The Friendly Toast

So glad the Friendly Toast opened this location south of the Charles River in the Back Bay. And, this particular corner has been devoid of a place to grab a quick unpretentious bite or drink. It’s simple fare consisting of salads, burgers, staff-​picked Mac and cheese blends, and of course breakfast/​brunch options. Decent bar selection with some cleverly named drinks and craft beer choices to piqué interest. The bright 50s’ish décor adds a quirk factor. Quick, friendly service and a tab that’s easy on the wallet.

Oh, hello, heaven (insert heart emoji).
If people would hop, skip and jump away from Newbury Street on Saturday and Sunday then they’d get to enjoy a much better breakfast at a far more reasonable price.
The Friendly Toast is a fairly recent addition to the Back Bay/​South End/​Bay Village, however you classify this area, and it’s great. The staff is, you guessed it, friendly and eager to make small talk and the food is crazy good. I’ve been here twice and have enjoyed the Caribbean Waffle and the Babe Benny (homemade cornbread topped with dry rubbed pork, 2 poached eggs, hollandaise & a BBQ drizzle — TALK DIRTY TO ME). Portions are huge and you’ll leave stuffed and happy.
*NOTE* — a lot of brunch/​breakfast places in Boston don’t open until 10a since it’s a state law to not serve alcohol until then. The Friendly Toast opens at 7a on weekdays and 8a on weekends, so you won’t be able to place your mimosa or bloody order until 10a. Don’t take your anger out on them, fools. Take it out on the state.

An overrated, overhyped place that doesn’t match the one in Kendall Square in terms of food or quality. We made a reservation for 8 people over the phone, and the host – a young female no older than 21 – didn’t even ask for our name. When we arrived, the place was jam packed, and we were told our party would have to split up at different tables on opposite sides of the room.
I didn’t understand what the hype was about the Fries. The sweet potato Fries were shriveled and bland. The waiters took 44 mins before bringing out our food, and forget about wanting more water for your glass. At least the portion sizes are very good.
This place is good for youngsters who want the fun experience of eating brunch with a hipster setting. The wall decors are definitely on the stranger side.

Nice breakfast spot in Back Bay. Classic diner style atmosphere with fun staff.
I had the breakfast sandwich and it was great. Good portions, but not cheap.
Coffee is basic.

This place is great! They have a ton of options on their menu (we went for brunch) and everyone found something that they were excited about. The coconut pancake was great, and when I tried bites of other stuff it was good too. The one downside was that they don’t take reservations, and with a group of 7 it was kind of a pain. But I think with a smaller group it would be easier. I used their no wait app, and that seemed to help.

Great place for Breakfast/​Brunch/​Lunch. They get a large crowd early so get there early. I try to order different food, but I always return to Chicken and Waffles hold the gravy. The staff is nice, mostly girls so diversity is a little lacking besides the male bartenders. They use an app to hold your place in line if there is a big wait I recommend downloading it. Their location is right across from the Back Bay station so easy to get to.
Give it a go and you will be satisfied.

Average place serving a variety of food. Staff seemed stretched since the waitress wasn’t always around. She also did not give us the 50% off appetizer even though it was clearly in the hour range for it. There’s outdoor seating in the summer time which was nice. The Boom Boom Room downstairs was shady early and is likely more crowded in the evening hours but there was no one there when we went at 7pm on a Fri night.
1. Buffalo dip — Great to split among 3 – 4 people. Not too spicy but the bleu cheese makes it heavy on the stomach. It did not come with enough chips (maybe ~8 total) and 4 celery sticks. Not sure if they wanted us to just gobble up the dip with spoons. It was confusing. I ended up ordering more celery.
2. Pit burger — Weird sweet BBQ (?) sauce taste even though I was expecting regular BBQ sauce. The rest of the burger was good though. About 1 inch patty, juicy, flavorful but pretty oily.
3. Boom sauce beer — Heavy, sweet, pricey ($ 9)
4. Sangia — Sweet, not much alcohol in it ($ 9). It tasted more like pre-​mix rather than made fresh
Overall, I’ll consider coming back for breakfast but probably not for drinks or dinner.

Exactly what we were looking for. A low-​key, slightly funky breakfast place with a great menu — lots of options. Did a build-​my-​own omelette with a list of more ingredient options than I could handle, including avocado
Wife had a salmon Benedict on Anadama bread, cooked exactly the way she asked.
What more could you want.

Stopped on Memorial Day to grab brunch with a friend and were greeted by an hour wait. Kind of a bummer but to be expected, luckily we were able to grab two seats at the bar downstairs and skipped the wait. Compared to the Kendall location this has a much cozier feel as they have both the upstairs and downstairs which are much smaller spaces. It still has the fun retro ambiance of the other locations which is enjoyable.
The food here is always decent. I can’t say it’s brunch food that will blow you away, it’s just average quality but the menu is large and they have some interesting dishes. I ordered a make your own scramble and it was just okay. I had avocado as one of my ad-​ins and instead of having nice chunks of fresh avocado it was all mashed up in the scrambled eggs which not only looked disgusting but was not too pleasing to the palette. Luckily the meal came with plentiful homefries and some nice pieces of toast so it wasn’t a total lost cause.
My main problem with the meal was our bartender/​waitress who was very rude and generally not hospitable. Didn’t really greet us, wasn’t generally friendly or helpful (when asked if i wanted an omelette or «scramble» I asked what a scramble was-​I wasn’t sure if it was hash or scrambled eggs etc and she responded «what does it sound like??»). I also stated I am dairy free and asked a few questions in accordance with that about the menu and it seemed to be annoying to the server that it was just a dietary choice not a real allergy and I was wasting her time with these questions. They also didn’t have any non dairy milk which I thought was odd (not even soy milk) given that coconut milk or almond milk are pretty common nowadays in most places.
Overall I wouldn’t go out of my way to go back but if I was in the area and there wasn’t a wait I would probably give it another shot even though I am more likely to go to Flour next door instead.

My first meal in Boston was at The Friendly Toast and it was a great welcome to the city!
This spot has excellent service, a unique and diverse menu, and most important great food.
To kick off the trip I had no other choice to start with a Bloody Mary and The Friendly Toast’s version is definitely up to par. My fiancé was definitely pleased with the draft beer selection as well.
If you’ve ready any of my reviews you know I don’t do eggs so I was glad to see this spot had some exciting dishes that could be enjoyed sans eggs. I was determined to try something featuring their homemade Cayenne Cheddar bread and the Olé Miss ended up being the perfect choice. It was just the right amount of sweet and savory although if I had it again I’d have them go easier on the mashed sweet potatoes. My fiancé was equally happy with his Taco After Party (he added chorizo).
This place was full of cute touches including postcards with your check, a waiter very helpful to a couple of tourists, and eclectic furniture that welcomes you in.

Came here at night after being out for drinks at Brahmin next door. Naturally, after having a couple too many gin and tonics, I ordered a bacon cheese burger with sweet potatoes fries. My friend ordered a chicken club sandwich. Our food was DELICIOUS! And I’m not just saying that because I was drunk. Also my friends club sandwich was humungous. My burger and fries were in generous portions as well! The service was so friendly and the music was fantastic. I love the vibe at this friendly toast spot. I will definitely be back!

Today I revisited The Friendly Toast for brunch. It was still a very enjoyable experience! I arrived around 3 PM so there was plenty of seating available since I missed the rush. When I first visited back in February with my friend, we arrived around 11 AM and got caught in the breakfast rush.
I ordered Kate’s Tofu Scramble, which consisted of vegetarian sausage, tofu, mushrooms, corn, and cheese. It came with a side of home fries and a toast of your choice (I got the cayenne-​cheddar). The food was delicious! So much going on in this particular dish– the corn salsa really does the trick. The sausage bits were especially great and might’ve been the best part! The cayenne-​cheddar toast tasted a lot spicier than it did in the Olé Miss (which I ordered during my first visit) so be aware! My boyfriend really liked his Smoked Salmon Benny.
The music they played was really jammy! (Some artists I recognized: The Smiths, The Drums) The service was still not as quick as I thought it’d be, given that we came well after the breakfast rush. The waitress took awhile to bring us our check/​take our payment as well, but we weren’t too bothered by it. As always, I left with a satisfied tummy and a piece of Bazooka bubble gum, courtesy of The Friendly Toast! Overall, an enjoyable experience yet again!

Last day in Boston (for a while) so I snuck away for a late breakfast. The place is tucked back on Stanhope street in Back Bay (near the Red Lantern), so it can be tricky to find if you’re not a local.
It was not crowded, just moderately busy at 9:00 on a Friday morning. Hipster kitsch is certainly the order of the day. Mod 60s diner-​style everywhere, but certainly «modern» prices. Waitstaff was certainly attentive and friendly, but not hovering or overbearing.
I sat at the bar and ordered the breakfast sandwich with eggs scrambled, jalapeño jack cheese, and crispy bacon on an English muffin. It came with home fried potatoes.
The potatoes were really good as served, and the sandwich was prepared just right. It wasn’t particularly flavorful but a little Sriracha made it just right.
If you’re in the neighborhood this is a good spot for breakfast. They get the essentials right. Clean place, good atmosphere, friendly staff, good food served quickly, and an easy walk in Back Bay.

Came here for brunch, and really had fun taking in the entire menu– which takes about ten minutes to read through if you are brand new/​first timer here.
My girlfriend and I settled in on splitting two breakfast dishes:
The coconut pancakes, and the omelet that is on top of a savory sweet potato mash, with spicy sausage and some cheese, paired with fresh fruit.
The egg dish was a little overcooked, but tons of flavors were packed into that dish. It was fun to eat because it was something new for a breakfast egg item I haven’t seen in a while, which was a nice change of pace.
Our pancakes were ordered with the real maple syrup option, which seemed to be the only option to even consider for the pancakes.
Our server was friendly, but not super attentive. We had two ask twice for things to be brought to the table, which was annoying. The food is not amazing, but the menu selections, decorations, and location are all worth enjoying– the coffee however, I did not enjoy.

A smaller version of the Kendall location, it’s just what you’d expect from its larger location (just much louder, for some reason?). Expect long waits on weekends, but at least they utilize the NoWait app which tells you how many people are ahead of you.
I’m a sucker for the all day breakfast and the Omar’s Homefries, and their anadama bread is to die for, but have found some of their other breakfasty options to be somewhat hit or miss and not super consistent. Nice draft beer list here though, although they’re lacking the boozy milkshakes and coffee concoctions found in Kendall… come to think of it, there are some menu items as well that didn’t make it over the river, so if you’re a FT virgin, maybe check out that location instead?

Not sure the 1 ½ wait was worth the average food. Granted, we weren’t brunching so Bloody Mary’s were not in play just wanted Sunday morning breakfast.
Pancakes were good, eggs were a little overdone, my side of corned beef hash was pretty bad. Dried out like little rocks. Too bad. we used their No Wait app which worked well but still 1 ½ hours.

Just what the neighborhood needed.
Standard, tasty brunch food. Big portions and great bread. But definitely not worth the 60 min + wait on weekends. If you have that kind of time, I’d go to Paramount down the street.
However, downloading the NoWait app is a big time-​saver.
Tried the huevos rancheros (on homemade adama (sp?) molasses bread and the Olé Miss. Can’t go wrong with either!

Overall opinion: Not as good as the Cambridge location, but shorter wait.
I came here at 2pm on a Saturday, it was 15 – 30 minutes for a table of 2 or sit at the bar. I opted to sit at the bar because it was pretty close to empty. The bartender was nice and attentive. I ordered the buffalo chicken sandwich with the French fries ($ 12). I liked their use of two different types of cheese (blue + Swiss) instead of ranch sauce. It’s good portion, I thought it was small at first but I ended leaving pretty happy and full. My boyfriend ordered the chicken and waffles ($ 14) + a side of home fries ($ 3). Here is why I think the Cambridge location is better: the chicken in Cambridge is fried chicken on the bones while the Back Bay is chicken tenders on top of the waffles.
I didn’t have any issues with service being slow.

Likely less than 20 tables, so expect a wait if you come during prime time but this a an unpretentious hipster kitsche diner with stick to your ribs dishes. The pancakes are always light, fluffy and monster sized, two are $ 9.
The egg in the toast was perfectly cooked with crispy exterior and warm oozy eggy center. The side of hash, $ 5, was decent but nothing spectacular and served its purpose as the extra protein.

Yup — I agree with most of the other reviewers — the food is good but the service is super slow. Don’t got to The Friendly Toast hungry on a weekend or you might be forced to dig to the deepest depths of your purse for that spare mint.
I arrived on Sunday for a birthday brunch and was told that I had a hour wait. I loved that I was able to give my cell phone and that they would send a text when I was ready. The weather was gorgeous and we were able to wait outside but the hostess stand is super small so I have no clue what they do when the weather is cold/​rainy.
Once called we were lead back to a crowded but totally kitchy dining area. I have been to the Portsmouth location (which I believe is the original) and the décor is like it’s little sister. Our water was pleasant and promptly took our order.
I ordered an egg which veggie omelette with double toast (I subbed out the home fries). Their toast is what I remembered and it was my birthday damn it — so toast it was. Even though it was busy our meals were brought out BUT what I was presented with was a regular omelette with home fries and the wrong toast. The water was sincerely apologetic and took my meal back but I kept the toast to tide me over.
What I got back was a agreeable omelette with an extra slice of toast which was actually a bit cold.
I was told that they were only opened for 3 weeks and they definitely have some kinks to work out. I just hope that The Friendly Toast remedies these issues and is not relying on the great service and food that patrons remember from the original location