- Juliana Rosen ’21 & Maddie Levey ’21
Having the sudden urge to eat some avocado toast? Well, you are in luck because we went around Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and San Carlos and chose the best toasts in town. Avocado toast is an item that has recently emerged from the shadows and has made a large breakthrough in the Bay Area. Although it may be thought of as a “basic” food item, it is a great source of nutritious fats and healthy carbs to give you a surge of energy. Each restaurant has its own twist on the beloved toast, adding eggs, sprouts, pepper flakes, nuts and more! We hit up Coffeebar, Tender Greens, and Mints and Honey to figure out which will satisfy your craving. Here is what our taste buds decided:
First, we both shared the famous avocado toast from Coffeebar. The toast is pricey, starting at $8.95, before adding a $2.00 poached egg or $3.00 bacon. For those of you that have gone to Coffeebar in Menlo Park since its opening, you will notice that they recently changed their bread, which made the avocado toast even better than usual. The bread is now not as thick, which allows for it to stay toasty, and not get soggy because of the toppings! The toast comes with avocado, olive oil, a little lime juice, salt, and red chili flakes. The red chili flakes are a good add-on to the toast, but not too spicy. Overall, we enjoyed this avocado toast because of the texture and the taste.
Next, we went to Tender Greens. The toast at Tender Greens was to DIE for, but still pretty pricey at $8.50. The bread was perfectly crunchy and very easy to bite into. It was topped with an avocado spread that Tender Greens calls “Avocado Hummus” and heirloom tomatoes. The tomatoes were all different colors making the toast very visually appealing and perfect for those Snapchat stories. But wait, it gets better. There was also feta cheese piled on there, making all the flavors blend perfectly. Our only complaint was that the toast was a bit small, but the flavor did make up for the lack of bread.
Our last stop was Mints and Honey. This toast came with an egg, avocado, olive oil, chili flakes, chives, and salt, and was $8.00, slightly less expensive than Coffeebar and Tender Greens – but not much. The bread is sliced from a sourdough loaf, and stays well toasted and does not get soggy. We enjoyed this bread more than the bread from Coffeebar, because we think it goes better with avocado. Mints and Honey had the most basic avocado toast, so if that’s what you are looking for, make sure to visit this restaurant.
Overall, we think that the avocado toast is overrated and too expensive at Coffeebar, but still good for breakfast or an afternoon snack. Tender Greens and Mints and Honey were slightly less expensive and overall tasted better. Make sure to look out for our next food segment in the next issue!
Photo from Tender Greens
