Fridays are usually the favorite day of the week for most working professionals. Fridays signify the end of a hard work week and every two Fridays, one can normally see a nice deposit in their bank account for their hard work. Fridays also tend to be the day where one hour lunches can turn into an hour and half lunches due to workers (who potentially just got paid) wanting to visit a new lunch spot or go back to a lunch spot that may be farther away than a Tuesday lunch spot.
Three of my coworkers and I decided to venture out today and visit Toasters on the recommendation of someone in our party who said the chicken and waffles was the bomb the last time he came here for lunch. We arrived and there two other patrons in the restaurant waiting for to go orders. We walked up to the counter to order, not really needing to look at the menu because of the aforementioned chicken and waffle recommendation. Two of my coworkers ordered the chicken and waffles and a drink for a total of $17 for each order. In my opinion, a little pricey for a place that serves four waffle triangles and 2 wings. I step up to the counter and also order the chicken and waffles with a water. The cashier mentions that the water is only bottled (this is one of my pet peeves with restaurants when you can't just have a glass of water and are required to purchase a water bottle but that is just personal preference). I complete my $14 transaction for chicken and waffles and a water bottle and our last coworker behind me asks if I got the chicken tenders or the chicken wings. I mention to him that I wanted to the wings because why would you ever want tenders over whole fried wings when ordering chicken and waffles. The cashier who just took my order says that I ordered the tenders even though I made no mention of tenders in my order. He just assumed I wanted tenders so I tell the cashier that I want wings and he changes the order in the kitchen. I go to our table and mention this conversation to my other two coworkers who ordered before me and ask them if they ordered the wings or tenders. They say that they didn't specify because they just assumed it was wings and not tenders. I went back to look at the menu and it does mention that it is either tenders or wings but not once did the cashier ask us if we wanted tenders or wings. It makes a lot of sense to serve tenders over wings by default because of cost. Our last coworker who ordered specifically asked for wings so we waited in anticipation of what was about to come out from the kitchen.
We see the cashier come to our table with the 4 trays of chicken and waffles and sure enough, there are two orders with tenders and two orders with whole wings. One of coworkers felt scammed in the moment and asked if he could get a refund to which the cashier responded that all sales are final and there are no refunds. There is a sign at the counter that says this. It would have been nice if the cashier had offered a substitute meal of equal value, but all he did was mention there are no refunds, drop the food on the table (not even in front of my coworker), and walk away. The chicken wings were actually decent and crispy. The waffle was a little soft for my liking but in the syrup, it tasted ok because sugar makes everything taste better (except chicken tenders). The wings are the only reason this review is 2 stars and not 1 star. The tenders looked sadder than a chicken on its way to the slaughter house. The tenders were not crispy and almost ghost white. We did not see the cashier a single time the whole time after the food was dropped off. The picture attached here shows the difference between the wings and tenders.
I would not recommend this place for people in a hurry as the food took 17 minutes to come out in an empty restaurant (we were the only ones in the restaurant along with one other person who ordered after us). If you do decide to come and try the chicken, specifically ask for wings as the chicken and not the tenders. We will not be coming back here. I asked my coworker who got tenders what he would rate this place on a scale of 1-10 and he said, "If I could give it less than 1, I would." It feels like they were being deceptive by not asking us whether we wanted tenders or wings. There are so many other good chicken and waffle places in Houston. Visit those instead! read more