I was inspired for this thread by the English Breakfast thread on another spot. I go out for a late breakfast/brunch once every week or 2.
My go to is a big vege breakfast from a shopping centre chain food place. (Coffee Club if you’re in Australia)
2 eggs, fried, scrambled or poached, sautéed mushrooms, wilted spinach, couple of slices of Haloumi, 1/4 Avocado, a lemon wedge, halved cherry tomatoes, hash brown, beetroot hummus and toast. I always add a couple of Chipolatas as I’m not vegetarian. Dead set Yum and it keeps me going til dinner time.
I’ve eaten the carnivore’s big breakfast at lots of places over the years, I just really like this combination and I’ll sometimes make it at home.
Sometimes at home I’ll replace the toast and chipolatas with a burger patty and some baked beans.
If it’s a place that serves omelets, that’s what I’ll usually get, with sausage, cheese, spinach, and maybe ham. Wheat toast, and maybe hashbrowns on the side.
The big breakfast of any description is usually the go. I used to meet a friend on Thursday nights at a Leagues club for dinner and a couple of beers. I often had the 24 hour big breakfast then.
Coincidentally, a woman from work, who I have only spoken to in Teams meetings, suggested recently that we catch up for brunch at the Coffee Club near us. That vegetarian option with added chipolatas looks good but I may include the bacon too.
Any breakfast/brunch that features eggs and nothing but is no place I’d go. I cannot eat eggs.
Despite that, I’m usually able to scrap together a nice breakfast/brunch from the sides on the menu. Hash browns, bacon, toast and jam, sausages—I can manage, and usually enjoy it too. Bonus if there are pancakes or waffles. Best of all is if the place offers a BLT for breakfast. In that case, I’m there! A BLT is, to me, the perfect breakfast. No need for eggs.
But “two eggs and ____” on every breakfast item? Sorry, can’t do it. Why does the hospitality industry seem to feel that one’s day absolutely must start with eggs?
From a practical standpoint, they’re cheap, quick to prepare, and a good source of protein, and if you’re still in a largely agricultural society/economy the collection of eggs is an early morning activity so it makes sense to have them at breakfast when they’re very fresh.
Big breakfasts in the Australian tradition made me the man i am today [like a fat version of @stui_magpie’s picture].
In the last decade or so we’ve had smashed avocado becoming popular and exported to the world, and its usually a good, fresh, filling alternative. Some of my local cafes do versions of mushrooms on toast - usually 2-3 different types, maybe marinaded - which are usually nice and meaty enough to not need an additional actual meat, although a side of bacon never hurts (Australia does the short-cut back bacon, not the streaky kind).
You can get an excellent Middle Eastern / Egyptian / Leb breakfast around here as well - based around two poached eggs, dips, flat bread, feta or similar, dukka and grilled vegetables.
While I’ve made them, I don’t bother any more. For a while I was trying to cook the eggs in an immersion circulator (it’s not “sous vide” if not under vacuum) and I got really good but inconsistent results. I like the whites cooked much hotter than the yolks, so I’d have to get the timing just so. But I found there’s enough size variation in a carton to mess up the results.
So I also gravitate toward the eggs benedict. I don’t eat breakfast in restaurants much. It was usually for work travel, which I don’t do much these days.
I make most common breakfast items at home and do it pretty well, but we occasionally will go for brunch. There’s a place near here that make a pretty good huevos rancheros, which is one of the few things I don’t make at home. I also rarely make eggs Benedict, so that’s another option.
I don’t eat brunch very often, but when i do I’m often inviting the family over for bagels and lox. If I’m eating at a restaurant, it’ll probably be two eggs, over easy, on toast, with a side of either bacon or sausage. I ask the server which they recommend. If the plate comes with hash browns, i usually give those away. Sometimes i upgrade to eggs Benedict instead of over easy.
“Momma’s Pancake Breakfast” at Cracker Barrel – three pancakes, two eggs (scrambled with cheese), sausage (turkey, if available) and a side of bacon. With iced tea, sweet.
My favorite used to be a western omelette with extra cheese, hash browns and biscuits & gravy. But I don’t live near my favorite place to get that anymore, so I don’t really like to go out for breakfast anymore.
I rarely eat breakfast and so rarely eat breakfast in a restaurant. When I do it’s when I’m traveling, so maybe twice or three times a year.
Pre-DMII I would order carb-heavy stuff like hashbrowns with gravy with toast or biscuits and gravy with fruit or a stack of pancakes (with added cream cheese… yuuumm). These days I’ll order a carnivore’s omelet with a side of sausages and a glass of iced tea. Our favorite hotel in Portland has a continental brakfast that has pretty good eggs and bacon, that’s usually what I choose the couple times a year we’re staying there.
It used to be a Country Boy breakfast at the Patriot diner. Pancakes, eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage, and toast. I can’t eat like that anymore, it’s enough for 2 or 3 people.