Best Breakfast Chain
If you're ready to shake up your wake-up routine, you can rise and dine at your nearest breakfast café. What better way to start your day than with a waffle topped with sliced strawberries or a breakfast burrito stuffed with sautéed veggies (with zero kitchen prep on your part)? Our list of the top breakfast chains in the U.S. will get you egg-cited about creative omelets, fizzy mimosas and fluffy pancakes—all with a generous helping of great service that makes leaving the house early worth it.
These 10 breakfast chains were selected by our featured panelists and contributors and voted on by readers as the best of the best.
1. First Watch
Good mornings start at First Watch, a 1980s California gathering spot that's gone national with its hearty and healthy take on breakfast. From French toast topped with fresh fruit to a trio of breakfast tacos, First Watch delivers—to your table and your front door! The company gives back to every community it whisks up pancakes in, so you can feel good about downing that second plate of Million Dollar Bacon.
2. Ruby Slipper
Seasonal mimosa flights, six kinds of eggs Benedict, sugar-glazed bacon called pig candy—there's no place like Ruby Slipper for a one-of-a-kind brunch. This New Orleans–based café has begun to expand, doling out its fried green tomatoes and Gulf shrimp omelets to the rest of the South. Perhaps the chain's most delightful feature is its dog-friendly menu: order your goodest boy a banana pupcake or an egg and chicken sausage scramble.
3. Snooze, an A.M. Eatery
If you Snooze, you definitely won't lose! You'll have a winning morning with the eatery's 1950s diner vibe and crazy pancakes (care to tackle a stack of pineapple upside-down pancakes?). For something savory, try a lean protein scramble or a hearty plate of hash browns covered in cheddar. All ingredients are responsibly sourced, so your nitro cold brew goes toward planting trees and making the planet a better place.
4. Big Bad Breakfast (BBB)
What happened when a James Beard Award–winning chef from New Orleans turned his attention to the most important meal of the day? Big Bad Breakfast was born. Plates piled high with andouille sausage, eggs fixed however you like, cheese-covered hash cakes made from scratch—it's the Big Easy way to start your day. As amazing as the popular Bloody Marys are, the fresh, fluffy biscuits are BBB's buttery stars.
5. The Toasted Yolk Cafe
Let's thank Texas for sharing the churro doughnuts and brisket tacos from The Toasted Yolk Cafe with the rest of the South. Its dozens of cafés, mostly along the Gulf Coast, have breakfast lovers up at sunrise for chicken-fried steak with eggs or healthy Southwest breakfast bowls. Rather sleep in? Then stop by for lunch, where patty melts and strawberry salads will deliciously fuel your day.
6. Waffle House
A highway landmark that's as essential to Southern culture as grits and football, Waffle House has been serving late-night road trippers and traveling sports teams since 1955. Open 24 hours, its nearly 2,000 diners are famous for their friendly service and their smothered, covered and chunked hash browns. And it's affordable—the popular All-Star Special breakfast is big enough to split (though you may want the pecan waffle for yourself).
7. The Original Pancake House
The family-owned Original Pancake House has been an icon in the breakfast world for over 70 years, spreading its famous apple pancakes and golden Dutch baby pancakes across the country. Everything's made from scratch using the finest ingredients and a family sourdough recipe. If a sugar-glazed meal of flapjacks sounds too sweet, opt for corned beef hash or a ham omelet—though every savory meal still comes with pancakes!
8. Another Broken Egg Cafe
Another Broken Egg Cafe has been toasting the morning with mimosas and omelets since 1996. Foodies love to brunch here thanks to an upscale twist on Southern staples, so if you think shrimp should go with grits and chicken tastes great with waffles, this place gives your favorite comfort food a chef's kiss. Order a sugary beignet and a peach mocktail or blackberry mule to round out your high-cotton meal.
9. Maple Street Biscuit Company
Maple Street Biscuit Company believes a warm welcome each morning is a must, and that the humble biscuit can be so much more. Throughout the menu, you'll find quirky, flavor-filled creations—like the fried chicken, goat cheese and pepper jelly biscuit featured on Food Network's Guilty Pleasures. Your biscuit isn't complete without a handcrafted drink, from maple vanilla lattes and sweet cream cold brew to hot honey lemonade and fruit tea.
10. Hash House A Go Go
Hash House A Go Go calls its style "twisted farm food," and it's easy to see why: sage fried chicken stacked precariously high on a waffle, a pork tenderloin sandwich you might need three hands to eat and Snickers pancakes the size of a tractor's steering wheel. Still have room after a crab cake-stuffed burger? The restaurant's famous B.L.T. Mary cocktail is a hearty meal in itself.
About Newsweek Readers' Choice Awards
Our nominees are editorially driven with contributions from a panel of travel experts. The final list is determined by Newsweek editors. Readers can vote once per category, per day. For more details, read our terms and conditions. For any questions, please see our FAQs or email us at readerschoice@newsweek.com.
Our Featured Panelists
Julie Bielenberg
Julie Bielenberg is a Colorado-based writer producing over 75 pieces a year for outlets such as AAA, Family Vacationist, Rachel Ray in Season, Spoke + Blossom, USA Today, Vail Daily and numerous others. She has been the State's #1 agritourism for ten consecutive years and is always in search of field, farm, forest and forage. Julie has three children and two pandemic pooches and is married to an avid outdoorsman. Follow her on Instagram.
Jenn & Ed Coleman
Jenn and Ed Coleman, aka Coleman Concierge, are a Huntsville-based Gen X couple sharing stories of amazing adventures through transformational and experiential travel. They advocate for sustainable and ethical tourism and truly believe in the power of travel to transform both the traveler as well as the world. Their tagline is "amazing adventures for ordinary people" because they contend that you don't have to be super-rich, super-fit or super-anything to have an amazing adventure. Learn more about their journeys at colemanconcierge.com or follow them @conciergecorner and @coleman_concierge. You can also find them on Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter.
Cherith Fluker
Cherith Glover Fluker is an Alabama-based freelance writer specializing in travel, self-care, and lifestyle content. With a blend of experience, creativity and Southern warmth, Cherith's writing resonates with readers seeking inspiration and authenticity. Her work has appeared in Food, Wine, & Travel Magazine, SheBuysTravel, LakeLife 24/7, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Motherly and more. She also shares her voice on her blog, WhatCherithinks. Cherith is the author of the book Secret Birmingham, set to be published in fall 2025. She is a member of the International Food, Wine & Travel Writers Association and the National Federation of Press Women.
Melissa Garcia
Melissa Garcia, known as the ConsumerQueen, is a full-time content creator with over 20 years of experience helping people save money and make savvy decisions. Her mission is to teach others to save where they can so they can spend on what they love. Melissa shares the best products to make life easier and also owns RoamingMyPlanet and The Oklahoma Homesteader, where she continues to inspire and educate her audience.
Misty Milioto
Misty Milioto is a freelance writer and editor with 22 years of experience working with publications across the country. Publications have included Sunset; U.S. News & World Report; and Modern Luxury's suite of 80+ regional publications, such as Aspen Magazine, San Francisco Magazine and Scottsdale Magazine. She also oversees a luxury lifestyle blog at girlwilltravel.com. She loves everything from exotic destinations and outdoor recreation to exploring the bounty of foodie goodness in New Orleans, where she is currently based. You can connect with her on Instagram.
Ava Roxanne Stritt
Ava Roxanne Stritt is a top authority on luxury travel and is called the most influential person in the world regarding spa travel. Followers of @SpaTravelGal will tell you she is responsible for transforming the idea of a spa day into a wellness adventure! Her passion for unique experiences has carried her around the world from "taking the waters" in Europe's thermal spas to hiking waterfalls in the rainforests of Ecuador for a massage surrounded by hummingbirds. She is the founder of Spa Travel Gal and a member of the Society of American Travel Writers and Wellness Tourism Association.
Newsweek contributors speak from a variety of backgrounds and offer expertise in a wide range of subject areas.