Toast: Plain, Not So Simple
A New Breakfast Spot Scores With Service, Sometimes Eats.
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 TOAST POINT: Ed Rubovitz and Nita Pettigrew joke with server Amara Peugh. IMAGE: Vivian Johnson |
[March 26th, 2008]
Good restaurant service is hard to put a finger on. Too much attention is smothering. Not enough, and you’re lost and craving. It’s a fine line, rarely done well—even in a food city like Portland.
But, at the newish Woodstock neighborhood restaurant Toast, they get it right.
Come in for brunch on the weekend, and even though there’s a line out the door, you’ll be welcomed with a smile and coffee while you wait. The graciousness unfolds from there: an upbeat presence at the table, a bustling, productive kitchen turning out plates on time and in sync, and knowledgeable, genuinely friendly staff at every turn.
That consistently warm welcome will keep diners like me coming back even though the food isn’t always such a slam dunk.
Ingredients are super-fresh and local whenever possible. Owner Donald Kotler, a PDX restaurant scene vet, won’t serve tomatoes, for example, if he can’t get them from local farmers. Current menus star beets, kale, potatoes and leeks. Preparations show the light-handed approach of chef Jonathan Merritt, which at times could use more confidence to get the most out of those stellar ingredients.
Breakfast is what Toast has become known for. Each morning stand-by has been pared to its essentials and the result can be just a little too…bare.
The three-egg omelet ($8) is an example of that sparseness. Stuffed with creamy herbed ricotta cheese and seasonal vegetables, it’s served with hand-shredded, crispy potato rösti. But with so few ingredients, the separate elements never really come together.
Light, lemony pancakes (with ham and fresh fruit, $7.50) are delicate, thin and made from scratch. Yeasty, fluffy breads as well as English muffins and scones are made in-house daily, too.
Although Toast is closed for lunch, some menu items are available in the morning and evening. The Good Monk ($7.50), tofu simmered in an underwhelming onion broth with chewy grains of toasted farro, leeks and Brussels sprouts, was healthy, but also bland. I ordered a side of smoky, decadent seared pork belly ($3) to offset all that “goodness.” The lavish adjustment worked wonders.
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At dinner, the pared-down approach fits for starters, which by definition intend to tease taste buds. A delicate winter squash soup ($5) was light and sweet, with clean earthy flavors not buried by the addition of too much cream or butter.
Golden beet salad ($7) was a tossed amalgam of toasted walnuts, mint leaves, greens and a refreshing vinaigrette of mellow French Banyuls vinegar and olive oil. Simple and achingly fresh, the crisp greens and fragrant herbs had just enough integrity to stand up to the acidic punch of nuts and beets tasting like concentrated earth and sunshine.
But main courses suffered a bit for want of that heavier hand. Housemade ravioli ($14.50) stuffed with winter vegetables needed another dimension of flavor and seasoning, arriving practically naked on the plate without a complementary sauce. I pined for crunchy tidbits of pancetta, or browned butter with a hint of sage.
Braised lamb ($17) in white wine and herbs could have been more tender, and Alaskan cod ($18) atop a smooth parsnip purée–touched gently with nutmeg—was perfectly seared and seasoned, but could have used one more unifying element. A drizzle of neon-green chive oil, perhaps?
Toast has successfully embraced one of our region’s most becoming possessions—its fantastic farms. The next step is to turn those raw materials into finished dishes matching their upscale prices. If you’re spending $18 for a piece of fish or $17 for lamb shanks, you ought to be wowed by more than just stellar service.
nice job astroturfing response, friends and family of the restaurant...
I agree with Deeda's review. I really like Toast, but haven't been totally wowed by anything that I've tried there. Everything is good but a little bland, to my taste. With that said, it's a great addition to the neighborhood and I'll keep going back. Hopefully they'll get a little more adventurous.
Absolutely no disagreement with Deeda's assessment on the service. While bigger named establishments phone it in, the folks at Toast are on the ball. But it's more than that - there's a culture of hospitality. It won't just be your server saying thank you and goodnight, the chef and owner will shout out their appreciation.
But the real treats are on the plate. The lamb loin I recently had was so good it was what I started off conversations with the next few days - "Have you been to Toast? Have the lamb loin!" And the bed of spatzle that hosted the lamb was a revelation. As a kid I lived in Germany and ate enough spatzle to fill a castle. Toast's homemade mustard spatzle with kale and leeks are the grownup version of a classic and should be made the official dumpling of America.
Portions are something about which I really disagree. I like to enjoy my meal and be able to get up from the table. I guarantee you won't be hungry after a meal but you will want to go back for more.
P.S. - try the cheese plate for dessert!
I am guessing Deeda has never worked in a restaurant and probably does not cook, and if she does she recreates dishes that EVERY restaurant is doing, like butternut squash ravioli with brown butter and sage. Or adding the ever present always popular and therefore overused herb oil. As a restaurant worker I am glad to see Toast trying something new and letting ingredients speak for themselves. Why order a bowl of vegetables and say it is bland when you really want a piece of gooey, greasy yummy pork belly? Maybe diners have become to accustomed to eating out and unknowingly ingesting heaps of butter, preservatives and other taste good additions that they have forgotten what good, from the farm food is meant to taste like. And how daring can you be until you diners are complaining about being too daring? And a thing about price. If you are unwilling to spend the money on a locally raised/caught piece of meat or fish that is going back into the local economy, there are plenty of other restaurants shipping it in from elsewhere and selling it cheaper. Where do you eat that satisfies all of your specifications?
Jennifer. You're right, there are plenty of places to spend your hard-earned dollars. If you really want a big greasy breakfast, don't go here. If want something light and out-of-the-ordinary, Toast is a good place. But c'mon...every place in town does farm-fare... that doesn't mean the portions have to be small. And the benedict here is awesome....but it doesn't come with potatoes. What gives?
I find it interesting that the reviewer wished for a heavier hand. One of the things I love about Toast is their light-handed cooking. The spare approach described allows the quality of the ingredients to play the fore.
I also appreciate their modest portions: I can order a dish and eat it all, instead of letting 1/3 of it go to waste, which is what happens at most breakfast joints.
Perhaps it's because I always visit Toast in the middle of a 12-mile bicycle ride from my volunteer work to my home, and I am simultaneously famished and wanting something that will not weigh me down for the rest of the trip home.
In any case, they've quickly become a favorite place to eat for me and my partner.
Oh, and one more thing: Try the burger!
best
Patrick
I also agree with Deeda's review. Toast has been amazing for the neighborhood, is a friendly and welcoming place, and if I lived in Woodstock, I would be very happy to have it. For breakfast joints, there's not much else out there. But I'm not going to drive across town to go to Toast. The portions are too small, and the Good Monk was one of the most unacceptable things I've ever been served at a Portland restaurant. It was minute and without any inspiration.
I don't agree - you have it wrong. Stay in your part of town Mike - no worries for us in SE. Many other folks from across the city are eating at Toast and returning time after time. They come in for breakfast and come back the next day for dinner. They appreciate the great food, the exceptional ingredients, the professional, consistent and friendly service.
The portions have always been totally satisfying and filling for me. Know where chefs in town are dining? They know that the food is about simplicity, invention and skill. The team in the kitchen is talented. I love the food there and I love the fact that the owner and the crew aren't posers. They go in, work hard, put out a great product and and have lines of happy customers to prove it.
When many of the restaurants that you and others like you fawn over have long since closed Toast will be going strong.
I have eaten at Toast more than a dozen times. You got it right that the service great but you missed the mark on the food. Also check your statement above about lunchtime service - either do more research or have someone fact check - they are open 'till 2 so for most of us that means open for lunch.
I agree about the ravioli - the only item I've had there that wasn't excellent. Try the steak - it is perfectly cooked. The chicken breast - best I've had in ten years. A fish special I just tried was delicate, subtle - perfect. A friend just had the lamb loin dinner special and it was mind blowingly good.
Come 'on - give these guys some credit - go in and taste their food rather than wax on about how you would do it differently were you in the kitchen - you aren't. Toast is an absolute winner!