Whether it's mung bean pancakes filled with kimchi or syrup-drizzled silver dollar pancakes, anything goes at breakfast time in Portland. We’ve scouted out the best sources in the city for omelets, waffles, and all manner of baked goods. Just add coffee from a local roaster, and you’ll be ready to start your day right.
Portland Biscuit Company
Despite being nowhere near the South, Portlanders love their biscuits and gravy. This Hawthorne district walk-up counter (that doubles as Waffle Window) is the place to order breakfast sandwiches, like one with Canadian bacon, Tillamook cheddar, and a fried egg on a fluffy biscuit with a side of gravy, as well as fork-and-knife creations like The Big Bruce, which adds a fried chicken breast to the standard bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit sandwich, then smothers it all in country gravy.
Hungry Heart Bakery
This Montavilla cafe is the perfect option for people who can never choose between a savory or sweet breakfast. Hungry Heart turns out a respectable breakfast burrito filled with scrambled eggs, potatoes, and your choice of protein (we recommend the carnitas), livened up with pickled onions and chipotle crema. But the cardamom-spiced carrot bread and the flaky, buttery croissants prove the pastry game here is also top-notch.
Henry Higgins Boiled Bagels
For the best New York-style bagels available for delivery in Portland, try this bakery with locations in Foster-Powell and Sellwood. The tender-yet-crusty bagels use local Bob's Red Mill flour and are available in classic flavors like everything and pumpernickel, plus a few that would raise eyebrows in NYC, including seasonal specials like cranberry-orange bagels and a candied-apple-walnut schmear. Don’t worry — smoked salmon, lox, whitefish salad, and all the trimmings (capers, red onions, tomatoes) are also on the menu.
Kenny & Zuke's Delicatessen
A beloved Jewish deli that relocated to North Williams in late 2022, Kenny & Zuke’s is the go-to for oak-smoked pastrami on sky-high sammies, bagel sandwiches, and tuna melts. For breakfast, you can opt for the LEO, aka lox, eggs, and onions on a toasted bagel, or order harissa-spiced shakshuka topped with an egg on a bagel for a portable version of a popular Middle Eastern dish.
Olympia Provisions Public House
Portland’s best known charcuterie maker is more than just pate and salami; its restaurant on Division is a hearty taste of the Alps amid the Cascades. On weekends, it’s where to order from to mix up your brunch routine with the Matterhorn Breakfast, featuring poached eggs; OP’s landrauchschinken, a Swiss-style smoked country ham; and potato rosti, all covered in melted raclette cheese. Or try the Alpine Platter, a hearty meal of fingerling potatoes, sauerkraut, mustards, and your choice of sausage.
Mother's Bistro & Bar
If you’re downtown, check out Mother’s for the slew of scrambles, frittatas, and hashes on its homey breakfast menu. We recommend the wild salmon hash for a regional touch, or the migas, eggs scrambled with Jack cheese, corn tortilla strips, onion, and peppers. If you're not into eggs, tofu can be substituted in all of the dishes. No matter your dietary preferences, the cornflake-crusted challah French toast is one of the most popular offerings — and rightly so.
St. Honoré Boulangerie
St. Honoré is the definition of a boulangerie — a shop that excels in freshly baked French bread and pastries — with some Portland twists. That means you can order a traditional pain au chocolat or a Northwestern version made with hazelnuts. (Fun fact: Oregon grows 99% of the hazelnuts in the United States.) There are also savory treats, like a flaky croustade filled with cheese and mushrooms.
John Street Cafe
A solid breakfast bet in St. Johns, this cafe serves everything you might expect for a morning meal. You’ll find plenty of pancakes and omelets, though they do take a few creative liberties to make things interesting. As proof, take the Bacavo Omelet, stuffed with bacon, avocado, and Monterey Jack cheese and topped with blue cheese, and the pancakes with black currants and filberts, the old-timey name for hazelnuts.
The Original Pancake House
Yes, this breakfast specialist can now be found worldwide, but if you’re on the Westside of Portland, it’s worth trying the original, where it all started in 1953. This family-run business in a rambling cottage marked with a candy cane–striped awning is still the place for custardy Dutch babies sprinkled with powdered sugar and slathered with whipped butter, or cherry crêpes flavored with Danish Kijafa, a cherry liqueur.
Cameo Cafe
Of course, this Roseway diner slings greasy-spoon classics like Denver omelets and syrup-soaked French toast, though pancakes at Cameo Cafe can mean anything from plate-sized Full Acre buttermilk rounds or bindaetteok, Korean pancakes made from mung bean flour and rice and served with eggs and bacon. Thanks to owner Sue Gee’s Korean heritage, you can order rice and kimchi with your eggs, or stick with hash browns and buttered toast.
Jam on Hawthorne
The most-ordered dish at this daytime-only restaurant is The Other One Wrap, which makes sense, since it’s a flour tortilla filled with everything breakfast-like: three scrambled eggs, hash browns, cheddar, and bacon or veggie sausage, with salsa and sour cream on the side. For something sweet, the lemon-ricotta Fancy Maddie pancakes, topped with blueberry compote and house-made lemon curd, are also popular. As an added bonus, you can also add a mimosa or Bloody Mary to your order — just show ID upon delivery.
Waffle Window
The name says it all: This is a walk-up window (that does double duty as Portland Biscuit Company) that serves a staggering variety of Belgian waffles. Go beyond basic with the caffeinated Bananamisu Waffle, featuring sliced bananas, espresso mascarpone, and bittersweet chocolate syrup. On the savory side, you’ll find a garden-fresh waffle smothered with Brie, grilled tomatoes, and basil. To gild the lily? An unexpected side of peach jam.
HK Cafe
If you’re more into pork buns than biscuit sandwiches, there’s no better choice than this bustling Chinese restaurant for dim sum that’s served via old-school wheeled carts until 3 p.m. Have that cart metaphorically wheeled right into your house to enjoy steamed shrimp and taro dumplings, sesame balls, or juicy spare ribs to gnaw on. If you have room left over — and that’s a serious "if" — there’s no going wrong with an egg tart as a slightly sweet finish.
JRJ Skillets
There’s no bland breakfast to be found at this Alberta district Oaxacan restaurant. Instead, you’ll find complex mole enchiladas with your protein of choice and made breakfast-y with two eggs, as well as green chile brisket omelets and saucy chilaquiles with fried house-made corn tortillas. Traditionalists can choose from a roster of pancakes and omelets.
Toki
There’s no better weekend option than chef Pete Cho’s Korean-ish restaurant downtown for fun brunch items not easily found elsewhere. And by fun, we mean the Brunchwrap Supreme, a folded tortilla filled with crispy hash browns, eggs, japchae noodles, American cheese, and spicy mayo, and the hotteok, sweet pancakes filled with pork belly, kimchi, and mozzarella. If they haven’t sold out yet, we also recommend adding doughnuts in seasonal flavors, like pumpkin spice, to your cart.
The Slide Inn
A vegetarian-friendly cafe with a Germanic bent, The Slide Inn serves dishes inluding curry tofu hash made with local Ota tofu, sautéed with vegetables and sprinkled with nutritional yeast, and the more decadent zwetschgenschmarrn, a baked Austrian pancake that’s cut into small pieces, caramelized with sugar, and served with a warm plum-cinnamon compote. Most items can be made gluten-free if they aren’t to begin with.
Carioca Bowls
If you’re more into superfoods than super-sized meals, this Alberta district cafe specializing in acai bowls might be your speed. Choose from combinations like the IPA Blend, which promises protein in the form of acai, peanut butter, blueberries, and chia seeds, or the energizing Copa Blend that adds coconut cream, strawberries, blueberries, lion's mane mushrooms, and coconut milk to the acai. All bowls include banana and gluten-free granola and can be gussied up with premium add-ons like bee pollen and red maca.
Harlow
A popular vegetarian and vegan cafe with two locations, Harlow is a little crunchy yet thoroughly modern. That translates to biscuits and gravy in which gluten-free mushroom-scallion biscuits are served with roasted vegetables and tempeh “sausage” gravy, and scrambles that mix an entire garden’s worth of root vegetables, mushrooms, and brassicas with walnut-basil pesto and brown rice or quinoa. Add a smoothie like the Liquid Sunshine to your order for an energizing tropical drink enhanced by Indian gooseberry.
King's Bakery
You might not think of Chinese bakeries as a breakfast option, but a ham-and-egg bun paired with an iced Hong Kong milk tea is the perfect morning pick-me-up. Everything is a bargain at King’s, so we recommend also trying the simply named frank with cheese, a bacon-wrapped hot dog nestled into a split bun and topped with melted cheddar, or the steamed-pork-filled glutinous rice dumplings called zongzi.
PHOTO CREDITS:
Courtesy of Olympia Provisions Public House Brunch
Courtesy of Saint Honoré Boulangerie
Courtesy of Jam on Hawthorne
