5800 Nave Drive, Novato CA 94949(415) 382-1144
Parking: shopping center parking lot
Hours: Breakfast/Lunch 7:30am-2:30pm, Dinner 5pm -10pm
http://toastnovato.com/
Last Visited: March 31, 2010
Food: 2 to 3 stars
Service: 2 to 3 stars
Atmosphere: 3 stars
Price: $$ to $$$
With a location in Mill Valley and their newly opened location in Novato, Toast opened in the Hamilton Marketplace with quite a bit of fanfare. Architect Stanley Saitowitz gets the credit for the modern decor. You walk into the room and see the light colored wood surrounding the place. Each panel has patterned cutouts that makes you feel quite a bit like you're looking at toast. The same color scheme is carried out in the tables with some tables being for smaller groups and several large tables that get shared by multiple parties during busy hours. High ceilings and an open kitchen create a very spacious feel to the place.
I've now been to toast three times - once for lunch and twice for dinner. Dinner on a Friday night can get quite busy and the waiting time for my most recent visit was more than half an hour. Try to arrive early to beat the crowd.
The menu boasts a selection of comfort food - everything from their brick oven pizza to fried chicken and burgers.
Lunch
- Build a Burger - I ordered a plain hamburger with jack cheese. All burgers are served with soup, salad, or fries. My burger was pretty boring - nothing special or noteworthy either way. The soup was hot - and okay as well. $8.95 + extra for cheese (no specifics on the menu regarding the price of toppings except to say they range from $0.75 to $1.25)
Dinner
- Buttermilk Fried Chicken - Two pieces (breast and wing) are served with mashed potatoes, gravy, corn on the cob, jicama-apple cole slaw, and jalapeno cheddar corn bread, this was an extremely hearty portion. While the chicken was fried with a nice crispy batter and worth getting again, the sides didn't do much for me. The jicama-apple cole slaw was a creative combination if you like sweet and crunchy. Of all the sides, this was probably the best. Corn on the cob was fresh, but how can you mess that up? What I didn't enjoy was the cornbread and the mashed potatoes. The potatoes tasted like they came out of a box - lacking flavor and just not the right texture. The cornbread was dry and crumbly - I was surprised that some people ordered it as a side dish! While it's rare that I leave food on my plate, I left both the mashed potatoes and corn bread virtually untouched. Fortunately, the chicken was juicy, although lacking a bit of salt, but good enough that I wouldn't mind having again, but they need to do something about those side dishes to make it worthwhile. $13.95
- Salsiccia pizza - Mild Italian sausage, mushroom, mozzarella, Parmesan, lite tomato sauce and herbs top pizza dough. Since Toast features their brick oven pizza as a specialty, I was looking forward to a treat, but the picture looks better than it tasted. The pizza must have sat out for a while because it wasn't particularly hot. The outer edge was crispy and the center a bit too moist. Flavors of the toppings were fine. While the size was ample, it wasn't a wow pizza. $12.95
Initially, I thought service just needed to work out its kinks. My lunch visit was a month or two after the grand opening, and we had gone with about ten people. They made several errors with the order - sending soup as an appetizer for someone whom had ordered it and requested it as a main dish, having long breaks between the arrival of main dishes for those in our group, sending yet another soup as a main dish despite us telling them that we wanted it packed prior to its arrival. The list seemed endless.
My second visit was okay except for the long initial wait time where there was little seating available in the waiting area. My third visit seemed left me feeling like the server forgot us. The food took a long long time to arrive - more than twenty minutes after ordering. I saw the pizza on the counter waiting for the fried chicken ordered by my dining companion to become ready, but by the time that took place, the pizza had become cool and it arrived at my table cold. This lack of coordination was disappointing and was reflected in the food quality. With all of these things in mind, I'll probably leave Toast to those whom are seeking a fun decor and don't mind the long wait. The place has a lot of promise, but the service and kitchen need to coordinate better to create a better customer experience.
Initially, I thought service just needed to work out its kinks. My lunch visit was a month or two after the grand opening, and we had gone with about ten people. They made several errors with the order - sending soup as an appetizer for someone whom had ordered it and requested it as a main dish, having long breaks between the arrival of main dishes for those in our group, sending yet another soup as a main dish despite us telling them that we wanted it packed prior to its arrival. The list seemed endless.
My second visit was okay except for the long initial wait time where there was little seating available in the waiting area. My third visit seemed left me feeling like the server forgot us. The food took a long long time to arrive - more than twenty minutes after ordering. I saw the pizza on the counter waiting for the fried chicken ordered by my dining companion to become ready, but by the time that took place, the pizza had become cool and it arrived at my table cold. This lack of coordination was disappointing and was reflected in the food quality. With all of these things in mind, I'll probably leave Toast to those whom are seeking a fun decor and don't mind the long wait. The place has a lot of promise, but the service and kitchen need to coordinate better to create a better customer experience.
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