This week we decided to go out for lunch and since our son informed us he wanted to stay home, we decided to try somewhere new so we went to The Tavern at J.R. Crickets – what a mouthful!  It is a shopping center that gets a ton of foot traffic as it is accross the street from the Huntersville Presbyterian Hospital and the adjacent medical offices plus a bunch of other businesses including Joe Gibbs’ NASCAR shop.

We went there and were suprised at how empty it was, but it was early so we figured that it was not an issue.  I was not really all that hungry so I ordered their appetizer trio so we could taste them and my husband ordered a Buffalo Chicken sandwich.  As we ordered two very  large groups came in and sat down.

They gave us these HUGE sodas, afterwards when I saw they cost almost $3.00 I wished that I had gotten water – yikes!  First I don’t drink that much so it is wasteful plus at $3.00 I could have run across the street to the grocery store and bought a 6 pack.

The way I was sitting I could see the guys in the kitchen and strangely they were talking to the bartender casually.  I thought this was strange as they had our order plus a 16 person table and a 10 person table.  In my years as a waitress during college I would call that slammed.

When our food got to the table I understood why.

While I was at the store getting my Diet Coke I should have also gone in the frozen food section and brought my own food.  They did not “cook” anything it was all frozen and heated/fried.  My mozerella sticks were greasy and when I dipped them in the marinara it was not just cold it was ice cold – like it had been in a refridgerator.  It was disgusting.

The onion rings were over-fried, breaded to death and with absolutely no taste.  The potato skins were bland and undercooked.  Seriously how hard is it to HEAT things, it is not like ANY of the items were made by them.  I literally had a few bites of each one and decided to suck down my ginormous Diet Coke barrel and dream of Gordon Ramsey doing a Kitchen Nightmares segment there.

My husband’s Buffalo Chicken sandwich was bland – strange, since he asked for it to have their hottest buffalo sauce.  After seeing their hot, I would hate to see mild.  He ate about half and said enough.

I was so disappointed as bar food is usually my weakness, I love the ooey gooey tastes although pay for it later.  This was just a nightmare – and expensive nightmare as it cost us about $25.00 and I could have made it at home for probably 10.

They have a website and I found out they are a chain in Atlanta.  I sure hope the food is better in Atlanta because in Huntersville it sure sucked.  Their website was awful too – here are some hints for them, shut off the music it sounds like a bad porn movie or the Weather Channel.  And if you are going to have most of your pages be Flash (which I personally hate) then finish it that way.  People notice when you throw in some other pages and for goodness sake FINISH IT.  Don’t have a section on comments that shows fake comment text.  I will not even comment on the fact their url says the restaurant is in Charlotte, yet they are in Huntersville – Sheesh!

Not only that but my husband will not let me pick another place for a while.  If you happen to be on Gilead Road in Huntersville go to Five Guys next door – your pocket will be fuller and so will your stomach.

For me my favorite meal is breakfast.  I love eggs Benedict the most and like the judge from Top Chef I can almost cry when I get served a bad egg.

One day I was looking for a restaurant for breakfast and went on the Internet to see if I could find anything that was not a chain.  Nothing against chain restaurants but they really tend to lack charm and well anything special in the way they do things.  So I found this place called Toast Café.

Now there are actually two, they opened a new restaurant in Davidson, North Carolina, but one we go to the original which is in Huntersville. Our Toast Café is a small house that was converted into a restaurant.  At one time it was probably an 800 square foot two bedroom and now it has about 14 tables, an eat-on bar and a ton of outdoor seating when there is good weather.

It definitely has charm.  Did I mention the original hardwood floors?

Huntersville is a great place to live, we are not Charlotte home of the banks and the largest city in North Carolina, we are not Cornelius or Mooresville the lakefront areas where the NASCAR elite and the uber rich live in their 10,000 square foot mansions.  Then there is Davidson, with its picturesque downtown and artsy charm and home to one of the best college basketball teams around, with a pricetag to match.  So sandwiched in between all of these is Huntersville, a town of about 10,000 where people are not too rich or too poor and have the best breakfast place around.

So back to Toast Café.  Everything is fresh and made for you.  I get eggs Benedict with scrambled eggs (I hate poached) and it always comes out perfect.  My biggest gripe is flat barely scrambled eggs.  You can tell the cook does not care just slaps the egg on and cooks it and folds it and throws it on a plate.  Not at toast.

They have a wonderful selection of flap jacks (pancakes) including a peanut butter and banana and a raspberry walnut – if I did not love my eggs Benedict I would be having one of those.  Instead of hash brown you get red skinned potatoes that are very well seasoned and so yummy you forget that potatoes are only supposed to be in moderation.  And yes they even serve great toast!

Prices are very reasonable too, comparable to chains but without the chain taste.  They serve breakfast until 3 p.m. so you never have to worry about being to late.  On weekends get there early or late because the crowds of locals are huge.

The best part is you get old-fashioned service, the kind that makes you want to come back.  And you will.  Again and again.

Toast Cafe, 100 Huntersville-Concord Rd, Huntersville, NC 28078  T:(704) 875-7840