The 10 Best Breakfast Spots In San Diego 2024 - San Diego - The Infatuation (2024)

San Diego is a city that wakes up to surf, hike, and beat the traffic to work. But breakfast here is more than just crab cake benedicts and avocado everything, even though you can still find plenty of that. Imagine more exciting morning options: giant latkes hidden within office complexes, crunchy chilaquiles, and biscuit boards after swimming in the Pacific Ocean. Whether you’re the early bird that catches the worm—or, in this case, the breakfast burrito—or the type of person who wakes up after noon wanting pancakes, these are the breakfast spots worth checking out.

And if you’re looking for places to check out after 11am, we have a guide to San Diego’s best restaurants, too.

THE SPOTS

After finally nailing down Tuesday breakfast plans with that one illusive friend, don’t be alarmed when you roll up to Gold Finch and find an office building. Inside is this dining hall-esque, modern Jewish deli with green shakshuka you can eat while sunbathing on their huge patio. We love the loaded giant latke because of the meaty mushrooms, golden caramelized onions, fried egg, and a dollop of horseradish cream—it’s so filling you won’t even need the lox add-on. You’ll probably already have a bit of leftovers, but grab the apricot rugelach and daily babka bun on your way out.

If brunch favorite Madison is the chic older sister, Madi is the bouncy younger sibling who turned a kaftan into a crop top on TikTok and now has 65,000 followers. That’s to say (stick with us): It’s a colorful, retro restaurant always packed with friends splitting pitchers of blood orange mimosas with activated charcoal. Go for the blackberry and goat cheese pancakes that’ll hit you with a bit of fruity sweetness before a semi-tangy finish, and, if you need something savory, try the breakfast sandwich amped up with apricot habanero jam. When it comes to the drinks, who knew that the secret to making orange juice even better is kale? Of course Madi did.

Walk into this East Village bakery and you’ll be hit by the smell of the curried beef and butter that’s used for some of the best savory baked goods in SD. Whether you’re grabbing snacks before work or planning on taking a seat in their café, the move is to always get their curry pan—crispy and flaky on the outside, and generously filled with soft bits of vegetables and meat mildly spiced by curry paste. And if you’re looking for something sweet, the macadamia pie is a sticky, sugary delight. Monday morning around 9am is the best time to swing by this neighborhood hotspot, when you’ll have a better chance of snagging street parking and avoiding the line that often wraps around the block.

San Diego is just 20 miles from the Mexican border, so naturally, it takes chilaquiles very seriously. Cocina 35 says they have the “best chilaquiles in town,” and they actually deliver. The La Bomba is a winner all the way from the bottom up: crunchy, perfectly salted tortilla chips doused in a habanero-cilantro salsa, a sprinkle of red onions for a nice zing, and a scoop of tender cochinita pibil with avocado. There are a couple locations—the Otay Mesa, Barrio Logan, and Downtown ones great for a quick breakfast—but the Liberty Station spot is best for party group brunches, club bangers, and sparkler-topped churros for birthdays.

Breakfast Republic has classics like omelets and scrambles, along with more creative things like a turkey meatloaf smash or vegan breakfast burrito with plant-based eggs. That’s to say, there’s something that’ll please everyone. At the top of our go-to list are the crab and crawfish cakes. The patties are generously packed with seafood, and the creamy hollandaise sauce balances out the nice bit of heat from guajillo chilis and blackberry tang. Breakfast Republic has become so popular that there are now a couple throughout town, but the one Downtown makes for an easy meeting point whether you’re in town for a bachelorette or something at the convention center. Every location has a Christopher Walken sign at the entrance cheekily reiterating, “No reservations, Walkens only.”

Plenty of spots in La Jolla offer great views of the Pacific Ocean, but none of them do french toast the way Brockton Villa does. Their Coast Toast is made by preparing baguette bread soufflé style, making for a thicker, more custardy bite with crisp edges. It’s the perfect base for toppings like berry jam and a hint of orange on their classic option, or the bananas foster version with rum butter sauce and walnuts for some extra crunch. Parking might be hard to find, and there will likely be some flustered families on vacation with the kids, but it’s all worth it to sit on their covered patio facing the water, watch the sea lions from afar, and cut into some top-tier french toast.

Sit under the red umbrellas on Café Madeleine’s patio for a relaxed breakfast while joggers dash by headed to Balboa. This spot has a much better food selection than your average coffee shop, like lamb merguez sausage sandwiches and crepes smothered in nutella and fresh fruit. It’s also a solid move for a meal a little later in the day—go with the spinach or prosciutto crepe, which have a creamy bechamel sauce so smooth it could talk its way out of a speeding ticket. Everything goes down well with their refreshing, mint-spiked French lemonade.

For over two decades, Cafe Coyote has been an Old Town legend, with an excellent breakfast burrito and the famous tortilla ladies, who knead, roll, and sling tortillas all day long. These piping hot, soft, and sturdy shells are used for many of the restaurant’s dishes, and can also be purchased separately to take home. The breakfast highlight is the Machaca Burrito filled with shredded beef, eggs scrambled with peppers and onion, and melted cheese holding everything together like the eldest sibling. They also have a vast tequila collection—if you want a boozy breakfast, get the Coyote margarita, which is basically a tequila sunrise punched up with pineapple juice.

At Ocean Beach’s OB Surf Lodge, surfboards hang from the ceiling, pups chill on the patio, and the wetsuit-wearing crowd come in for a bite after hitting the waves. There are a lot of great breakfast options, but nothing beats the huge, flaky biscuits. The biscuit board includes plain, churro, and jalapeño cheddar, so you can try a combination of flavors before slathering them with spreads like whipped maple or rosemary-thyme butter. For something a little lighter but packed with protein, the Surf Side Power Bowl with salmon or seared ahi is great before some beach volleyball.

This family-owned coffee shop has been serving breakfast for over 60 years, and it remains a perfect slice of old school La Jolla. Known as a locals hangout, the place buzzes with regulars reading the newspaper in their beloved bar seat during the week, and families checking out the black-and-white photos of San Diego hanging above their leather-cushioned booths on weekends. Their standout dish, the B.W. Benny, brings together a bunch of typical breakfast foods for something great: a golden-brown bacon waffle is piled high with poached eggs, grilled ham, creamy hollandaise, and a drizzle of maple syrup for good measure. It’s a diner we wouldn’t mind spending all day in, but they’re only open from 7am to 2:30pm.