Overall, the food is fine, though no dish left a very strong positive impression. There were a few mis-steps, but nothing too terrible either. \n\nMy dinner companion and I both had the tasting menu, which turns out to just be a subset of dishes from tonight's dinner menu. This was somewhat disappointing -- what I liked about ordering a tasting menu is that it gives the chef an opportunity to present a coherent meal to showcase his/her vision/perspective. Instead, at Toast!, each person gets his/her own (seemingly random) sampling of dishes for the tasting menu. The idea sounds intriguing in theory. In practice, unless everyone is willing to share, it leads to some unfair inequalities.\n\nMy meal began with a tiny but tasty bit of froie gras; my companion's starter was less luxurious -- he got mac n' cheese w/ a fried egg. My second course was a dorade (small fish) over wild rice (a bit dry); my companion got the short end of the stick again -- an unpleasantly fishy bowl of scallops in their shells. We each had a small, inoffensive plate of salad/veggies as our third course. Finally, my companion's hanger steak (rare and thinly sliced) outshone my cube of suckling pig (a bit too salty). The tasting menu ($40) does not include dessert, surprisingly. In retrospect, that was probably a hint that we should have stopped there. At the server's recommendation, I ordered the pot de creme (not bad, but kind of one dimensional, not as decadent as Dinette's); my companion opted for some old fashioned doughnuts (which had a distractingly gritty texture from the undercooked dough). \n\nI don't disagree with other reviewers that the ambiance was nice and that the service was good. Toast! is not a bad restaurant. It just has not achieved the level of imagination and complexity demanded of the caliber of restaurants that it aspires to be.
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