Top 5 Los Angeles Breakfast Restaurants, According to the Locals

Every city has its highest-rated restaurants, arranged in every category according to things like atmosphere, creativity and “panache,” whatever that is. But unless you’re part of the jet-set crowd, none of that really matters when it’s Saturday morning (or afternoon) and you’re waking up with a screaming, aching void in the pit of your stomach. You want breakfast. No frills, no linen tablecloths, no white-gloved servers. Just eggs, pancakes, fried potatoes, bacon, something with avocado, or maybe some kind of burrito creation. And you want it with ketchup and maple syrup.

Well, hungry friend, you have a lot of great options open to you. Here are the top 5 breakfast places in the Hollywood area, as judged by actual locals, not fancy-pants guides — rated not by stuffed-shirt artsy types, but by people who dig eggs and other yummy stuff. Eat up.

5. Grub
911 Seward St
Los Angeles, CA
(323) 461-3663

For the chill, laid-back, down-home style breakfaster, Grub offers a fun, creative menu of breakfast dishes whose names are almost as flavorful as the food itself. Take the Friggin’ Amazin’ French Toast, a fruity breakfast of cinnamon-vanilla toast, raspberry butter and maple syrup, plopped next to a pile of actual fruit. Or the Are You Yolkin’? Egg Sandwich, a buttery egg-cheese-bacon creation on a croissant with dill butter. All amazing in an Uncle-Billy’s-house kind of way, and not aggressive on the prices. Located away from the Hollywood crowds just south of Santa Monica and Seward, its violet-lined outdoor patio tends to attract huge carpenter bees, so keep a steady eye.

4. Blu Jam Café
7371 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA
(323) 951-9191

This one is a little less known than other entries on this list, but Blu Jam café deserves to be recognized as a go-to on more than a neighborhood level. This bohemian diner, which once served as a below-the-radar blues and jazz hangout, offers a small sidewalk setup to accompany its slightly rustic, red-brick-and-exposed-beam interior. The breakfast menu includes genius entries such as the Toscana Scramble, an eggs-and-sausage affair that brings in pesto, mozzarella and cherry tomatoes to party in your mouth, and the chocolate, banana and candied walnut crepe, which would excite any French chocolate fiend. Breakfast is served all day, and your table top will never be wont for fresh bread.

3. Griddle Café
7916 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
(323) 874-0377

One could talk about the Griddle’s egg creations, its French toast, or even its respectable lunch menu, but one would be missing the point. Because the claim to fame of this Sunset Boulevard eatery is its pancakes, which if held in the air overhead, would create an eclipse of the sun, or at least serve as a reliable umbrella. The wide, thick, ridiculously tasty pancakes served here are big enough to cover your entire plate — and if that’s not enough pancake, you get three of them. They also cover four entire pages of the menu, with flavors such as pumpkin, apple cobbler, chocolate chip cookie, Baliey’s and Kahlua, and raspberry-lemon. Can you say full?

2. Jinky’s Café
8539 W Sunset Blvd
West Hollywood, CA
(310) 659-9670

If East Hollywood has Home, the West Hollywood crowd has its favorite breakfast spot in Jinky’s Café, the traditional-style diner on Sunset, just west of La Cienega. Besides its spot-on, never-miss-a-beat service, this establishment combines the typical face-stuffing breakfast food with healthy West Hollywood sensibilities, happily specializing in options such as egg-whites-only, vegetarian sausage and whole grains. Southwestern tendencies create an inviting California-style menu, and their Italian coffees are raved about.

1. Home
1760 Hillhurst Ave
Los Angeles, CA
(323) 669-0211

Every play on words you could come up with comparing this restaurant to the real thing (i.e., the comfort of your own kitchen) is warranted. As soon as you announce your arrival and start the usual 10-15 minute wait outside the gates of this mostly-outdoor establishment in Los Feliz, you will see the motherly presence of the hostess, who seems to be the owner as well (though a scouring of the Web could not confirm this). The treehouse-like appearance of the entire restaurant creates the feeling of being in one’s own back yard, complete with an above-ground koi-filled fountain to stare at as you devour your food. The eclectic combinations of eggs, potatoes, veggies, sauces and other options on the breakfast menu make this a prime go-to for the locals, and the lunch, dinner and drink menus are none too shabby, either.

Tags: breakfast, hollywood breakfast, los angeles breakfast restaurants, pancakes los angeles