Toast Eatery

http://www.toasteatery.com/

(As far as I can tell, there is not an official web-site for this specific restaurant location, but the menu is basically the same as in the above link.)


Place: Toast Eatery

Location: 160 West Portal Avenue 
(between Vicente Street and 14th Avenue); 
phonicular contact: (415) 566-200

Hours: open at 7:00am every day of the week

Meal: Chilaquiles ~ house (well, restaurant) made tortilla chips in tomatillo sauce with 2 eggs any style (I stylized them as "over-medium") topped with sour cream; and a large glassa grapefruit juice

(However, I have no idea how either Gun-Marie Fredriksson or Neko Case feels about Chilaquiles or tomatillo salsa.)


It had been a few years since I had last eaten at any of the local Toast Eatery restaurants (see last 'blog-entry from Saturday, November 19th, 2016), so I figured a return-visit was in order. I think there are now about four restaurants (eateries, whatever) located throughout the city: this newest one in West Portal; two in Noe Valley; and one on Polk Street (basically [s]Nob Hill area). I am not sure if they are all still owned by the same person/family, though. This location in West Portal just seems to be the easiest for me to get to; plus, the parking is so much easier in this neighborhood.

There are still several other good ideas left for me to try off their (thankfully-not-named-"Brunch") breakfast menu:

Huevos Rancheros ~ 2 eggs any style (fried or over-medium are generally the choice of style with this dish) on corn tortillas with black beans, sour cream, salsa ranchera and a side of chipotle cole slaw 
(I really need to check out this dish, if for no other reason than to try the chipotle cole slaw);

Breakfast Burrito ~ flour tortilla with scrambled eggs, guacamole, Cheddar, pico de gallo salsa, sour cream, and choice of bacon, pork sausage, or ham (that would be a big no-trio for me, of course), served with hash browns;

Wet "Veggie" (uggh!) Burrito ~ flour tortilla filled with scrambled eggs, grilled "veggies" (grilled uggh! if you ask me), black beans, Cheddar cheese and sour cream, topped with salsa ranchera and avocado, served with hash browns;

California Scrambler ~ egg whites, tomato, fresh basil, avocado, and Cheddar, served with hash browns and choice of toast: white, whole wheat, rye, sourdough, or English muffin (however, for having such an eponym, I have always found their toast/bread all to be kinda pedestrian);

egg-cetera...

I will comment on the "Pluses" of this dish first: 1) their tomatillo salsa was really very tasty (and not very spicy at all) ~ generally chilaquiles come with a red salsa; and 2) there was a good amount of food (luckily I did not order a side of hashbrowns) on the plate. Now as for the "Minuses": 1) it was rather a boring dish (kinda like those "one-note ponies" that are always singing it up in the circus) ~ just a lotta corn tortilla chips with two eggs on top; and 2) most places will normally serve chilaquiles with at least a side of rice and refried beans. It would have been nice to at least have a couple of corn or flour tortillas (which are basically Mexican toast, anyway) to sop up the rest of their very good tomatillo salsa. (The waitress/server lady-person really gave me some strange looks when I started to lick the remainder off my plate... What?! I did not have a plastic straw handy.)

As to what Toast Eatery offers in the way of condimentary supplementation, there was the San Francisco Standard Triumvirate of Hot Sauces 
(Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce [Original Red Sauce]; Tapatío® Salsa Picante Hot Sauce; and Cholula® Hot Sauce Original) for use on all the tables. It really did not matter this morning as none were needed or used.

(a not so really) Strange Coffee Interlude

I had skipped any Coffee-intake with breakfast with the expressed (Espresso?) reason that I planned on getting myself a mighty fine cuppa at Ballast™ Coffee ~ like I have for the past few times whenever I have been (bean?) in the West Portal neighborhood recently. I just got a cuppa their standard drip-filter roast/blend that is ready to pour/go. I also like that they have a variety of fresh (well, at 8:30am, at least) dynamo donut doughnuts from which to choose... from which I choosed a nice rhubarb one. I do not think that I have ever had this particular flavour of theirs before (h*ck, I am pretty sure that I have never had a rhubarb doughnut before, anyway). I really liked that it was made with actual bits/squares/chunks of rhubarb in it. As can be seen in the above photo, I enjoyed these outside in their backyard garden-patio area (which I had all to my ownsome... well, except for an extremely noisy next-door-neighbor pupster on the other side of the fence).

https://ballastcoffee.com/

https://dynamodonut.com/


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Chilaquiles ~ 6.3 
(this was factoring in their very tasty tomatillo salsa which added at least 0.1 to 0.2 GBS points);
Ballast™ Coffee standard Coffee ~ 7.3;
dynamo donut rhubarb doughnut ~ 7.2