People are willing to wait in line for hours at a Korean chain that only makes toast. Here is what makes it so good.
A friend who knew about my mission to explore South Korea fast-food chains while I was in the country recommended Isaac Toast, so I headed to a location in the Myeongdong neighborhood a few days after arriving in Seoul.
It's all toast, all the time at Isaac Toast. Every sandwich comes with the same bread, sauce, and an omelette made with corn.
For my first trip, I ordered two toasts, neatly wrapped for eating on the go.
The wrappers reference Genesis 26.
I ordered the "Bacon Best" and "Bulgogi MVP" for my first taste test of the chain.
They're both sizable, with ingredients you don't often find in a Western breakfast sandwich, like plenty of cabbage and pickles joining the cheese, eggs, and meat.
The Bulgogi MVP in particular packs in an enormous amount of food for 3,800 won, or about $3.20. It is reminiscent of a greasy, slightly spicy sausage breakfast sandwich, overloaded with barbecue and chili sauce.
I almost wish I had gotten drunk or even descended into a hangover before eating this — it's a mighty sandwich, not made for a casual taste tester.
The Bacon Best is a bit more manageable. The goopy cheese, the refreshing cut of cabbage, and the corn-filled omelette meld to create a delicious sandwich that deserves a place of honor alongside inexpensive, uncomplicated American diner classics.
However, for me, the best of Isaac Toast was yet to come. Eager to see what other eggy goodness the chain had to offer, I visited an even more popular kiosk location the next morning for breakfast.
The line stretched down the street, with employees making each toast to order. I ended up waiting for 20 minutes in the cold before I reached the front of the line.
The menu is more limited than at the other location, but nothing is more than 4,000 won, or $3.36.
As I waited, I snuck a look at the toasts being made. Each toast is made fresh to order, meaning it is warm and crisp, with cheese at the ideal levels of meltiness.
I got the Ham Special — an order that cost me just $2.44 and now ranks among my top breakfast sandwiches of all time.
Maybe the workers at this Isaac Toast location were slightly more skilled grillers. Maybe it was the intrinsic perfection of the combination of ham, cheese, eggs, radish, and pickles.
Whatever it was, this was close to my platonic ideal of a breakfast sandwich — simple, but almost incomprehensibly satisfying. Some things just work. And this sandwich worked, a perfect amalgamation that was greater than the sum of its parts.
While most Isaac Toast locations are in South Korea, the chain has expanded into Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Singapore in recent years. When the first location opened in Singapore in 2018, customers waited for hours to get their hands on the toast.
Source: Business Insider Singapore
Isaac Toast's first location in the US shuttered in 2011, a year and a half after it opened. Maybe Americans were too blinded by avocado toast to realize what we're missing out on: toast and eggs, freshly grilled, straightforward and perfect in its own right.
Source: Eater
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