It's toast! The recipe is in the name!

May 3, 2010 12:34 PM

What, for the love of god, has happened to toast? It seems like even in restaurants where breakfast is otherwise excellent, toast is gone, replaced by warm slices of bread. It's as if, in an effort to not cause bread to much stress, they simply hold it up to the toaster and say, "See? That is a toaster," then butter it and serve it to you. If you ask for it well-done, it comes out charred on the outside and dry on the inside. I would say it was for saving time, but it even happens in empty diners. Are good restaurant toasters just no longer available? I like toast! Where has it gone?
posted by The Dutchman to food & drink (8 answers total)

It has gone nowhere. I have had toast at a restaurant recently. And this seems like chatfilter.
posted by nestor_makhno at 12:38 PM on May 3, 2010

If an item served to you is unsatisfactory, you can ask the waitstaff to have the cook re-make it, or, in your case, re-toast the bread for a longer time. Try it and let us know if that works.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 12:41 PM on May 3, 2010

A lot of kitchens don't spring for an industrial toaster, they just make the toast on the grill, usually in a real hurry. I agree with Optimus -- if you send it back, they'll cook it longer. Probably too long!
posted by hermitosis at 12:42 PM on May 3, 2010

Um, I haven't had this problem, Andy Rooney Seinfeld.
posted by availablelight at 12:44 PM on May 3, 2010 [3 favorites]

Perhaps if you said where you lived, people could recommend good toast-serving restaurants nearby, and this wouldn't seem so "what's the deal with airline food" chatfiltery.
posted by emyd at 12:45 PM on May 3, 2010

Since this is such a low stakes question (no offense to your value system, OP) I'm going to make up a reason: restaurants are trying to save money on utilities because the economy is poor and so rather than having that auto-toast conveyer belt thingy run all the time they turn it on when they need to toast something, which means it never gets as hot as it used to when no one cared about saving three dollars a year on the expense of toast.

Or: space aliens.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 12:49 PM on May 3, 2010

You need to find better restaurants. Excellent toast is available in practically every restaurant I've been to.
posted by birdherder at 12:50 PM on May 3, 2010

Try the English muffins. They're usually cooked longer, I've found.
Or ask that your bread be buttered prior to toasting (if it's on grill vs in toaster) which will help with browning.

The best toast is made with stale bread, and as they usually do not keep stale bread around restaurants, perhaps you can bring your own?
posted by caveat at 12:50 PM on May 3, 2010