Breakfast is arguably the most important meal of the day, and most people see it as that. While fast-food outlets generally don’t seem to care much about making their breakfast menu as good as the main menu, there are some genuinely good options for the average breakfast enjoyer.
The best breakfast outlet for you will depend on how you prefer your breakfast. If you live anywhere around the United States, you should have limitless options when it comes to early morning food. The question is: how do you choose the best breakfast from the sea of options available?
Thankfully, you don’t. To help you get the best breakfast, I’ve analyzed all the options available to the average American, compiling them into a list that’s easy to understand. If breakfast is all you need, here are some delicious options near you that are both affordable and accessible.
Best Breakfast Near Me
Breakfast is arguably the most important meal of the day, so you have to eat it right. Here are some of the best breakfast outlets across the United States, all likely to be within arm’s length of you.
1. Cracker Barrel
Cracker Barrel is one of the best breakfast locations in the United States for several reasons. One of the most prominent reasons is that it serves breakfast all day, so it doesn’t matter when you show up at the restaurant, you’ll always be able to access breakfast. However, that isn’t the main reason why it made it into this compilation.
Cracker Barrel is famous for its larger-than-normal dishes that customers have come to love. As you’ll see in a bit, Cracker Barrel has a fine selection of items on its breakfast menu, and recall that you can access any of those items at any time of the day.
Here are some of the best items to order at Cracker Barrel.
- French Toast
If you enjoy french toast for breakfast, Cracker Barrel is arguably your best stop for the item. The French Toast at Cracker Barrel is available both as an individual item and a combo. While the combo is a bit more expensive than the item itself, it comes as a more comprehensive package.
- Biscuits and Gravy
While French Toast is arguably the best item on the menu, you can’t keep having it every morning, not when there are equally good options like Biscuits and Gravy. Cracker Barrel’s Biscuits and Gravy is available alone as a breakfast item, or with other items on the menu. The next time you’re making a breakfast stop at the restaurant, you shouldn’t miss the delicious Biscuits and Gravy.
- Momma’s Pancake Breakfast
What’s a better way to start your morning than with a pancake dish from momma? Seriously, Momma’s Pancake Breakfast tastes exactly like it sounds, as Cracker Barrel is the homiest breakfast restaurant on this list. If you want pancakes for breakfast, make a stop at Cracker Barrel.
2. Hash House a Go Go
If you think the name looks weird, wait until you get to the physical location of the restaurant. While there are so many weird things about Hash House a Go Go, there isn’t a shortage of surprises. One of the biggest surprises you’ll notice as soon as you order an item is how delicious their meals are.
The restaurant is designed to replicate the look of a farmhouse, and it does that perfectly. However, the look will fool you into thinking the meals aren’t very good, and the taste will easily beat your expectations, which aren’t high, to begin with. That explains why most people keep returning to the restaurant after dining for the first time.
Talking about the food, they’re as awesome as they’re inexpensive. Hash House a Go Go has a food item for everyone, thanks to their expansive and ever-expanding breakfast menu. Here is a list of some of the best items you can get at Cracker Barrel for breakfast.
- Biscuits and Sausage Gravy
If all you need is a dish of biscuits and gravy for breakfast, you won’t get a better one than Hash House a Go Go’s Biscuits and Sausage Gravy. In addition to the foods that make up its name, it also contains griddled mashed potatoes and eggs. With this dish and your choice of drink, you’ll never want something else for breakfast.
- Andy’s Sage Fried Chicken Benedict
While this item is one of the more expensive at the restaurant, it’s so fully loaded that you won’t think before dropping the money each time. Andy’s Sage Fried Chicken Benedict comes with fresh spinach, scrambled eggs, and smoked bacon, and that isn’t even half the ingredients. As long as you don’t mind the price, this item is the best of the bunch.
- Two Egg Breakfast
Two Egg Breakfast is probably the most basic breakfast dish at Hash House a Go Go, and it’s exactly what it says it is, but with more. In addition to the eggs, you get potatoes and your choice of bacon, plus turkey sausage patties, fruit garnish, and biscuit. You can always customize the dish to your liking to make it even more appealing.
3. Village Inn
If the scanty menu of the options on this list is turning you off, you should consider checking the Village Inn. It’s not the most popular restaurant out there yet, but it has a presence in 18 states, which is enough to put it on this list deservedly.
Like many similar restaurants, Village Inn focuses mostly on breakfast, with tons of items, mostly casual mixes of the same thing over and over again. You can also get lunch and dinner at the restaurant, but Village Inn is probably not the best destination for those.
If you’re wondering what makes up the enormous menu, you may have to head over to the restaurant’s official menu to see, as I’m certainly not listing 200 food items here. However, if all you need to see are the best items on the menu, I’ll show you that readily.
Here are some of the breakfast options that keep customers coming back to Village Inn.
- Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs
If that sounds like something you’d like to wake up to, you can only get it at Village Inn, and I can assure you: it’s just as good as it sounds. With this classic breakfast item, you get a generous cut of chicken weighing half a pound, an egg, as well as sausage gravy. The entire thing costs $13 and is an experience of a lifetime.
- Eggs Benedict
Like every other item on the Village Inn menu, the Eggs Benedict is made to be perfect, and perfect, it is. It contains two poached eggs on a muffin with ham, all topped with a Hollandaise sauce. The best part is that everything sells for about $11, way below the average price of a Village Inn breakfast.
- Build Your Own Breakfast
If you’re eating at Village Inn as a family, it’s best to consider building your breakfast, as that is the homiest thing you’ll ever experience at a restaurant. While you don’t have so many options, you also don’t have to go with whatever comes in the box. In short, it’s the best way to get what Village Inn has to offer.
4. IHOP
For the uninitiated, IHOP is an acronym for the International House of Pancakes, which happens to be an apt description for this restaurant. What is a better way to start your morning than with a delicious serving of pancakes prepared by expert cooks that have cooked pancakes pretty much their entire lives?
While pancakes are what made the restaurant so popular, IHOP doesn’t serve pancakes exclusively. For people who don’t want to spend the rest of their lives digesting pancakes every morning, there are alternatives on the menu, which may be just as good as the pancakes.
To help you learn what dining at IHOP for breakfast looks like, you should see some of the items they serve in the morning. Thankfully, you don’t have to head over to the restaurant’s website for that; I have some delicious options right here for you.
Here are some of the breakfast dishes on IHOP’s menu.
- Build Your Own Omelet
You were probably not expecting to see this, but it’s by far the best deal on breakfast omelets from any restaurant in this compilation. Instead of forcing you to embrace what they pack in the box, they give you the offer to build yours, making it to your desired standards of nutrition and taste.
When building an omelet, you can choose eggs, cheese, sides, and add-ins, some of which are optional. You can also choose a drink with your order to ensure you’re leaving with a satisfying and filling combo meal. In the end, you end up with a very delicious omelet, made to your standards of taste, nutrition, and price.
- Pancakes
Mentioning a specific pancake at this point would be unfair, given that I represented all omelets earlier. There are tons of pancake options on the IHOP menu, all of which are good for breakfast. Some that you’re guaranteed to love include Crepe Combo, Cupcake Pancakes, Chocolate Chip Pancakes, and the Original Buttermilk Pancakes.
5. Coco’s Bakery Restaurant
Coco’s Bakery Restaurant doesn’t reach as many people as IHOP, but it serves arguably better food to those that can access it. Branches are only accessible from New Mexico and California; if you’re out of those two locations, you may have to use one of the several alternatives.
As you’d expect from a bakery restaurant, Coco’s features plenty of fancy items; mostly sweets and confectioneries to spice up its menu. When you learn that the chain started as a snack shop in the late forties, the item selection becomes a lot less surprising.
If you can’t stand those treats, Coco’s Bakery Restaurant has traditional breakfast items that work just as well as signature items. To help you understand your options, I’ll list some of the most popular breakfast items from Coco’s Bakery Restaurant. Without further ado, here you go.
- Build Your Own Breakfast
If you have very specific dietary requirements for breakfast, Coco’s Bakery Restaurant is one of your best stops, as the restaurant allows you to build your breakfast from the ground up. The finished build can be anywhere from 250 to 1,130 calories, which implies a lot of freedom to choose what you want.
When building your breakfast at Coco’s Bakery Restaurant, you can choose your preferred cheese, protein, and any three vegetables. Toppings like avocado, Pico de Gallo, and fried jalapenos will cost you more, but they’re an absolute joy to have on your breakfast.
- Breakfast Burrito
Building a breakfast might appear too time-consuming if you need to order something quickly, and that’s why the Breakfast Burrito exists. It’s simply the next best thing on the menu, including everything you’ll ever need in a good burrito. However, you may want to watch how many calories you’re consuming, as the dish appears to be highly caloric.
- Country Fried Steak & Eggs
If you don’t mind hitting 1,200+ calories with breakfast alone, Coco’s Country Fried Steak & Eggs should sound appealing to you. The meal contains anywhere from 1,210 and 1,910 calories, which is massive for breakfast. On the surface, it is two tender steaks fried to golden brown and served with eggs. In the background, however, it’s a complicated manifestation of breakfast awesomeness.
6. Wawa
Wawa wasn’t designed to be a traditional restaurant, and it shows. It’s simply a chain of convenience stores that also happens to serve built-to-order foods. Somehow, customers seem to reorder from the franchise so much that it comfortably puts it among the best breakfasts in the United States.
Unlike most of the restaurants on this compilation, Wawa has been around for quite a while, specifically since 1803, according to the About Page on its website. However, all the centuries since don’t count as experience, they weren’t breakfast-serving restaurants at the time.
With that, it becomes easier to forgive Wawa for any shortcomings on its menu, which certainly has a couple of them. The most noticeable one is the generally scanty breakfast menu; they had about a century to prepare, and they could only come up with a handful of foods.
If you only want to get the best of the bunch, here are the best breakfast items you can get at Wawa.
- Veggie Egg White Omelet Sandwich
You can always trust to get your breakfast sandwich at Wawa, and with the egg white omelet sandwich, you’ll be getting something considerably better than you’re used to. Since the sandwich is below 500 calories, you can eat comfortably, knowing that you’re not overeating for breakfast. Another interesting fact is that pretty much all the items on the Wawa menu are below 500 calories; show me a healthier place for breakfast.
- Egg White Omelet Burrito Bowl
Another Wawa breakfast delicacy you don’t want to miss is the omelet burrito bowl. While being one of the healthier options at the restaurant, it manages to be so delicious that you’ll order it again. The bowl contains spinach, salsa, and cheddar cheese, all combined to make up a 210 calories package.
- Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Oatmeal
Breakfast doesn’t have to be about eggs, and I guess that’s the only reason this item made it to the menu in the first place. Everything else on the dedicated breakfast menu includes eggs, which isn’t surprising, as eggs are great for breakfast anyway. If you’re tired of them, however, you have your oatmeal to fall back to.
7. Eggslut
Eggslut may not be the most moral name for a restaurant, but you’ll admit names don’t matter once you taste one of its delicious egg sandwiches. While it focuses mainly on food items that you can eat as breakfast, it does it extremely well, winning lots of souls despite its excessively promiscuous name.
If you’re wondering why the restaurant has such a weird name, you should probably check the menu. Pretty much every item on the menu features eggs, but in a way that makes the dish better, not worse. It would be surprising if it’s otherwise, wouldn’t it?
There’s no better way to test the excellence of Eggslut’s breakfast than learning about some of the items on its menu. Given that the restaurant is barely a decade old, you’ll have to forgive the scantiness of the menu, but here are some of the star items available.
- Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Sandwich
Eggslut’s Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Sandwich serves as the default item on the restaurant’s menu. It’s what you get when you’re trying out what Eggslut’s meals taste like, as it represents the restaurant most accurately. The sandwich contains smoked bacon, cheddar cheese, and ketchup, among many other ingredients.
- Egg Salad
If you’d rather have a salad for breakfast, you may as well go for the insanely popular Egg Salad on the Eggslut menu. It’s nothing complex; just a salad that contains hard-boiled eggs. You should also expect to see sliced chives and dressed arugula; all of which contribute to the uniqueness of the salad.
- Sausage, Egg, and Cheese
If you don’t mind sausage for breakfast, Eggslut’s Sausage, Egg, and Cheese should work well for you. According to the restaurant’s official website, the dish is prepared from homemade turkey sausage, cheddar cheese, eggs, and honey mustard aioli. If you think that sounds delicious, wait until you take a bite.
8. Counter Café
The chances are pretty low that you’re hidden away somewhere in Austin, Texas, but if you happen to be in that vicinity, you should consider getting your breakfast from Counter Café. Getting breakfast at a café isn’t a new thing to any American, and this coffee shop manages to refine the experience.
It’s exactly as you’d expect; not particularly large enough to compete with the much bigger restaurants scattered across the United States. However, it’s also not trying to do that, as it only serves a tiny community in Austin Texas; competing with Starbucks is clearly out of reach.
The most noticeable characteristic of Counter Café is the food. For such a tiny café, it seems to have a large menu, predictably dominated by breakfast items. If you’re considering dining at the restaurant, here are some of the most popular items from the menu.
9. Joe’s Special
There’s a Joe’s Special on the Counter Café menu that any new diner should consider trying. From the name, you probably already know it’s a signature dish. It’s prepared from sausage, potatoes, scrambled eggs, spinach, shaved parmesan, and a host of other complex-sounding vegetables. The food item isn’t only healthy, it’s also an insanely delicious breakfast.
You can make the dish healthier by letting go of the sausage for avocado, but that won’t be necessary unless you’re vegan.
- Egg Sandwich
For some, a delicious breakfast sandwich beats any special from the average Joe (pun intended). If you’re not willing to try someone’s special recipe, you can go for the Egg Sandwich that you’re likely familiar with. It’s the same thing with most other restaurants you know, but this one lets you add Pimiento cheese optionally.
- Fried Chicken Biscuit
If you’re looking for a new favorite food, the Fried Chicken Biscuit from Counter Café should serve that purpose excellently. The meal contains fried chicken thigh with a homemade buttermilk biscuit, as you’ve probably imagined. Counter Café managed to make the excellent combination better with breakfast potatoes, and bacon-flavored greens or seasonal fruit.
Conclusion
If you tend to hold breakfast in very high esteem, you’re not alone; it seems like we all agree it’s the best meal of the day. However, an increasingly high number of people seem to struggle from not knowing what to get for breakfast.
Well, this compilation has made that a thing of the past. In addition to listing the best locations, I’ve also shown you some of their best offerings in a bid to treat you to the best breakfast possible. You are welcome.