Best Breakfast in Atlanta

Our list of breakfast places to try in Atlanta.

Photo credit: CL File

Peanut Butter French Toast at Highland Bakery

By CL Staff Friday January 8, 2021 08:45 AM EST

Breakfast in the South is a distinctive meal. None of this toast and jam as the first meal of the day. Atlanta has a wide offering of breakfasts, brunch and we give you some selection of pancakes, grits, biscuits as well as the Best places to get your day started.

The Best Breakfast in Atlanta

According to our Critics and our Readers is:

Home grown GA Restaurant

Home grown is a picturesque illustration of its straightforward aspirations and its eclectic Reynoldstown neighborhood. Most of what is served is grown by local farmers; therefore, the menu is short and changes daily, depending on what’s available. Simple Southern classics, however, such as a fried ... | more...

Where to Eat Breakfast in Atlanta

Majestic Diner

For all the debauchery and bleary-eyed clubbing that ordering a plate of hash browns at 4 a.m. entails, this is the only place to go. Delightfully greasy burgers, eggs, grits, and other diner favorites stave off oncoming hangovers and settle woozy, boozy tummies. Stone-cold sober? This Atlanta insti... | more...

Ria’s Bluebird

Wildly popular breakfast spot (that serves lunch, too), offering perfectly potent coffee, fluffy biscuits, and both creative dishes and traditional staples. Lots of vegetarian options, too. | more...

The Original Pancake House

Breakfast Dishes to Try

(from our 100 Dishes List

Breakfast Combo at Desta Ethiopian

Available at Desta Ethiopian Kitchen

One way to banish morning meal monotony is to see how they do it in other parts of the world. At Desta Ethiopian, culinary adventurers must try the breakfast combo. There are scrambled eggs you can scoop up with spongy injera bread; some chechebsa, Ethiopia’s answer to chilaquiles, made with torn of pieces of flat bread seasoned with hot berbere spices and butter or olive oil; and kinche, cracked grains cooked with olive oil or butter.

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Comfy Chicken Biscuit at Home Grown

Available at Home grown GA Restaurant

Don’t let the name fool you. This open-faced take on the classic Southern breakfast sandwich is an all-out knife-and-fork affair. Crispy, deep-fried chicken breasts sit atop a fluffy biscuit split open and slathered with a peppery punch of hearty sausage gravy. Get comfy and loosen your belt a notch, or maybe two.

Breakfast southern

Country-Fried Tempeh And Gravy at Ria’s Bluebird

Available at Ria’s Bluebird

This vegetarian take on country-fried steak and gravy hits all the recognizable pleasure points: solid golden crunch, smooth white gravy, and salty satisfaction. The surprise is that the nutty flavor and texture of tempeh fits right in. This isn’t decadence with a vegetarian asterisk; it is an unqualified pleasure.

Breakfast southern vegetarian

Cross-Eyed Scramble at Gato

Available at Gato

While tourists wait in line across the street for Flying Biscuit, ITP denizens grab a stool or booth at Candler Park’s Gato instead. One standout breakfast item, the vegetarian cross-eyed scramble, comprises a heap of seared tofu, green peppers, onions and seasonings on a plate, smothered by cheese as well as red and green salsas. If you can down the whole thing plus a side biscuit, you deserve a trophy. $7.95.

Breakfast vegetarian tofu

Fish and Grits at Rising Son

Available at Rising Son

A traditional low country dish becomes a Piedmont variation in Avondale Estates. Here, a deep bowl of velvety cheese grits is topped with lightly fried North Carolina trout. The skin is crispy while the meat has a flaky tenderness. As a golden crown, choose two eggs. Poached is the way to go, swirling unctuous ribbons of yolk with creamy and crunchy forkfuls. $14.

Breakfast low couuntry grits trout

Folk Southern Fried at Folk Art

Available at Folk Art - Inman Park

Need a little hangover relief? At Folk Art, a fried chicken breast hoisted atop a huge flaky biscuit smothered in hearty-but-not-overwhelming sausage gravy topped with eggs might do the trick. Opt for fried eggs to add the luscious trickle of runny yolk. The Folk Southern Fried, as it’s called, won’t cure your hangover, but the pleasure that follows each glorious, gooey bite just might make you forget about it.

Breakfast southern

French Toast Sandwich at Le Petite Marche

Available at Le Petit Marche

Every so often, there’s an intimidating wait at Petit Marché (on Hosea L. Williams Drive), but if you’re tired of every other restaurant’s limp, stuffed, dry, or pumpkin-spiced French toast, get in line at this Kirkwood eatery and stay there. You can help yourself to a steaming cup of coffee while you wait to be seated, and watch everyone else adoring their food. Their French-toast sandwich is a classic: two vanilla-rum battered, butter-fried pieces of thick, eggy bread, a hefty pile of scrambled eggs nestled inside, along with your choice of pork bacon or chicken or veggie sausage, all of it finished off with powdered sugar and drizzled in buttery maple syrup. Heaven.

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Guatemalan Tamale/Pache/Chuchito trio at Xelapan Cafeteria

Available at Xela Pan Cafe

Technically this is three dishes — all variations on the Guatemalan tamale — but the trio makes for a hearty breakfast or lunch, and tasting all three side by side is a great way to debate the merits of corn vs. rice vs. potato as bases for the perfect tamale. All come with bone-in chicken cooked inside, and the tamale and pache both come wrapped in aromatic maxan leaves (as opposed to the chuchito, wrapped in corn husk). Go early; they run out quick. $6.75.

Breakfast Guatemalan Food tamale Pache Chuchito

Ham And Cheese Bun at Sweet Hut

Available at Sweet Hut Bakery & Cafe

Sweet Hut is a chic, self-serve bakery known for its huge pastry cases filled with a stunning array of delicate, airy, buttery treats. There are sweet things such as buns filled with chocolate or mango pudding, but also other savory goodies waiting to be plucked onto a tray. Our favorite is a user-friendly sweet bun filled with good-old ham and cheese. Inside, the cloud-like pastry ? think Hawaiian roll, but better ? is stuffed with layers of salty ham, white American cheese, and plenty of black pepper. The bun is a scrumptious introduction to this Taiwanese trove that has locations on Buford Highway and in Midtown.

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Omelette du jour at Bread & Butterfly

Available at Bread & Butterfly

A true French omelette is hard to find, but Bread & Butterfly’s version offers a direct flight to Paris. Silky on the outside, lush and creamy on the inside — all it takes is good farm eggs, equally good butter and pure old-school technique. Daily variations include the addition of fresh goat cheese or intense pesto, but any day is a good day for this eggy delight. $13.

Breakfast omelette french cuisine

Pao De Queijo Waffle at Buteco

Available at Buteco

Buteco, the new Brazilian street food eatery and bar located at the Beacon in Grant Park opens at 7 a.m., making these delicious bites perfect for breakfast, though they are also available for lunch and dinner until closing. Choose from ham, mozzarella, and oregano; bacon, diced egg, and cheddar, guava jelly; and more – while adding an order of coxinha, because you can!

Breakfast Waffle

Peanut Butter French Toast at Highland Bakery

Available at Highland Bakery - Emory

If giants were real and they had a sweet tooth, they’d eat this indulgent creation. Bring a buddy or prepare for a severe sugar rush before sticking a fork into the two overgrown slices of challah bread slathered with peanut butter and encrusted with bran flakes, cut in half, and swimming in a shallow pool of brown sugar butter and caramelized bananas.

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Pecan Waffle at Waffle House

Available at

What? That waffle is damn good and you know it. And if you don’t know it you should. It’s nutty and crispy and golden ? and a damn institution. There’s a reason this place is called the Waffle House.

Breakfast Waffles southern

Raspberry Cream Cheese Danish at Proof Bakeshop

Available at Proof Bakeshop

Originally brought to Denmark by Austrian bakers, the Danish pastry has suffered its fair share of degradation on our fair shores (we’re looking at you, Little Debbie). But at Inman Park’s Proof Bakeshop, pastry chef Carey Bell whips up a dreamy little number that could make even a true Dane swoon. Start your morning off sweet with a cuppa Counter Culture and striations of layered viennoiserie curled around a cushion of cream cheese and topped with a tart ’n’ seedy dollop of raspberry jam. $2.85.

Breakfast pastry Carey Bell Danish Food viennoiserie

Steak and eggs at Empire State South

Available at Empire State South

Jaws drop on cue when this brunch dish emerges from the kitchen — a steak and eggs platter that can feed a party of four, featuring a massive dry-aged, bone-in rib-eye cooked sous vide with aromatics like fennel and coriander, then finished on a Big Green Egg. Accoutrements vary week to week (as does the size and price of each steak), but you can expect several sunny-side-up eggs, a scattering of fried shrimp or oysters, sauces like a hollandaise or charred onion cream, and sides of grits or hash browns. Splurge away; that’s what brunch is for.

Breakfast steak and eggs steak shrimp oyster hollandaise

Toast with Avocado and Fried Egg (with a Piccolo on the side) at Spiller Park

Available at Spiller Park Coffee

Spiller Park’s avocado toast earns a home run thanks to the thick, buttered slices of sourdough bread that serve as its foundation, and the fact that you can get a perfectly pulled piccolo — espresso and steamed milk, twice as intense as a typical latte — as accompaniment. The avocado comes mashed up with chili powder, salt and lime, plus a scattering of salted radish slices. Don’t pass on the optional runny fried egg on top. $7 + $3.70.

breakfast avocado piccolo espresso toast

Toast With Avocado And Fried Egg at Spiller Park

Available at Spiller Park Coffee

Spiller Park’s avocado toast earns a home run thanks to the thick, buttered slices of sourdough bread that serve as its foundation, and the fact that you can get a perfectly pulled piccolo ? espresso and steamed milk, twice as intense as a typical latte ? as accompaniment. The avocado comes mashed up with chili powder, salt and lime, plus a scattering of salted radish slices. Don’t pass on the optional runny fried egg on top.

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Twisted cruller with sweet soy milk at Northern China Eatery

Available at

In an age of overwrought doughnuts dueling to outdo each other, Northern China Eatery’s traditional fried-to-order crullers or youtiao, paired with warm house-made soy milk, are the ultimate simple pleasure. The crullers come in pairs, a foot long each, crisp outside and in. Dunk them, or let them briefly bathe in the sweetened soy milk before spooning up the goodness. Ideal for breakfast but served all day. $4.

Breakfast crullers youtiao doughnuts

Yoga Pants at Ticonderoga Club

Available at Ticonderoga Club

Maybe it’s the name (and the accompanying menu illustration of a taut tush) that makes the Yoga Pants a destination brunch dish. Or maybe it’s the intensely flavorful spent pineapple puree, made from the leftovers of juicing the fruit for the bar’s eponymous Ticonderoga Cup. Then again, it could be the hidden spread of honey underneath the thick yogurt, or the crunchy granola topped with toasted coconut and almonds. Regardless, there’s no better way in town to start your weekend off right. $8.

breakfast brunch

Other Breakfast Restaurants

ADios Cafe

The cafe’s name does not mean goodbye, but “of the gods” — a tribute to the Mayans, who discovered chocolate in 600 A.D. and believed it was a gift from the gods. They offer such goodies as handmade chocolate trufas (truffles), immensely fruity little strawberry pound cake loaves that are flavored w... | more...

Another Broken Egg Cafe

No description provided | more...

Babs Midtown

No description provided | more...

Biscuits & More

Breakfast At Barney’s

Website: Breakfast At Barneys is a family run business founded by two AUC alumni friends “Barney” Lee Berry Jr & Dr. Rashad Sanford. The pair dreamed about creating a place to go during the day in downtown Atlanta that brings together everyone from all backgrounds to enjoy food, culture and share go... | more...

Buttermilk Kitchen

Casual sport serving Southern-inspired breakfast and lunch menu, plus desserts. | more...

Corner Cafe

Buckhead Life’s lunchtime cafe and bakery, serving soups, salads and sandwiches. | more...

Crooked Tree Cafe

Barbecue restaurant with local movement tendencies (locally sourced meats, veggies, and other ingredients). Sandwiches, plates, salads, sides, and dessert goodness. | more...

Cultivate Food and Coffee

No description provided | more...