It’s Saturday morning, a prime day for breakfast out in Orange County with tables filling quickly at popular spots such as Kimmie’s, the Original Pancake House and the Sugar Shack in Huntington Beach. According to food industry analyst Technomic Inc.’s recent Breakfast Report that’s typical: 20 percent of Americans are eating breakfast away from home more often than they were a year ago.
But if your weekend breakfast routine takes you to the same restaurant over and over, maybe it’s time to shake it up. The Register food team scoured the county to bring you some of the tastiest morning meals out there.
We steered clear of a few standbys to bring you a mixed bag of breakfasts to suit all tastes. We’ve got some for dedicated foodies with gourmet palates, some for those who like to eat breakfast at odd hours and others for adventurous souls who enjoy digging into mole and other exotic dishes first thing in morning. Of course we’ve thrown in a couple for fans of biscuits with gravy and other comfort foods.
So if you’re in a breakfast rut, try some of these, they could become your new favorites:
All-Day Breakfast Breakfast is often more satisfying – and even sinful – when devoured after hours. For this story, we defined “after hours” as breakfast served beyond the traditional noon cutoff found at most restaurants. At Durango Mexican Grill in Brea, breakfast is served until 9 p.m. daily. On Tuesday and Friday, you get an extra hour (till 10 p.m.) to order one of their standard Cal-Mex breakfast dishes – machaca ($6.49), breakfast tacos ($1.99) and egg-stuffed burritos ($5). They also sell the less common chilaquiles. ($5). 730 E. Imperial Highway, Brea, 714-255-5660. But if you’re going to get this saucy nachos-style dish, then drop everything and head to Anepalco’s Café in Orange (two locations) – because nothing else compares. My favorite is the chilaquiles doused with tomatillo sauce and sprinkled with cotija cheese, sour cream, avocado mousse, pico de gallo and pepitas ($10). It’s topped with an omelet-style egg. The restaurant’s No. 1 breakfast seller contains oil-free chips that “are the closest we can get as the traditional way of making chips in Mexico, which is letting them dry under the sun, not deep fried,” general manager Jose Cerrudo says. Breakfast is served every day until 3 p.m. at both Anepalco’s locations in Orange, except the flagship Main Street location – it is only open until 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. 415 S. Main St., Orange 714-771-2333 and 3737 W. Chapman Ave., Orange, 714-456-9642 anepalcoscafe.com If you crave breakfast burrito nirvana for dinner or an after-school snack, one of the best is at Nick’s Deli in Seal Beach. (It’s listed among stats wonk Nate Silver’s Top 20 best in America did Silver do a Top 20? It looks like he did an NCAA-style burrito bracket, based on brain-numbing algorithms.) The marriage of chorizo and scrambled eggs is pure perfection at Nick’s. Get it with the hot, not mild, sauce. It’s not as spicy as you think, and the sauce adds an extra layer of flavor to the standard 8-inch burrito, which also contains cheese, potatoes and bacon ($6.43). You definitely need the sauce for the veggie — a decent meatless version with eggs, cheese and potatoes ($5.35). Bring cash to Nick’s, which is open until 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and until 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. If you don’t want to fight the beach traffic, go to the Los Alamitos outlet. The burritos taste the same, if not better, and parking is a breeze. They also have longer weekday hours. Nick’s in Los Alamitos also takes plastic. 223 Main St., Seal Beach, 562-598-5072 and 10900 Los Alamitos Blvd. No. 109, Los Alamitos, 562-795-7766. The reigning King of fried chicken and waffles has made its way to Orange County. Los Angeles’ legendary Roscoe’s House of Chicken ’n Waffles opened in Anaheim last month, drawing huge crowds clamoring for a plate of Roscoe’s famous cast iron fried chicken ($10-$20). The signature chicken and waffles dishes are available at the Harbor Boulevard Roscoe’s until 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday. 2110 Harbor Blvd, Anaheim, 714-823-4130, roscoeschickenandwaffles.com If you want to steer clear of the Disney Resort madness, try the chicken and waffles at Quinn’s Old Town Grill in Tustin. Some Yelpers say it beats Roscoe’s. Quinn’s deep-fried chicken is coated with Kentucky Kernel Flour – no, not KFC, but the same product used for the chicken served at the Kentucky Derby. The fried batter magically clings to the meat with every bite. At first, the chicken and waffles dish was only available for breakfast, but it is now offered every day at lunch and dinner ($13.50 and $15.75). 405 El Camino Real, Tustin, 714-731-2263. Comfort food breakfasts Veterans and patriots will feel right at home at Paul’s Coffee Shop, where the decor is all military right down to the camouflage netting and army helmets. The food is mess-hall hearty, with eggs accompanied by toast and a choice of potatoes, either hash browns or almost mashed home fries, with onions and green peppers. The French toast never gets soggy, waffles have crispy edges and both are served with regular or boysenberry syrup, in a combo with two eggs and bacon or sausage ($7.75). But it’s the chicken fried steak ($12.99) that deserves a 21-gun salute. This big boy Salisbury-type slab weighs in at a full pound and comes smothered in a rich cream gravy gently spiked with black pepper. Add two fluffy 3-inch high biscuits with that same gravy ($3.25) and you’ll be fueled for a 10-mile march. 16947 Bushard St., Fountain Valley, 714-965-3643, paulscoffeeshopfountainvalley.com On the weekends, you’ll wait in line but you won’t mind. There could be 20 diners ahead of you, but so is a bountiful breakfast filled with aloha spirit at Stacks Pancake House in South County. The signature dish is a pile of three spongy buttermilk cakes ($3.75), also made in variations from Oreo ($6.95) to chocolate chip ($4.75) and gluten free ($7.95). Surfers love the Loco Moco ($7.50) with burger, white rice and fried eggs. But the superstars here are the eggs Benedict ($8.50) coated with a rich hollandaise sauce on top of melt-in-your-mouth kalua pork and the Captain Mac Nut French Toast ($6.95). It’s battered Hawaiian bread, coated in cereal and nuts, so crunchy it won’t wilt even when drowned in coconut syrup. This joint is kid-friendly, dog-friendly and just plain friendly; servers make the wait bearable and so does the iced Mexican cocoa ($3.50). 34255 Pacific Coast Highway, Dana Point, 949-429-2222, stackspancakehouse.com. Gourmet Breakfasts Everything on the menu at the graffiti-walled breakfast-only Break of Dawn (which recently moved to a new location in the same Laguna Hills shopping center) seems familiar at first, but it’s not. Bacon and eggs? The eggs are poached, then dipped into tempura batter and deep-fried, served with house-cured pork belly and a sauce that tastes like kimchi ($14). French toast ($16) looks like it should, but it tastes of palm sugar and chocolate-soy caramel. Also excellent is the lamb ragu with spaetzle and pumpkin seeds ($16), topped with one of those thick-and-gooey slow-poached eggs. 24291 Avenida De La Carlota, Laguna Hills, 949-587-9418, breakofdawnrestaurant.com. The dry-rubbed flat-iron steak at Plums Cafe in Costa Mesa was one of the best dinner bargains around, but they stopped serving dinner this year. Fortunately, that same wonderful steak shows up at breakfast paired with eggs and skillet potatoes ($18.50). The chocolate waffles with bananas and cream ($15) could easily count as dessert – nothing wrong with that. Consider, too, the Dutch baby pancake ($14), which is more like a giant fallen soufflé than a pancake, perhaps best shared by the entire table. 369 E. 17th St., Costa Mesa, 949-722-7586, plumscafe.com. The wait for breakfast on weekends at Haute Cakes in Newport Beach can be daunting, but a quick cut to the front of the line for a peek at the pastry case is all you’ll need to stay motivated. While almost everyone orders pancakes of some sort, the best things here are the pastries. A better cinnamon twist ($3.50) than this does not exist. Ditto the cinnamon roll ($3.50). And eggs? Get the avocado toast, topped with a mountain of chorizo and perfectly poached eggs ($8.91). 1807 Westcliff Drive, Newport Beach, 949-642-4114, hautecakescaffe.co. Breakfast with a Twist Stats guru Nate Silver also includes Ham ’n Scram’s breakfast burrito among his Top 20 best in America. The egg and hash brown, bacon, onion, cheese and bell pepper stuffed burrito ($6.46) is worthy, but the hidden gem here is the HamCakes ($6.25). Inspired by classic crab cakes, father and son team Forrest and Jeremy Frederick added HamCakes to their pig-centric menu a year ago. The hand-formed patty is made with “pulsed” ham, and cubed ham mixed with bread crumbs, mayo, mustard, egg and various spices. Grilled and served with an over easy fried egg (for $6.25), this crazy concoction is sure to delight any adventurous breakfast lover. 5871-A Westminster Blvd., Westminster, 714-899-9100, hamnscram.com. Tucked in the artisanal labyrinth of The Camp is a bounty of breakfast beauties delivered with big bold flavors at Old Vine Café in Costa Mesa. Breakfast is divided into three core palate pleasers: savory, sweet and comfy. Each dish is familiar (crepes, omelets, French toast) but presented with a sophisticated – and often head-scratching – touch by Chef Mark McDonald. Our table did a double take when we found rabbit mole on the menu. Topped with two eggs, the pasilla and cashew mole ($20) is a decadent showstopper. Unless you have tortillas for “wiping” your plate, we recommend ordering your eggs “over hard” for a less messy experience. Breakfast is available daily until 3 p.m. Besides the off-the-wall items, decadent gourmet classics include the bread pudding style French toast ($13.50), sweet ricotta mousse crepes ($12) and biscuits and gravy ($14.5). The portions are huge, so take a doggie bag for midnight leftovers. 2937 Bristol St. Suite A-102, Costa Mesa, 714-545-1411, oldvinecafe.com. Crusty baguettes at the small but stylish Rialto Cafe lift two favorite dishes out of the ordinary. Slices of bread, instead of English muffins, form the base of the eggs Benedict ($10), topped with Farmer John ham, nicely poached hen fruit and a rich hollandaise sauce. Or try the Rialtos Rancheros: fried eggs served with baguette slices slathered with sun-dried tomato spread, fresh bruschetta topping and tangy blue cheese crumbles ($9.95). And while you’re taking left turns, this is a good place to indulge in iced coffee ($2.50), a strong, generous pour served in a mason jar. Sip that slowly and decide whether to split Nutella crepes with strawberries if you’re still hungry ($9). 108 W. Wilshire Ave., Fullerton, 714-525-5111. rialtocafefullerton.com.
