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Three eggs smothered in thick yellow sauce plus sliced avocado and hash browns.
Three-egg avocado eggs benedict at Waverly Diner.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

19 Great Breakfast Options in Manhattan

Settle in with fluffy pancakes and Japanese breakfast sets or grab breakfast burritos and egg sandwiches to go

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Three-egg avocado eggs benedict at Waverly Diner.
| Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It’s also a meal when many New Yorkers are least likely to visit a restaurant — which is a shame because so many restaurants in this city do amazing things before noon. And, now, with rising prices, it’s the most economical meal of the day. So whether scarfing a modern Japanese breakfast, a paper bag filled with Colombian cheese breads, egg-stuffed burritos, bagels and lox, Chinese dim sum, or outrageously good banana pancakes, here's where to start a day in Manhattan off right.

Restaurants are listed North to South.

Health experts consider dining out to be a high-risk activity for the unvaccinated; it may pose a risk for the vaccinated, especially in areas with substantial COVID transmission.

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Salento

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This small panaderia and cafe in Washington Heights remains one of the best places in Manhattan for Colombian pastries and assorted South American snacks. Swing by in the morning for the sweet-salty pandebono cheese bread, chicken-filled corn empanadas, and calentado, the traditional Colombian breakfast platter of rice and beans paired with a fried egg, chicharron, and an arepa.

A yellow corn empanada sits on wax paper in an outdoor garden
Chicken empanada.
Ryan Sutton/Eater NY

Harlem Biscuit Company

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It’s not unusual to encounter a line snaking out the door at this Harlem shop, and for good reason. Chef Melvin Johnson started Harlem Biscuit Company during the pandemic and quickly amassed fans for the shop’s buttery, flaky biscuits, sold alone and as the base for biscuit sandwiches, including the Langston, piled high with fried chicken, pickles, onions, and chile-garlic honey; or the Frederick, featuring a pork sausage patty, egg, cheese, and jerk honey.

A close-up photo of an unwrapped biscuit sandwich stuffed with fried chicken, pickles, and onion slices.
A biscuit from Harlem Biscuit Company.
Erika Adams/Eater NY

Old John's Diner

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Upper West Side restaurant Old John’s Luncheonette was brought back to life as Old John’s Diner, a revamped take on the seven-decade-old neighborhood staple. Find breakfast diner classics like ham and cheese omelets, egg creams, and chocolate chip waffles available every day from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

A person holds a bottle of carbonated water and pours some of it into a brown drink with white foam on top and a red and white straw sticking out of the side.
A chocolate egg cream at Old John’s Diner.
Molly Tavoletti/Eater NY

Five Acres

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Five Acres recently opened for breakfast from 8 a.m. until 11 a.m., seven days. Via pastry chef Alessandra Altieri, there are cookies, cakes, giant frosted crullers, breakfast pastries, and a bread service from Patti Ann’s. Coffee from Parlor Coffee.

A green-framed dining room with tables ready for customers.
Rockefeller Center’s Five Acres has just started serving breakfast.
Scott Semler/Eater NY

Spanish Diner

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Chef Jose Andres’ Hudson Yards food hall, Mercado Little Spain, houses a full-service diner that offers a lovely breakfast starting at 11:00 a.m. daily, or at 10 a.m. on weekends. Pair eggs with rich morcilla or nutty jamon Iberico, or try a variety of classic Spanish tortillas.

A brightly lit dining room with an open kitchen space to the left and a dining area to the right with wooden tables and chairs
Spanish Diner at Mercado Little Spain.
Alex Staniloff/Eater NY

Koloman

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Koloman, an Austrian newcomer just off the lobby of Nomad’s Ace Hotel, offers a full breakfast menu that includes fluffy croissants and other assorted cakes and pastries made in-house, eggs with side meats that include double-smoked bacon and bratwurst, palatschinken (sweet crepes), French toast, and a full Viennese breakfast that piles meat, cheese, a soft-boiled egg, and other goodies on a series of plates.

A plate with sliced meat and cheese and satellite plates with other dishes.
Koloman’s Viennese breakfast is a whopper of a meal.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Daily Provisions

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The breakfast menu at this multi-branch institution may not have a ton of variety, but with the handful of options, it’s impossible to go wrong. Bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches arrive hot and melty on pillowy brioche buns and the cafe’s legendary crullers are refreshed often with seasonal flavors: maple and cookies-and-cream are favorites.

A round dark brown donut.
Maple cruller.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Fairfax

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At breakfast, settle into one of the leather couches or large armchairs for Old Bay tots, cheesy egg sandwiches, or avocado toast with cucumber, labneh, and za’atar. Served from 9 a.m. on weekdays.

A corner doorway surrounded by potted plants.
Fairfax mounts a full breakfast menu on weekdays, with brunch on weekends.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Waverly Diner

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Waverly is now four decades old, and vying to be New York City’s best known diner. Egg breakfasts are picturesquely served sizzling in a skillet, and will likely include the restaurant’s hash browns — made, as few diners now do them — from freshly shredded potatoes darkly browned. Pancakes, omelets and other breakfast fare are offered in abundance. Open 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. weekdays except Thursday, until midnight, and until 1 a.m.

An exterior of a corner diner in the Village.
The Waverly Diner.
Eater NY

Buvette

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The eggs at chef Jody Williams’s Grove Street charmer are cooked with the steam wand on the espresso machine, normally used to make a cappuccino — and they’re perfect. Starting at 8 a.m. daily, diners have the option of topping them with either smoked salmon or prosciutto. A waffle sandwich and plenty of pastries are also available at this petite restaurant.

Bartenders dressed in white pour glasses of wine for customers who are sitting on barstools.
The bar at Buvette.
Daniel Krieger/Eater NY

Little Kirin

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Just the place for a late-morning breakfast, since it opens at 11 a.m., with such wacky reconfigurations of the classic BEC as the SEC (Spam, egg, and American cheese) and the hangover cure (bacon, spam, egg, hash browns, etc.)

A piled-high egg sandwich with all sorts of crap in it.
The BEC variation called the hangover cure.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Downtown Bakery

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When the morning calls for tamales, tortas, tacos or breakfast burritos, head to Downtown Bakery. The small shop run by Pueblan immigrants makes a particularly wide variety of cheesy stuffed burritos, including chorizo, steak, and veggies. The bakery — which really isn’t a bakery anymore, though it was an Italian one many decades ago — opens at 9 a.m. sharp every day.

Two rolled flour tortilla tacos with sausage and yellow egg visible at the rolled ends.
Sausage and egg breakfast tacos.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Flipper's

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This Japanese import cracked a few eggs when it appeared in 2019, specializing in small, pillowy pancakes of extravagant height. They come in pairs with an opulent cloud of whipped cream, butter, and maple syrup. Composite breakfasts with eggs, bacon, french fries and other add-ons also available.

Two poached eggs on top of pancakes with salad in between.
Two poached eggs on pancakes at Flipper’s.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Thai Diner

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Ann Redding and Matt Danzer’s all-day spot attracts nocturnal diners with expensive shellfish platters, spicy laab salads, and aromatic curries. But in the morning hours, patrons come for fat slices of babka French toast, designed for drenching with salty condensed milk. There’s also a fine roti wrap stuffed with soft eggs, cheese, and with fragrant Thai sausages. Breakfast is served until 5 p.m. Open from 11 a.m. on weekdays, and 10 a.m. on weekends.

A spread of dishes shot from overhead, including verdant cabbage rolls, phat Thai noodles with pink head-on shrimp, fried chicken larb, and Thai tea pain perdu made from marbled babka
A spread of dishes from Thai Diner.
Gary He/Eater NY

Davelle

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Open at 8 a.m. during the week and 9 a.m. on weekends, this stylish but sparse Japanese cafe serves breakfast toasts. Choose from pretty options like honey lemon, ham and egg, spicy cod roe, and cheese curry, along with a catalog of hot-chocolate drinks in winter.

A snug cafe with high ceilings, a mirror, a single table, and a coffee menu written in cursive on paper.
The compact dining room at Davelle.
Jean Schwarzwalder/Eater NY

Kopitiam

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All-day Malaysian cafe Kopitiam made a splash with its reopening a few years ago, expanding its menu to include more savory options, too. The sunny, colorful space, owned by chef Kyo Pang, kicks off all-day breakfast service at 10 a.m. with dishes like kaya toast, half-boiled eggs with soy sauce and pepper, and fish ball soup. Don’t forget to pick up one of the wonderful sweets, like the pulut inti: morning glory sticky rice topped with grated coconut sugar.

Potted plants hang from the ceiling in a naturally lit dining room with bar stools, high-top counters, and exposed brick.
The dining room at Kopitiam.
Jean Schwarzwalder/Eater NY

Golden Diner

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Sam Yoo’s all-day establishment in Two Bridges continues to serve nourishing diner fare with eclectic Asian overtones. Starting from 10 a.m., Yoo sends out creations like green-tea coffee cake, Thai tea tres leches cake, breakfast burritos, honey-butter pancakes, vegan nachos, and a monster of a hash-brown egg sandwich on a Chinese-style scallion bun.

An fluffy egg sandwich with pieces of bacon and a thick hash brown patty rests on a diner plate.
An egg sandwich from Golden Diner.
Ryan Sutton/Eater NY

George's

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Since the 1950s, George’s has been fueling the Fidi office crowd ahead of a day’s work. The no-nonsense diner is serving breakfast essentials like chocolate chip pancakes, corned-beef hash, waffles, and omelets. The familial staff and setting at George’s are hard to find elsewhere, and it opens most days at 7 a.m.

The exterior of George’s with a large restaurant sign spelling out “George’s” displayed over the entrance.
George’s in FiDi.
Erika Adams/Eater NY

Tin Building

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By the south entrance to this food court and market project from Jean-Georges Vongerichten, you will find a counter called Double Yolk selling multiple variations on the bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. The roll is a brioche or an English muffin rather than a kaiser, and the other optional ingredients are similarly premium — things like smoked salmon, guacamole, roasted mushrooms, and Calabrian chile vinaigrette.

A counter with high stools and a yellow neon sign above.
Where to get a vamped-up BEC.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Salento

This small panaderia and cafe in Washington Heights remains one of the best places in Manhattan for Colombian pastries and assorted South American snacks. Swing by in the morning for the sweet-salty pandebono cheese bread, chicken-filled corn empanadas, and calentado, the traditional Colombian breakfast platter of rice and beans paired with a fried egg, chicharron, and an arepa.

A yellow corn empanada sits on wax paper in an outdoor garden
Chicken empanada.
Ryan Sutton/Eater NY

Harlem Biscuit Company

It’s not unusual to encounter a line snaking out the door at this Harlem shop, and for good reason. Chef Melvin Johnson started Harlem Biscuit Company during the pandemic and quickly amassed fans for the shop’s buttery, flaky biscuits, sold alone and as the base for biscuit sandwiches, including the Langston, piled high with fried chicken, pickles, onions, and chile-garlic honey; or the Frederick, featuring a pork sausage patty, egg, cheese, and jerk honey.

A close-up photo of an unwrapped biscuit sandwich stuffed with fried chicken, pickles, and onion slices.
A biscuit from Harlem Biscuit Company.
Erika Adams/Eater NY

Old John's Diner

Upper West Side restaurant Old John’s Luncheonette was brought back to life as Old John’s Diner, a revamped take on the seven-decade-old neighborhood staple. Find breakfast diner classics like ham and cheese omelets, egg creams, and chocolate chip waffles available every day from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

A person holds a bottle of carbonated water and pours some of it into a brown drink with white foam on top and a red and white straw sticking out of the side.
A chocolate egg cream at Old John’s Diner.
Molly Tavoletti/Eater NY

Five Acres

Five Acres recently opened for breakfast from 8 a.m. until 11 a.m., seven days. Via pastry chef Alessandra Altieri, there are cookies, cakes, giant frosted crullers, breakfast pastries, and a bread service from Patti Ann’s. Coffee from Parlor Coffee.

A green-framed dining room with tables ready for customers.
Rockefeller Center’s Five Acres has just started serving breakfast.
Scott Semler/Eater NY

Spanish Diner

Chef Jose Andres’ Hudson Yards food hall, Mercado Little Spain, houses a full-service diner that offers a lovely breakfast starting at 11:00 a.m. daily, or at 10 a.m. on weekends. Pair eggs with rich morcilla or nutty jamon Iberico, or try a variety of classic Spanish tortillas.

A brightly lit dining room with an open kitchen space to the left and a dining area to the right with wooden tables and chairs
Spanish Diner at Mercado Little Spain.
Alex Staniloff/Eater NY

Koloman

Koloman, an Austrian newcomer just off the lobby of Nomad’s Ace Hotel, offers a full breakfast menu that includes fluffy croissants and other assorted cakes and pastries made in-house, eggs with side meats that include double-smoked bacon and bratwurst, palatschinken (sweet crepes), French toast, and a full Viennese breakfast that piles meat, cheese, a soft-boiled egg, and other goodies on a series of plates.

A plate with sliced meat and cheese and satellite plates with other dishes.
Koloman’s Viennese breakfast is a whopper of a meal.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Daily Provisions

The breakfast menu at this multi-branch institution may not have a ton of variety, but with the handful of options, it’s impossible to go wrong. Bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches arrive hot and melty on pillowy brioche buns and the cafe’s legendary crullers are refreshed often with seasonal flavors: maple and cookies-and-cream are favorites.

A round dark brown donut.
Maple cruller.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Fairfax

At breakfast, settle into one of the leather couches or large armchairs for Old Bay tots, cheesy egg sandwiches, or avocado toast with cucumber, labneh, and za’atar. Served from 9 a.m. on weekdays.

A corner doorway surrounded by potted plants.
Fairfax mounts a full breakfast menu on weekdays, with brunch on weekends.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Waverly Diner

Waverly is now four decades old, and vying to be New York City’s best known diner. Egg breakfasts are picturesquely served sizzling in a skillet, and will likely include the restaurant’s hash browns — made, as few diners now do them — from freshly shredded potatoes darkly browned. Pancakes, omelets and other breakfast fare are offered in abundance. Open 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. weekdays except Thursday, until midnight, and until 1 a.m.

An exterior of a corner diner in the Village.
The Waverly Diner.
Eater NY

Buvette

The eggs at chef Jody Williams’s Grove Street charmer are cooked with the steam wand on the espresso machine, normally used to make a cappuccino — and they’re perfect. Starting at 8 a.m. daily, diners have the option of topping them with either smoked salmon or prosciutto. A waffle sandwich and plenty of pastries are also available at this petite restaurant.

Bartenders dressed in white pour glasses of wine for customers who are sitting on barstools.
The bar at Buvette.
Daniel Krieger/Eater NY

Little Kirin

Just the place for a late-morning breakfast, since it opens at 11 a.m., with such wacky reconfigurations of the classic BEC as the SEC (Spam, egg, and American cheese) and the hangover cure (bacon, spam, egg, hash browns, etc.)

A piled-high egg sandwich with all sorts of crap in it.
The BEC variation called the hangover cure.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Downtown Bakery

When the morning calls for tamales, tortas, tacos or breakfast burritos, head to Downtown Bakery. The small shop run by Pueblan immigrants makes a particularly wide variety of cheesy stuffed burritos, including chorizo, steak, and veggies. The bakery — which really isn’t a bakery anymore, though it was an Italian one many decades ago — opens at 9 a.m. sharp every day.

Two rolled flour tortilla tacos with sausage and yellow egg visible at the rolled ends.
Sausage and egg breakfast tacos.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Flipper's

This Japanese import cracked a few eggs when it appeared in 2019, specializing in small, pillowy pancakes of extravagant height. They come in pairs with an opulent cloud of whipped cream, butter, and maple syrup. Composite breakfasts with eggs, bacon, french fries and other add-ons also available.

Two poached eggs on top of pancakes with salad in between.
Two poached eggs on pancakes at Flipper’s.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Thai Diner

Ann Redding and Matt Danzer’s all-day spot attracts nocturnal diners with expensive shellfish platters, spicy laab salads, and aromatic curries. But in the morning hours, patrons come for fat slices of babka French toast, designed for drenching with salty condensed milk. There’s also a fine roti wrap stuffed with soft eggs, cheese, and with fragrant Thai sausages. Breakfast is served until 5 p.m. Open from 11 a.m. on weekdays, and 10 a.m. on weekends.

A spread of dishes shot from overhead, including verdant cabbage rolls, phat Thai noodles with pink head-on shrimp, fried chicken larb, and Thai tea pain perdu made from marbled babka
A spread of dishes from Thai Diner.
Gary He/Eater NY

Davelle

Open at 8 a.m. during the week and 9 a.m. on weekends, this stylish but sparse Japanese cafe serves breakfast toasts. Choose from pretty options like honey lemon, ham and egg, spicy cod roe, and cheese curry, along with a catalog of hot-chocolate drinks in winter.

A snug cafe with high ceilings, a mirror, a single table, and a coffee menu written in cursive on paper.
The compact dining room at Davelle.
Jean Schwarzwalder/Eater NY

Related Maps

Kopitiam

All-day Malaysian cafe Kopitiam made a splash with its reopening a few years ago, expanding its menu to include more savory options, too. The sunny, colorful space, owned by chef Kyo Pang, kicks off all-day breakfast service at 10 a.m. with dishes like kaya toast, half-boiled eggs with soy sauce and pepper, and fish ball soup. Don’t forget to pick up one of the wonderful sweets, like the pulut inti: morning glory sticky rice topped with grated coconut sugar.

Potted plants hang from the ceiling in a naturally lit dining room with bar stools, high-top counters, and exposed brick.
The dining room at Kopitiam.
Jean Schwarzwalder/Eater NY

Golden Diner

Sam Yoo’s all-day establishment in Two Bridges continues to serve nourishing diner fare with eclectic Asian overtones. Starting from 10 a.m., Yoo sends out creations like green-tea coffee cake, Thai tea tres leches cake, breakfast burritos, honey-butter pancakes, vegan nachos, and a monster of a hash-brown egg sandwich on a Chinese-style scallion bun.

An fluffy egg sandwich with pieces of bacon and a thick hash brown patty rests on a diner plate.
An egg sandwich from Golden Diner.
Ryan Sutton/Eater NY

George's

Since the 1950s, George’s has been fueling the Fidi office crowd ahead of a day’s work. The no-nonsense diner is serving breakfast essentials like chocolate chip pancakes, corned-beef hash, waffles, and omelets. The familial staff and setting at George’s are hard to find elsewhere, and it opens most days at 7 a.m.

The exterior of George’s with a large restaurant sign spelling out “George’s” displayed over the entrance.
George’s in FiDi.
Erika Adams/Eater NY

Tin Building

By the south entrance to this food court and market project from Jean-Georges Vongerichten, you will find a counter called Double Yolk selling multiple variations on the bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. The roll is a brioche or an English muffin rather than a kaiser, and the other optional ingredients are similarly premium — things like smoked salmon, guacamole, roasted mushrooms, and Calabrian chile vinaigrette.

A counter with high stools and a yellow neon sign above.
Where to get a vamped-up BEC.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Related Maps