As a fan of any kind of toasted carbohydrate, especially the kind with avocado or tartare on top, Slightly Toasted checked all the boxes for me. However, I haven't been able to visit since since they are only open on weekdays. They are located conveniently by the French Market and offer a wide variety of entrees for lunch and specializes as the name indicates, *toast*!
Being a graduate student, I usually aim for coffee shops and snack places to have a bite, get a change of scenery (from the library), and to study. On the Yelp information bar, it listed Slightly Toasted as a good place to do work. It may be the case as they do have WiFi available (the Slightly Toasted WiFi wasn't working, but the bartender kindly alerted me to use the building's free wifi service instead), but I wouldn't say it's the greatest study spot as the illumination in the restaurant (it's more of a restaurant/after work bar than a snack place) is quite dim.
Service is attentive and quite friendly. They don't push you to order quickly nor do they push you to leave. Despite already paying the bill the bartender kept filling my water until I left.
Unfortunately, for a place that specializes in toast, the "toast" falls a little short.
I ordered the Steak & Eggs Toast. I really wanted to like it. Like I really, really wanted to. For $7 I thought this place was going to blow my mind however the thing that really ruined my Steak & Eggs Toast was the sourdough toast that it laid on. It was a strange mixture of a rock hard crust and a chewy, mushy centre (not in the good way that sourdough normally is... sourdough is one of my favourite types of bread!) and made eating the toast really cumbersome since it was difficult to cut, hard to chew, and not absorbent enough for the egg yolk. The cranberry-to-tartare ratio was a little off -- the cranberries were VERY, very much present and its flavour overpowered the tartare. Ingredients list garlic aioli, but something else in the Steak & Eggs Toast I ordered was unexpectedly spicy and didn't really blend well with the other ingredients on the toast. I would recommend manually spreading the mustard across the toast evenly as eating it as it comes doesn't provide a balanced flavour profile. Lastly, the poached egg that sits on top of the toast came popped (poached eggs aren't the easiest to make so I understand... but sad times) so all the fun of poking the egg disappeared as the glorious egg yolk dribbled off the toast to waste (since it wasn't being efficiently soaked up by the sourdough bread to be enjoyed).
If Slightly Toasted can change their bread, increase the amount of tartare provided, and decrease the cranberry portion the Steak & Eggs Toast would be exponentially better.
Overall, I really wanted to like this place (and I was worried I was going to return here constantly), but it fell short of my expectations. For a place with toast in it's name, the bread was a little disappointing. I would probably come back for drinks with a friend opposed to my usual study/snack hunting adventures. If a friend wants to try the place, I'll come back with them as I would like to try their salad and burgers but I wouldn't go out of my way to return here again. read more