Breakfasts in Britain are among the best in the world. Here – region by region – are the very finest places to start your day

Coombeshead Farm, Lewannick, Cornwall



It might seem a bit bonkers to include an upmarket B&B (from £90 a night) that doesn’t offer breakfast to non-residents (for the time being), but Coombeshead earns its place here because it does possibly the best breakfast in the UK, and certainly this writer’s favourite of 2016 anywhere.

The love child of two celebrated chefs, April Bloomfield (of The Spotted Pig and The Breslin in New York) and Tom Adams (of Pittcue in London), this idyllic Cornish farmhouse, set in 60-plus acres of picture-postcard meadow and woodland, serves up an equally idyllic breakfast. Adams and co go the extra mile over the most important meal of the day: everything is homegrown, made on site or sourced as locally as possible.

From the granola, bircher muesli, honey and on-trend kombucha (for those who like that kind of thing) to the outrageously brilliant cooked offering – which comprises a thick slice of home-cured belly bacon, a pillow of scrambled eggs (most likely laid that morning by the chooks scratching away in the garden), proper sourdough toast (that is, packing a real crunch and smothered in home-churned butter – yes, really) and a homemade hog’s pudding that I still dream about – I can’t think of many better ways to start the day. Actually, scratch that: I can’t think of many places I’d rather be full stop.

The dinners (Thursday to Sunday nights) are something else, too, and you don’t have to stay over to tuck into those.

What to order: Everything.

Café Alf Resco, Dartmouth, Devon

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Avocado on toast at Cafe Alf Resco, Dartmouth.

Ignore the groan-inducing name above the door: this Dartmouth institution delivers one of the finest breakfasts in the South Hams. From the traditional British fry-up in all its guises to Danish and French pastries and wonderfully artery-clogging toasties, this Tardis-like venue ticks all the breakfast/brunch boxes. Decent coffee, too. If you need something a little stronger to kickstart the day, order a shot of grappa or, even better, Yarde’s glorious cider brandy, and pretend you’re one of the local fishermen.

What to order: The salami and cheese toastie (£6.95): thick-cut salami, gooey cheddar, buttery, cheese-fat-soaked toast – the perfect fuel for a day by the sea.

Venus Cafe, Blackpool Sands, Devon

Slap-bang on one of the south-west’s loveliest beaches – golden sands in front of it, fields and woods to the rear – the Venus Cafe could dish up Pop-Tarts and still be worth a visit. Instead it delivers fine local produce, as much as possible from Devon and Cornwall. The beautiful Full Venus (£8) includes bacon from Ottery St Mary, sausages from the village of Shaldon, eggs from Buckfastleigh and baked beans from ... Heinz (no one’s perfect). Once you’ve finished digesting, the beach shop can supply swimswear, towels, wetsuits, windbreakers and beach mats.

What to order: Toasted sourdough (from Truro) topped with smoked mackerel, fried egg and horseradish mayonnaise (£7).

Bakers and Co, Bristol

It’s actually quite hard to conceive a genuinely original breakfast menu without looking like you’re trying too hard or reinventing the wheel. Yet, I give you: orange and cinnamon sugar torrijas with smoked bacon or stewed apple, creme fraiche, toasted almonds and maple syrup (£8.95); chocolate and orange rye-bread porridge (£3.95); turmeric dal with cavolo nero, cauliflower and hazelnut dukkah (£7.95). Somehow, they’ve done it.

What to order: The huevos rancheros, with salsa and mighty fried eggs.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest The vegetarian breakfast at Cantina, Isle of Wight.

Cantina, Ventnor, Isle of Wight

This is a superbly tasty little restaurant, dinky and unassuming, with an ambitious Austrian chef-proprietor who, in the evening, does crazy, wild things like pickling tapioca. Breakfast has a Mitteleuropean tilt – I find the frankfurter and pretzel pretty exotic, since my palate is expecting a regular banger – but also an American influence: there is no shortage of waffles and pancakes. And breakfast, of course, is the only thing the US knows how to do.

What to order: The shakshuka (£5) – baked eggs in a chilli, sticky, tomato quagmire. Outrageously nice.



This bustling bakery, tucked away in the arches under Bristol’s busy railway station, is a hive of activity, with trays continually coming out of the oven as travellers rush in to grab a flaky sausage roll for the train. However, you can also sit down and enjoy a spot of sourdough or a pain au chocolat over a cup of locally roasted coffee. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, they have custard tarts, too. Be warned: it’s always busy, so don’t expect to settle in for hours.

What to order: Anything involving their sourdough bread.



The Jericho Cafe, Oxford

Far enough off the main drag to deter all but the most determined student or tourist, the basement dining room of the Jericho Cafe is a haven of latte-sipping peace, broken only by the occasional rustle of a broadsheet newspaper. Locally baked sourdough and roasted coffee, plump herby sausages and properly cooked bacon, as well as the now-obligatory avocado on toast (£6.25), make the Jericho Cafe well worth the scenic detour along Walton Street.

What to order: The full English (£7.95).



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bacon and eggs at Lynwood & Co, Lechlade.

Lynwood & Co, dubbed cafe of the year by Cotswold Life magazine in 2016, serves up simple, perfectly cooked breakfasts for under a tenner. The ingredients are sourced locally where possible, but what really makes the breakfast is the bread – especially when slathered in butter and piled with creamy scrambled eggs. The sourdough is made by Max Abbott of Sourdough Revolution, who learned to bake bread at Thyme, a hotel in nearby Southrop, where he met Lynwood owner Rob Broadbent five years ago. Now he bakes around the corner in what used to be his garage. In Spring, Lynwood is opening a second cafe in neighbouring Fairford.

What to order: Scrambled eggs on sourdough toast and the superb flat white.



Saddleback Farm Shop, Brightwalton, Berkshire

The ideal place to fuel up for a yomp in the surrounding countryside (the staff will provide you with a map), this lovely little farm shop does a cracking full English with homemade sausages and, unusually for this part of the country, both black and white pudding as standard. As you might expect for a farm shop, much of what’s on the menu – from fruit juice and jam to bread and flour – is proudly local. They offer a good range of gluten-free and vegetarian options, too, plus breakfast rolls (£5.95) to take away.

What to order: Has to be the full English (£8.95).



Workhouse Coffee, Reading

Let’s say that, like everyone normal, you’re not that hungry in the morning and would prefer a cup of coffee. Workhouse Coffee is a simple, pared-down connoisseur’s experience that you can smell from a block away, which previously they said only about Reading festival. They do single-bean, inimitable coffees from the Dominican Republic, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Guatemala, all meticulously sourced with the kind of love and precision you don’t often see outside the wine world. Then they fancy around fluffing their milk up in wholly unnecessary ways, since any fool knows you should drink your coffee black and have your hot milk on the side if you’re a baby.

What to order: The Guatemalan espresso.



The north-east, Yorkshire & the Humber

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Black pudding and fried egg at The Greedy Pig, Leeds.

The Greedy Pig Kitchen, Leeds

It’s six years since Jo and Stuart Myers launched The Greedy Pig Kitchen on North Street, on a site that once housed a sandwich shop. She worked in care, he was a chef, and shift work was keeping them apart; it was their chance to spend more time together. The 16-seat cafe, alongside Leeds’ independent food scene, has since gone from strength to strength. Many of the students who were The Greedy Pig’s first customers have graduated, got jobs nearby and still come for breakfast or brunch.

“Everything is cooked from scratch,” Jo says proudly. “We didn’t want this to be another of those places where everything is cooked at the start of the day and then just sits there in a bain-marie under a heat lamp. The food comes off the griddle and 30 seconds later it’s in front of you.”

That’s as true of the classic full English (outdoor-reared Yorkshire pork sausage, free-range egg, thick-cut bacon, hash brown, grilled tomato, beans and sourdough bread) as it is of grander dishes like onglet and duck eggs; pancakes and buttermilk fried chicken; and “trotter beans” – pig’s trotter and apple, smoked bacon and home-braised beans on sourdough. The ingredients that aren’t homemade – like the cornbread and the special black pudding – come from high-class local suppliers such as Sykes House butchers, Swillington organic farm and the Leeds Bread Co-op.

For food of this quality, the prices are surprisingly reasonable: with a stack of pancakes and maple syrup starting at £5 and duck hash with kimchi at £7.50, you’ll struggle to spend more than a tenner.

What to order: The house merguez – own-recipe lamb and beef sausage, served with duck eggs and harissa. For vegetarians, the pumpkin and feta on sourdough.



Laynes, Leeds

For a while now, Leeds’ foremost third-wave coffee shop has been gently flexing its culinary muscle. As well as first-rate flat whites and single-origin V60 filter coffees, its eclectic brunch menu (7am to 2pm on weekdays, later at weekends), makes it one of the city’s best breakfast joints. Revamped over Christmas, Laynes is now twice the size and is serving dishes as diverse as rarebit spiked with Yorkshire’s beloved Henderson’s Relish (£5) and sweetcorn fritters with halloumi, avocado, chimichurri and dukkah.

What to order: Shakshuka baked eggs with Leeds Bread Co-op sourdough and harissa butter (£7.50).



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bacon and fruit waffles at The Pig and Pastry, York.

Few visitors think to venture beyond York’s city walls, but you may well encounter a queue outside Pig & Pastry if you do. Picky locals make a beeline for this friendly, fastidiously foodist cafe – one of a number of credible independents on Bishopthorpe Road – where high-quality regional ingredients (Staal Smokehouse kippers, Taste Tradition rare-breed ham) are used in breakfasts that include serious bacon baps, waffles (£4.50) and specials such as pancake stacks or eggs benedict jazzed-up with Cumberland sausage.

What to order: Brindisa chorizo and scrambled eggs on sourdough toast (£6).



Starks Kitchen, Newcastle upon Tyne

Stark by name, stark by nature: all white paintwork and blond wood, this might be somewhere to avoid when you’ve got a hangover and the sun is beating down. Otherwise, it’s a real find, as calm as it is welcoming. The veggie-friendly menu, much of which hovers around the £10 mark, stretches from bircher muesli with brûléed pear, pistachio, almond and cherry via eggs with basil, salted ricotta, chili and toasted pine nuts to a breakfast bagel with sausage and black pudding, crispy bacon, mushroom ketchup, tomato and a fried duck egg. The meat is from the well-respected Charlotte’s Butchery in Gosforth.

What to order: Salted cod omelette with slow roasted tomato and shoestring fries.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest The full English at Tamper Coffee, Sheffield.

Tamper Coffee, Sheffield

Assertive nationalism gives me indigestion, so I choose not to dwell on why this upmarket joint goes quite so big on being from New Zealand, nor how a Kiwi breakfast differs from an English one, although I will pause to let us all reflect on the fact that it includes corn on the cob. Anyway, they’re supplied by the Depot Bakery, a really talented outfit that does great sourdough and incredible bagels. They’re also huge on teas, juices, floats, sodas – it’s a sort of Charlie and the Chocolate factory excursion for people who like eating well enough, but not as much as drinking.

What to order: The Ozzy breakfast (£9.50), which is like a Kiwi breakfast, only with spinach and roasted vegetables.



Quay Ingredient, Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle likes to keep it real, and no more so than at chef Simon Snowball’s neat, white-tiled cafe under the Tyne Bridge. It utilises good regional ingredients in well-executed classics (eggs benedict, cinnamon pancakes, full English), but the kitchen is also happy to knock out £2.95 breakfast butties, served on Newcastle’s outsized stottie baps, and comforting nursery food dishes, such as boiled eggs and soldiers, with a pot of local Rington’s tea. A similar menu is served at Quay’s suburban sister cafe, Heaton Ingredient.

What to order: Grilled local Craster kippers with lemon parsley butter (£5.95).



The north-west

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The slow-cooked lamb brunch at Little Window, Market House, Altrincham. Photograph: Zac Crompton

Market House, Altrincham

Manchester’s restaurant scene is undergoing a massive upheaval. Yet, despite an influx of hip London brands and several new, Michelin-coveting gastrodomes, Greater Manchester’s biggest food story is unfolding not in the city centre, but eight miles down the road in Altrincham.

Late in 2014, the town’s historic indoor market building, the Market House, was transformed into a spruce communal canteen, where runners deliver food from six kitchens manned by graduates from the north-west’s street-food circuit. That said, “street food” rather underplays the extraordinary quality on offer at, say, wood-fired Neapolitan pizza outfit Honest Crust or the Great North Pie Co. The project has been a runaway success. Satellite Market House food pods have popped up in adjacent streets and several fantastic independent food businesses (Porta, Sugo Pasta) have opened nearby.

Such is the scrum to get a seat at peak times that breakfast is often the best time to visit. Its more leisurely weekend brunch sessions (family and dog-friendly) offer a chance to admire the handsome building and linger over its excellent food. Little Window’s Moorish/Levantine dishes (shakshuka with curds or morcilla, eggs and romesco sauce on sourdough), explode with flavour, while the Wolfhouse Kitchen offers more mainstream satisfaction (rare-breed breakfast sandwiches, toast and homemade peanut butter), alongside an ace east Asian breakfast bun of kimchi, fried eggs and sriracha. As brunch turns to lunch, Tender Cow’s meatier dishes (steak, eggs and mojo verde, oxtail on toast with smoked feta and horseradish, £8) come into their own, as do Blackjack Brewery’s craft beer bar and Reserve Wines’ kiosk. Later, potter around the neighbouring covered outdoor market. It’s a fine way to fritter away a Sunday.

What to order: Little Window’s slow-cooked lamb, eggs, harissa and hot Yemeni zhoug on grilled sourdough.



Baba Ganoush, Kendal, Cumbria

Food evolves slowly in the Lake District. Its best places to eat are often frustratingly old-fashioned. In contrast, Baba Ganoush is full of contemporary vigour. There is not a doily in sight. A stripped-back canteen, its key feature is a utilitarian open kitchen that prides itself on its rigorous scratch-cooking (Yotam Ottolenghi and Nigel Slater cookbooks line the walls). Like its waffles, the all-day brunch menu is stacked with good things, from “eggy bread” with berry compote and crème fraîche to a rib-sticking fried potato hash with poached eggs, ham and chorizo. Most dishes are under a tenner.

What to order: The excellent welsh rarebit with Lee & Perrins-glazed tomatoes.



Common, Manchester

This Northern Quarter stalwart is in its second, more mature phase. Less of a boozy, late-night party den these days, it has undergone a smart, Scandinavian-style refit and is now as much a place to nurse a hangover as to cultivate one. Restorative brunch dishes such as salt beef hash with fried eggs and pickles (£7.50) or smashed avocado on toast (£5.50) are served until 3pm. Common also dispenses superb coffee (£2 to £2.60) and, if your blood-sugar levels need an instantaneous boost, serious cakes from Blawd bakery.

What to order: Eggs benedict, with its on-point hollandaise, and a flat white.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bacon and avocado at The Koffee Pot, Manchester.

The Koffee Pot, Manchester

I like a breakfast place that does cocktails in the evening; it smells of delight and regret. They sort of know they’re there to enable your drink problem by confecting new ways to have spirits for breakfast: beyond the bloody mary, here you can have a Pickleback, which is a whisky with a pickle-juice chaser. The more salient point about this Manchester institution is its thoroughness, with proper differentiation between full English (£7.50), full Irish (black and white pudding) and full Scottish (haggis, obviously). Then there’s the magnificent £14.50 binge called the Floppers, which includes all that stuff and adds some spam.

What to order: I had Manx kippers, because I always do when I can.



Moose Coffee, various locations

Moose Coffee can’t decide whether it’s inspired by New York diners, the American west or, er, Canada. But that means the vast menu has something for everyone, from the Lone Star Moose (minute steak, chipolatas and potato hash, topped with two eggs and a tomato, £8.50) via apple and salted-caramel pancakes, served with maple syrup and butter (£7.50), to the Manolito (£7.20), a homage to the TV series The High Chapparal; it features two tortillas covered with refried beans, fried eggs, salsa, cheddar and sour cream. If you look hard enough, you can even find some healthy options.

What to order: The Cortes (£7) – four free-range eggs scrambled with picante chorizo, served with toast.



Northcote, Langho, Lancashire

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bircher muesli with fresh fruit and Greek yoghurt at Northcote, Lancashire.

Craig Bancroft, the co-owner of this Michelin-starred restaurant-with-rooms in Lancashire’s glorious Ribble Valley, has very firm opinions about breakfast. For instance, he is adamant that smoked salmon should be served alongside scrambled eggs, not cut up within it. Such attention to detail ensures that Northcote’s breakfast service (£25; non-residents must book in advance) is one of the UK’s best. Think peerless fresh juices, homemade breads and preserves, alongside hot dishes from organic porridge with wildflower honey to smoked haddock with poached eggs, all underpinned by terrific local ingredients (RS Ireland black pudding, Farnsworth’s Cumberland sausage).

What to order: Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire cheese soufflé with grilled tomatoes.



Three Hares, Sedbergh, Cumbria

On weekend evenings, this cosy bakery-cafe – perched on the border between the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District – morphs into a bistro where the serious, nose-to-tail food relies on a tight network of artisan suppliers. By day, its menu is more populist, but no less painstaking. Simple breakfasts (soft boiled egg and celery salt, £2.50, hot ham and eggs on toast, £4.95) are lifted by superlative ingredients – not least the Three Hares’ own home-cured bacon – and the prowess of co-owner Nina Matsunaga, who bakes all its sourdough, rye breads, breakfast pastries and sausage rolls.

What to order: Brioche French toast with bacon and maple syrup.

The Midlands and East Anglia

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Breakfast pastries at Pump Street Bakery, Suffolk.

No 33, Norwich

A queue doesn’t mean an awful lot outside a titchy place, and yet there is so often a queue outside No 33, with breakfasteers braving winds straight from the steppes of Russia. And it’s not as though Norwich is poorly served for baked goods, either. In short, this is the kind of enacted recommendation you would be a fool not to take seriously.

The interior is unassuming but considered, bright and cute with nothing out of place, like Miss Honey’s house in Matilda. The staff seem genuinely pleased to see you, which is weird, since you expect a communist-era service culture when breakfasting out, an informal brusqueness, with the smiles held back for evening trade (perhaps it’s because No 33 closes at 5pm).

Anyway, shut up and try something. The mushrooms on toast (£7.30) are a whole new world, the taste of autumn rushing at you like a flashback, with goats cheese and a red onion chutney lifting them to a plane so moreish it’s actually frightening. You can get all the regular, full-English-style permutations and not regret it for a moment. Then, wander around Norwich and queue up again, by which time you might be hungry enough to start on the inventive cakes, which feature the likes of Guinness and ginger in the same place.

What to order: The fish-finger sandwich (£7.95): a big, fat, tawny, fried doorstop of a thing. It reminded me of Brian Blessed. In a good way.

Kitchen Garden Cafe, Birmingham

It’s not quite a Tuscan courtyard, but this plant-filled corner of Birmingham has that vibe. Sharing a secluded terrace with a deli and an organic garden centre, the cafe focuses on seasonal, local and fairtrade (organic where possible) produce. Hearty options include four types of all-day breakfast (traditional, vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free, from £7.95), avocado brunch (with ham or salmon and poached eggs on ciabatta, £7.95), and kippers with toast and marmalade (really). If you like what you taste, most of the food is on sale in the adjoining deli.

What to order: Sweet waffles with maple syrup and either bacon or fruit (£5.95).



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Coffee and eggs at The Plough Harborne, Birmingham.

The Plough Harborne, Birmingham

Sunday brunch at a pub might smack of the hair of the dog that bit you – indeed, the overstuffed bloody marys here are something to behold. But the Plough cleverly manages to transform itself overnight from a busy boozer to a quietly soothing place to recuperate with a pot of tea (extra points for the knitted tea cosies). They offer various smoothies (£3.95) and something called quinoa porridge (£4.50) for the really repentant, but everyone else is there for the fry-ups.

What to order: Homemade baked beans on sourdough with a poached egg (£6.50).



Pump Street Bakery, Orford, Suffolk

The pretty Suffolk village of Orford may not exactly be a well-kept secret, but it’s still a rare treat to find a bakery of this calibre tucked away among the flinty cottages. Justly lauded for its excellent sourdough bread, it also offers very good porridge, sausage rolls (£4.50), eggs and, at weekends, pancakes and French toast, plus possibly the best coffee in the county.

What to order: The gorgeously smoky bacon sandwich with prune sauce (£6).



Sardaar, Leicester

If you’re thrown into disarray by wonderful things that don’t cost much, this will blow your tiny mind. Most of the mains will give you change from a fiver; the lentil cakes are £1.20. It’s entirely vegetarian and easily veganed up. The thali is like an adventure playground; the chickpea curry is a masterclass, not just of Punjabi cooking, but of all curries and all chickpeas. They say chilli is good on a hangover because it stimulates your adrenal glands, which unwittingly gets you through the worst. I’m just putting that out there. You should definitely see this as a pleasurable, not a therapeutic, exercise. 30 Narborough Rd, LE3 0BQ

What to order: The thali, with extra roti.

Super Sausage Cafe, Potterspury, Northamptonshire

Don’t be put off by the framed letter from local MP Andrea Leadsom – there’s a good reason hundreds of bikers converge on this roadside diner every weekend, and it’s not only the proximity to Silverstone. A worthy winner of a recent competition to find Britain’s best cafe, the portions here are vast, while the ingredients are often locally sourced and always beautifully cooked. The menu is a love song to the simple joys of fried food: clean eaters need not apply.

What to order: A bacon bap (£3.45).



Delilah, Nottingham

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A vegetarian breakfast at Delilah Fine Food, Nottingham.

Particularly at weekends, the mezzanine cafe at this large delicatessen is one of the busiest spots in city-centre Notts. Bright-eyed families, broadsheet-browsing young couples and bleary weekend visitors congregate for huge, reviving plates of rarebit made with ale from Nottingham’s Magpie Brewery (£8.50), French toast (£6.95) or green eggs (scrambled eggs with pesto) and ham (£7.95). From the pancetta on the menu to the mushrooms with aged manchego, there is a quiet southern Mediterranean accent to the food. Many of the ingredients come from the shop floor. Hardcore foodies will want to browse for hours.

What to order: Eggs benedict with crispy pancetta.

In the age of homogenous high streets, Ludlow is an anomaly. Indie businesses are still thriving here, not least three exceptional, traditional butchers. To get a taste of why this matters, visit Vaughan’s. From 8.15am, it stuffs Andrew Francis’s supremely meaty, succulent rare-breed pork sausages and real, gunk-free bacon into local Walton’s breads and baguettes. There is a small cafe upstairs, but most people walk and eat while taking in what John Betjeman called “the most perfect town in England”.

What to order: Sausage sandwich. No sauce. Let those Old Spot and Berkshire Black bangers shine.



Yorks Bakery Cafe, Birmingham

Two minutes from New Street Station lies a place where the music blares and the tables are always busy. The menu at Yorks boasts classics, plus a host of Middle East-inspired dishes and an excellent selection of breakfast sandwiches (from £4.20) on brioche bun or sourdough (made by Birmingham bakery Thirteen). Biscuits and cakes are baked at the cafe; the lightly spiced squidgy ginger cake is a particular highlight. Coffee is roasted in-house. On our last visit, we drank La Espada, from Columbia, which is smooth and chocolatey with a hint of acidity. There’s a bargain for early risers: brioche and coffee for £5.

What to order: Greek eggs (fried eggs, tahini, feta, £7.50) and single-origin coffee.



London

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The brioche toast, bacon, maple syrup and avocado at Pistachio and Pickle, N1.

At the risk of making it even harder to get a seat at the weekend than it is already, this stylish little cafe on an unprepossessing stretch of Islington’s Liverpool Road is blessed with lovely staff, great food and a pretty walled garden that expands capacity considerably in the summer months (don’t be fooled by what you can see from the street: there’s a downstairs dining room, too).

The mid-priced breakfast menu is short but sweet. It offers eggs, toast, smoked salmon bagels, bacon ciabatta and the like during the week and a more extensive selection on Saturday and Sundays, involving wonderfully spicy Brindisa chorizo, avocado and quinoa (this is Islington, after all). A deli as well as a cafe, the bread comes from Wood Green’s Celtic Bakers, the coffee from Monmouth in Bermondsey and the mature cheddar and Sparkenhoe red leicester (for the ridiculously good homemade cheesy beans on toast) from P&P’s own dairy – unsurprisingly, their toasties are also some of the best in London.

A real neighbourhood joint, where there’s always time for a chat and dogs are welcome (the owners’ vizsla, Cooper, is occasionally in residence), it’s a wonderfully relaxed, friendly place to settle in with the papers mere minutes from the bustle of Upper Street. Plus, there’s always a big jug of water on hand if you’re feeling a bit delicate first thing. These things count.

What to order: The hangover-busting breakfast burrito.



This is like all the values of the Great British Bake Off – vintage prettiness, village-fete baking charm, a stone-cold orexigenic obsession with refined carbohydrate – made into a cafe. Personally, I wouldn’t get out of bed to eat a cake for breakfast, but when circumstances demand it I realise it is delicious.

What to order: The vanilla brioche French toast, like a cloud wafted through paradise, dusted with grace, dipped in an egg and fried.



Bellanger, N1

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Breakfast waffles at Bellanger, N1.

This elegant Alsatian brasserie is not the kind of place to slink into in your PJs (although they’d be far too polite to raise so much as a Gallic eyebrow if you did): breakfast here feels like a special occasion. With charming service and a classic menu – from delectable homemade croissants (£2.25) to generous helpings of eggs benedict (from £6.75), and excellent bloody marys, plus Bellanger-branded dog biscuits on the house – any day that starts here is a very good day.

What to order: Can’t beat the black pudding and duck egg buckwheat crêpe (£9).



Dishoom, various locations

Just the place if you fancy a change from the full English. Part Asian, part Middle Eastern, entirely yum, this quartet of polished brasseries (there’s a fifth branch in Edinburgh) take their inspiration from Mumbai’s Irani cafes. The menu stretches from chargrilled “fire toast” served with pineapple and pink peppercorn jam (£2.70) to keema per eedu (chicken keema with chicken liver and fried eggs, £8.50) and porridge with bananas and medjool dates (£3.90). If you can’t face the day without pig, try the naan rolls stuffed with streaky bacon or Shropshire sausage, plus cream cheese and chilli tomato jam.

What to order: Bombay omelette (£6.90) – three eggs with chopped tomato, onion, coriander and green chilli, served with grilled tomato and fire toast.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vegan pancakes with cherry compote and cream at The Gallery Cafe, E2.

The Gallery Cafe, E2

Heaven for arts-loving meat-haters and easy on the wallet, the Gallery Cafe is part of Bethnal Green’s St Margaret’s House community project, which hosts art exhibitions, film screenings, live music, spoken-word nights and comedy performances, as well as festivals and arts-and-crafts workshops. In addition to the oh-so-fashionable avocado on sourdough toast, hot vegan and veggie options include a full English with vegan sausage and scrambled tofu. Alternatively, how about a quesadilla – a tortilla wrap filled with refried beans, vegan or dairy cheese, tomato, vegan sour cream and wilted spinach or scrambled tofu?

What to order: The superfood breakfast bowl, which features oats, chia seeds, cranberries, walnuts, hazelnuts and cashews.



Levantine breakfasts (shakshuka, roast aubergine and egg sabich sandwiches) are all the rage at hip brunch spots, but at this small, convivial, Israeli-owned restaurant you can go (almost) straight to the source. The full Middle Eastern “big breakfast” (£16.50 per person) enables the table to share a meze of hummus, za’atar-dressed labneh, olives and pickles (as well as homemade cereals and jams), followed by dishes such as “burnt” potato boureka with tahini or cheesy filo pastries.

What to order: Merguez sausage rolls with harissa, a spicy livener.



Mud, SW17

The visuals remind me a bit of that Nescafé advert where the man with the cat and the exposed-beamed studio flat epitomised everything a right-thinking woman could want from a mate. The food is flat-out, wraparound comfort, like a Uniqlo vest or a shot of heroin. You can order eggs benedict (or “eggs benny”, which may or may not annoy you) with a side of pork belly, except calling the pork “on the side” is like ordering a green salad with a side of steak. It is a beast, as my nine-year-old would say, except that I, being more sophisticated, mean that literally as well as metaphorically.

What to order: The breakfast burger, a pork patty with bacon and egg – a sort of royal, gold-plated, rather more expensive version of the bacon and egg McMuffin.



An offshoot of Fergus Henderson’s nose-to-tail mothership, St John, this simple, whitewashed room is a similarly unfussy, classically English breakfast option for plates of devilled kidneys (£8.70), bubble and squeak or scotch woodcock (scrambled eggs with anchovies on toast, £7.50). The star dish, however, is St John’s revelatory bacon sandwich (£6.90). Using home-cured, unsmoked rare breed bacon (supremely piggy, edged with silky, just-crisped fat), it is served on lightly chargrilled, liberally buttered white bread from the on-site bakery. It will transform your conception of what a breakfast sandwich can be.

What to order: That bacon butty. Worth every penny.



Scotland

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kiwi-style pancakes at the Mountain Cafe, Aviemore.

William Café, Glasgow

As someone who eats out way too much, the only half-assed discipline I practise is my version of “intermittent fasting” – basically, avoiding breakfast. So, when I do breakfast, I want to do it right.

Every time I’m in Glasgow, I find myself in William, an idiosyncratic, tiny and hugely friendly slice of cafe heaven. It’s run by designer Sandra Payne and affable actor Sandy Welch, last seen as a beady legal in BBC drama Rillington Place. His infectious bonhomie and Payne’s incredible home baking – think freshly made doughnuts, a cult billionaire’s shortbread, the fluffiest scones, sticky cinnamon buns, blueberry and custard muffins; different homemade cakes daily (I particularly love the pistachio, white chocolate and cardamom cake) – is what makes William a bit special.

They do a nice line in “alternative” breakfasts: a hugely popular salmon and avocado breakfast bowl; chia seed pancakes with fresh fruit, yoghurt and honey. Who could resist muffin, eggs, hollandaise and smoked salmon billed as eggs Alec after the pompous SNP man?

But my heathen Scottish heart belongs to a humble, inexpensive white roll stuffed with Macsween’s crumbly black pudding, William’s own caramelised onion chutney and – the unmissable addition – a fried tattie scone. Or, if they have them, one of its black pudding and pork shoulder sausage rolls: transgressive breakfast nirvana.

The attention to detail makes William a real off-radar find: the jam could be their own foraged bramble; the bread is homemade (seeded rye and spelt, maybe, or sourdough, linseed or an excellent focaccia); the fine coffee is a rich, almost chocolatey Goosedubbs blend, roasted for the cafe by Glasgow’s Dear Green coffee. William operates in its own mildly eccentric universe – don’t go in a hurry or expect anything as new-fangled as a functioning website – and is all the better for it. 94 Queen Margaret Drive

What to order: That incredible sausage roll.

Café Gandolfi, Glasgow

Opened in 1979, this Merchant City classic claims to have imported Glasgow’s first Italian cappuccino coffee machine. Less pioneering these days, it remains a cracking place for a blowout breakfast. Its use of fine Scottish produce (Aberdeen smoked haddock, Stornoway black pudding), is as impressive as its unique, sculptural wooden interior, created by artist and furniture-maker Tim Stead. The menu is expansive, running from trendy brioche French toast (£8) and avocado and poached eggs on sourdough (£8.50) to old-school eggs en cocotte (£7) and gutsy plates of white pudding and baked apple with Cumberland sauce.

What to order: Full Scottish breakfast, complete with tattie scone (£10).



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bacon, egg and toast at The Gardener’s Cottage, Edinburgh.

The name is no mere affectation: this bijou spot in Royal Terrace Gardens, which serves brunch at weekends only, has just three communal tables, so if you’re not a morning person it’s probably best avoided till dinnertime. If you don’t mind at least nodding to your neighbours, however, it’s a glorious experience with a distinctly Scottish accent: wild mushrooms, Arbroath smokies and Stornaway black pudding, plus produce from the garden and outstanding homemade sourdough. Prices on the ever-changing menu start at about £3 (for the bread), with most options – except larger meat dishes – coming in at £6 to £8.

What to order: The (homegrown) beetroot bloody mary.



Mountain Cafe, Aviemore, Highland

With the tagline “A Kiwi in the Cairngorms”, this place stands out from the many others catering to the hungry outdoorsy crowd thanks to its inventive menu: porridge comes with spiced apple, plums and candied pecans (£6.60), while the “Kiwi-style” pancakes are served with banana and bacon (£9). They do an impressive all-day breakfast (£9.80), but even the most committed meat-eater has been known to go veggie purely for its courgette and chive rosti. Be prepared for delayed gratification: there’s often a queue.

What to order: The Kiwi pancakes.



The Ship on the Shore, Edinburgh

If you want to push the boat out, you could do a lot worse than The Ship on the Shore, beside the water in Leith. Priding itself on its sustainable seafood, it offers king scallops that are hand-dived by the Ethical Shellfish Company on the Isle of Mull, rope-reared mussels from Shetland and oysters from Loch Creran. Highlights of the breakfast menu include half a dozen of those oysters (£12); a grilled Arbroath smokie (haddock) with herb butter, poached egg and spinach (£8); and Bunnahabhain smoked salmon with scrambled eggs (£7.50).

What to order: The champagne breakfast (£22) – any regular breakfast, toast, tea or coffee and a glass of champagne.



Wales

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The full English at Harbourmaster, Aberaeron.

Harbourmaster, Aberaeron, Ceredigion



Perched at one end of Aberaeron’s quay, surrounded by brightly painted Georgian townhouses, the Irish Sea and the surrounding cliff tops, this boutique hotel’s location is a peach. Its locally sourced breakfasts are similarly persuasive. Non-residents eat in the hotel’s bar, a handsome conversion of an historic warehouse, where from 8am daily you can linger over, for instance, organic porridge with poached figs (£4.50), welsh rarebit with meaty, dry-cure bacon from Penlan Farm in Talsarn (£7.50) or scrambled eggs with Rhydlewis Smokery salmon (£6.50).

What to order: Full Welsh breakfast with oat-coated, pan-fried laver bread (£8).



Garlands, Cardiff

A small, friendly place, Garlands is something of a local institution, having served what it calls “Cardiff’s most creative artists, rebels and forward-thinkers” since 1960. There’s plenty of creativity in the menu, too, with dishes such as Good morning, Mumbles (streaky bacon, laverbread pancakes, cockles, black pudding and fried eggs, £7.25), Bloody welsh rarebit (featuring bacon and black pudding, from £7.25) and Shirley Bassey (including Welsh Dragon sausage and Tiger Bay white pudding, £9.95). There’s another branch half an hour west, in Cowbridge.

What to order: The vegan (£6.95) – marinated tomatoes, sweet potato hash, spinach, fried bread, mushrooms and haricot beans.



Northern Ireland

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Poached eggs and coffee at Established, Belfast.

Established, Belfast

A large, minimalist coffee shop in Belfast’s creative Cathedral Quarter (vibe: raw concrete, beards, MacBooks), Established serves both a tip-top flat white and refreshingly sharp food. The weekday breakfast menu is short and simple – porridge or wild mushrooms on sourdough (from Belfast dough boys du jour, Zac’s Bakehouse), for example. At the weekend, the kitchen gets creative, with Yotam Ottolenghi-style brunch specials (priced between £6 and £11.50) such as quinoa fritters with curried apple remoulade, minted greens and chilli fried eggs or a cheese and leek scone with salted honey butter, miso slaw and roast spinach.

What to order: Waffle nuts will love Established’s exotic sweet creations.



General Merchants, Belfast

At two buzzy, attractive Belfast venues, General Merchants pays homage to Australia’s booming brunch scene, which has seen serious chefs migrate to casual diners to serve freewheeling, Pacific Rim fusion dishes. Expect damn fine coffee (including guest roasts from Berlin’s revered Barn) and dishes, such as huevos rancheros or spiced pork on toasted brioche with a Korean gochujang hollandaise, that come in at between £4 and £12. Artisan Irish ingredients are prominent and dishes are often modular; ostensibly healthy combinations of quinoa, herbs and avocado invariably come with optional bacon and eggs.

What to order: Weekend full breakfast with homemade hash browns, Gracehill black pudding and merguez sausage.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest The black pudding stack at McCartneys of Moira.

McCartney’s of Moira, Moira, County Down

The bright, two-floor cafe that sits beside Moira’s 140-year-old, multi-award-winning butcher’s shop offers one of the finest breakfasts in Northern Ireland. Unsurprisingly – though there are a couple of vegetarian options on offer – meat is the star. Three-time national Champion of Champions for its sausages, feted by the French for its white pudding and supreme champion of the Great Taste Awards in 2012 thanks to its corned beef (which features in a hash with poached eggs), McCartney’s is a place to visit when you’re hungry.

What to order: The enormous 12-piece breakfast (£7.50).



That’s our list. Where did we miss? Let us know your favourite breakfast spots ...

This article was taken from our 50 Best Breakfasts supplement on 14 January 2017. Click here to get the Guardian newspaper for half price.