “breakfast only” place I visit tried to reinvent the wheel. I guess adding avocado slices to an omelette, served by a guy with a cool hair cut and full length beard makes your egg’s hipster. I don’t know call me old fashioned, give me a good cup of coffee, some eggs and sausage (good homefries when I could have them) white toast soaked in butter and leave me to dip my butter soaked toast in my yolks. Oh and wear a friggin hair net already!?!?! What happened to that? Is there a hipster exemption to hair nets?
The food wasn’t bad by any means, I just think being raised in Jersey breakfast to me should be served by a ginger waitress named Elizabeth but called Betty, the coffee is Lacas and the owner/manager George, Manny, Gus or Nick hands you laminated menu whose pages are stuck from the previous customers syrup spill. Oh and that funny looking box at the end of the table above the sugar, salt pepper and ketchup actually plays music. Meatloaf is more than just the Sunday special!!!
Here is my main criticism of the place. There was a 20 minute wait when we went on Sunday, seems to be the norm for this place. the routinely clear out the lobby of people waiting; “Excuse me, we need to keep this area open for servers and patrons to get by, you need to wait outside if you are waiting for a table.” There is ample room outside, with a few benches for waiting. But it was 37 out Sunday morning…if you are going to force people outside to wait, have some patio heaters or something more hospitable then park benches in the shade when it’s freezing out.
That and I really don’t know how my “make your own burger” which was a burger, pork roll egg and cheese (no bread no potatoes, although they served me sweet potato fries anyway) was $16.95.
Nope, the “build a burger” starts at 8.99 (I believe I’m sure I could look it up online but my thumb is feeling lazy) then it’s ala’ carte for the additional items. So the pork roll, egg and cheese were all additional equaling $8.00 I assume. Again I didn’t ask for the potato’s so I assume they were included.
(FYI Woody’s has a tomahawk ribe eye on the menu, and I just had this baby at Fernandes for $55. The best bargain if you ask me)
The place looks pretty nice, I’ll give it that. As to food, I’ll still vouch for both the corned beef hash and coffee at Toast’s AP location - though the coffee is the only thing I’ve had in the RB incarnation. The counter’s a good spot to stop for a mug to take a break from the cold.
NotJR–
I was cringing as I opened this thread, afraid that you’d somehow be raving about Toast, which, imo, is highly overrated. Truth is, their first spot is in Montclair. When they opened on the western end of Bloomfield Avenue, there wasn’t much on that end of town (across from Whole Foods), and people on that end of the world were happy to avoid Church Street in order to get breakfast. Lines were (and still are) out the door on weekends. I went, and I’m sorry–I just. Don’t. Get. It. It’s just nothing special (although I do remember that the coffee was very good). Now they’re open in AP, and I have absolutely no need to go–most especially with The Buttered Biscuit right up the road in Bradley Beach. Have you tried TBB yet? If not, go. I love the food (bkfst and lunch only), I love the vibe, and I love the coffee. And I don’t just feel like I’m in a place that’s not as good as a good local diner. ETA: MZ, if you like cb hash, TBB’s is fantastic…as are those namesake biscuits.
I do indeed know the Biscuit, Curlz, as well as their corned beef hash. I’ll readily agree that it’s a better overall breakfast spot than the AP Toast. Nevertheless, if I’m going to get tuxed-up and give out the little gold statue for Best CBH, the card in the envelope is going to bear the name “Toast”. Though neither restaurant sins by resorting to opening cans for their products, the Toast version is significantly meatier - both more and bigger chunks of pickled meat goodness - and a tad more aggressively spiced.
We actually put this to a (very subjective and admittedly unscientific) test late last spring - hitting both joints in a single outing. The Biscuit even got the advantage of being the first stop. In retrospect, that seems like a really fun morning", and would recommend it. I will warn, however, that after two plates of hash, four poached eggs, a biscuit, and a pot of coffee, the walk back to Bradley from AP is slow going.
Total aside, @CurlzNJ, but this Site has a cool feature for calling the attention of others to a post. Just type an “at” sign before the screen name when mentioning someone (which reminds me, we need to get @joonjoon 's thought on the Long Branch thread.
Well as you have read, I was NOT impressed with Toast. I have not been to TBB and I doubt I will make the trip anytime soon. I’m doing a very low carb diet, and while I haven’t had many problems adjusting to the “low carb” lifestyle, I will admit breakfast is the worst meal for me to adhere to low carb. I LOVE home fried potatoes, I LOVE english muffins, I LOVE corned beef hash, I LOVE a good side of pancakes.
Low carb breakfasts for me are like the old joke about Chinese food, once you eat it an hour later you are hungry again. I’ve literally had a 6 egg & cheese omelette trying to satisfy myself…an hour later it was like I didn’t even eat. lol I HATE breakfast without carbs, and because of which I don’t want to torture myself going to good breakfast places where I cannot indulge. (which is why I pretty much got a breakfast burger at Toast)
Also thank you for clarifying, I thought APP was their first location.
@MZ Thanks for the reminder about that feature! I can’t believe you had 2 cbh breakfasts on the same day–I wish I had the capacity to have adventures like that!
@NotJrvedivici I’ll offer up a suggestion for a low carb breakfast that will stay with you…fill the omelette with veggies. Seriously. I generally eat low carb mostly b/c I find that when I eat too many carbs I’m uncomfortably full vs. just full (and it’s not a gluten allergy–go figure), but when I load up my eggs w/spinach, kale, asparagus, mushrooms, etc, I find that bkfst sticks with me longer than if I don’t. Give it a shot! And/or try having 2 Dr. Praeger’s spinach or kale or other veg ‘pancakes’ alongside the protein.
@NotJrvedivici let me know about woodys. Maybe I’ll cruise over one night soon if you want to test them out.
Has anyone tried breakfast at notb? It’s pretty hearty…to put it lightly. It’s obviously not a family spot for an after church outing, but they get the job done.
Wife and I only had dinner salads, both were good no complaints. I also had a bowl of lobster&crab bisque, flavor was excellent but it was very thick. Should have been cut with some stock or sherry, it was 9:30pm so it probably sat in the tureen all night.
They have a tomahawk rib eye on the menu for $65(?) I think. The decor is very well done and comfortable, look forward to trying it again.
I doubt it’s aged when I asked the waitress about it her response was very rudimentary; “it’s this huge cut of beef with a really long bone”, or something very similar to that. Since I wasn’t ordering it I didn’t press her for anything more detailed. I would assume if it were aged, management would give the staff a little more detail on the quality of the product.
ETA: MZ, if you like cb hash, TBB’s is fantastic…as are those namesake biscuits.
I can’t believe you had 2 cbh breakfasts on the same day–I wish I had the capacity to have adventures like that!
