I’ve never been a fan of french toast, whenever there’s an option between french toast or waffles for a breakfast style dish, waffles hands down. Since it’s  National French Toast Day today, which I found out a month ago, I decided to challenge myself by trying french toasts from different restaurants around New York City.

National French Toast Day In New York City

I’ve been having french toast for four weeks so I probably won’t be having it anytime soon. I’m listing the restaurants that I tried in order, here’s a hint – it only gets better.

The Grey Dog

Based on the menu, I had two options – get the sweet dish french toast or savory bacon and eggs with french toast. Because I wasn’t feeling anything sweet that day, I decided to go with a savory dish. It counts, right? It’s still french toast, just with bacon and eggs and not with bananas or berries.

In The Grey Dog, you basically order at the counter, wait to get seated (it’s first come first serve) and you should be expecting a very tiny space for yourself. When my coffee was ready at the counter, I had to stand at the side with it to wait for a table, and mind you, it gets really crowded on a Saturday afternoon.

Unfortunately, this dish just isn’t for me. And when will I ever learn that sometimes bacon is just not my thing? Since this was my first time at Grey Dog and it wasn’t the best experience (mainly because I didn’t like my food), I don’t have the best impression of it but I heard good things about this place. Definitely need to give it another chance and try something else the next time!

I’d still like to try the sweet french toast though, I’ll probably like it better. But after a month of having french toast, I’ll save this for at least two months from now.

MUD

It’s 5pm and I wanted to have french toast. We’re in New York City, I’m sure you can find french toast even at 10pm. Wait, can you? Let me do my research…

This Sourdough French Toast has almond crusts! This toast was absolutely delicious to me. With bananas and berries, yeah, now this really feels like I’m having french toast.

The table I was seated at at MUD was just as tight as the one I was at Grey Dog. Really, is it a thing to have tiny tables and spaces barely wide enough for me to walk through in restaurants serving french toasts? Guess I need to explore more.

Kopitiam

Serving Malaysian, specifically Nyonya cuisine, Kopitiam (which means coffee shop) surprised me when I found out they have milo french toast. Woah. I don’t recall having this in Malaysia. So when I found out about this dish, my inner Malaysian knew I had to try it.

It must be the condensed milk because I felt so full and bloated after a couple of bites but you need to try it, it’s really delicious! It definitely goes well with a cup of Malaysian coffee for breakfast. However, one thing about this toast is that it’s a little on the pricey side because this small breakfast/snack dish is $8! I must say it’s worth trying but if you want to come back for it again, go for it. It’s too delicious not to!

Clinton St. Baking Co. & Restaurant

Over 5k photos and 4k reviews on Yelp, I’m sure everyone (or most people) who lives in this city will know this place! Located at 4 Clinton St, this restaurant’s daytime menu (which includes some breakfast dishes) is served all day! Yay!

Can’t believe how much I love this french toast. The portion wasn’t as big as I thought which is perfect for brunch (I had it for dinner so that really wasn’t filling or maybe I’m just eating too much). And just so you know, the bananas are hot!

So if your stomach capacity is anywhere near mine, my initial plan was to have half of this plate.. that’s all. But it was way too small a portion for dinner. So I added this dish to my meal:

I absolutely love the corn bread but the chicken was a little too dry for me. Maybe I’ll try something else the next time. And the best part of the day is – DESSERT. Unfortunately I really didn’t have room for a pie in though I really wanted to. And boy, their dessert menu is mouth-watering, really.

Maybe next time.

Four Restaurants, Four Different French Toasts in New York City

I’m definitely taking a break from this sweet dish for now. However, it’s been a great experience trying different places in the city. When you say french toast, I always immediately think of bananas and berries but each restaurant improvises differently. For example, MUD has almond crusts in it; we Malaysians and our milo, and of course, hot bananas are amazing!

This concludes my challenge of trying french toasts in different restaurants in New York City!

Please share with me any good restaurants to have french toast and recipes too! I should challenge myself next to make french toast actually, I definitely have enough space in my kitchen to make some whilst watching my favorite movies on Netflix!

Tags: food, new york city