The Best Brunch Spots in America

Famed Florida chef Norman Van Aken has recently joined the team at this new art-filled spot, where the imaginative brunch menu includes Oaxacan toast with avocado, corn, cheese, pickled chiles, and cilantro; Japanese-style pancakes with Meyer lemon, blueberries, and Vermont maple syrup; and an Ad Lib burger on an “everything bun,” with black truffles, pepper jack cheese, charred red onion, spicy pickles, and crispy herbed potatoes.

This convincing replica of — and homage to — a classic Parisian brasserie has been around for more than 20 years and is noted for its solid cooking and its famous house-baked breads and pastries. Such conventional brunch fare as brioche French toast with smoked bacon and eggs Benedict are offered, but for a more serious, more Parisian, experience, there are also things like oysters, escargots, and steak frites.

There’s no mistaking what the specialty is at this restaurant opened earlier this year by the proprietors of the nearby two-part establishment called Lunch.Supper! (where the specialties are equally evident). The menu here is extensive, offering such choices as a breakfast charcuterie plate, four different Benedicts (one with a smoked salmon cake, another with pepper-crusted pork loin), omelettes, pancakes and waffles, brunch bowls, sandwiches, and such entrees as chicken and waffles and steak and eggs.

This friendly tavern-style restaurant advertises “Meat & Whiskey,” but offers a whole lot more. For brunch, the menu offers a wide range of hearty specialties, including biscuits and gravy with smoked pork and a sunny-side egg; a B.B.E.L.T. sandwich of applewood-smoked bacon, bacon pâté, fried egg, and lettuce and tomato on sourdough bread; and a skillet-baked strawberry rhubarb Dutch pancake with whipped strawberry cream cheese. The full restaurant menu is also available, if you’d prefer to start your day with butter-roasted salmon, bacon-wrapped meatloaf, or something similarly un-brunchy.

Simply one of the best restaurants in America and a longtime New Orleans favorite, Commander’s traces its origins to 1893, and has been in the Brennan family — Crescent City restaurant royalty — since 1974. Its spectacular brunch, accompanied by live jazz, might include such specialties as turtle soup with a splash of sherry, crispy oyster Sardou salad, wild Louisiana white shrimp with roasted mushrooms and tomatoes, or eggs Benedict made with 16-hour barbecued pork shoulder and buttermilk biscuits — followed by a Creole bread pudding soufflé or pecan pie à  la mode for dessert.

The flagship of Seattle celebrity chef-restaurateur Tom Douglas’s culinary empire, Dahlia Lounge, opened in 1989, is one of the city’s essential restaurants for any meal. The brunch menu is divided into both breakfast and lunch selections. The former include a green garlic, asparagus, and cheddar omelette with a buttermilk biscuit and parmesan potatoes and Dahlia Workshop granola with honey yogurt, avocado, fresh berries, and mint. Among the latter are Dungeness crab cake with asparagus, shiitakes, toasted almonds, and pea vines and a vegan herb falafel and cashew-yogurt tzatziki with black lentils, cucumber, and orange. One of the side dishes (or desserts) is a serving of made-to-order doughnuts.

Forget Mystic Pizza. This is Mystic bourbon, craft beer, burgers, and brunch, in a former marine engine factory. Like Dahlia Lounge, Engine Room — under the same ownership as the nearby Oyster Club, considered one of Connecticut’s best restaurants — divides its brunch menu into breakfast and lunch sides. Want breakfast? There’s a Benedict with slow-smoked barbecue, local farm eggs, and cornbread or a dish of Stonington scallops with grits and a six-minute egg. If lunch is more appealing, consider a Cobb salad, fried fish sandwich, or smoked chipotle-barbecue pork ribs with creamy Southern slaw and potato salad.

The combination breakfast and brunch at this bustling restaurant and lounge begins at 7 a.m. on Sunday mornings, perfect if you like to get an early start (or are getting home really late). Besides the usual pancake and egg dishes, there are lobster or smoked salmon Benedicts, avocado toast with poached eggs, and steak and eggs with hollandaise sauce, among other things.

Considered one of the best Mexican restaurants in the country, this colorful “interior Mexican” establishment (a phrase Texans use to differentiate the cuisine from Tex-Mex) serves brunch by means of an extensive buffet. Ceviche, tamales, chilaquiles, huevos rancheros, mole, the long-cooked pork called cochinita pibil, and many other Mexican specialties are offered, and the dessert selection is more than ample.

A “creative a.m. eatery,” Hash Kitchen advertises “Arizona’s largest Bloody Mary bar” and a “crazy brunch menu.” The usual brunch dishes are available, but so is a memorable carnitas hash (Coke-braised pork with potatoes, corn, avocado, cotija cheese, green chili sauce, and corn tortillas) and an elaboration of avocado toast that adds bacon jam, braised pork, crispy leeks, green chili hollandaise, and fried eggs.

Shelburne Farms is a non-profit working farm plus inn and restaurant. The brunch menu is short, with only nine selections. Food raised or made on the property is featured, though, including the farm’s own cheeses and beef, and the fare is substantial. A frittata is filled with butternut squash, roasted cauliflower, caramelized onion, heirloom tomato, and Shelburne Farms Tractor Cheddar and served with home fries and toast. Other possibilities include house-churned-buttermilk pancakes with plum coulis and mascarpone and steel-cut oat risotto with ham, cherry tomatoes, roasted onion, spinach, and Shelburne’s own six-month cheddar, plus toast and a poached egg.

The 1923-vintage brick-and-limestone building now occupied by this handsome bakery and cafe was once the headquarters of now long-defunct Braniff Airlines. Everything served is “handcrafted each day starting at 4 a.m.,” according to the restaurant’s website. The extensive brunch menu runs from fried green tomato Benedict and a hot chicken biscuit with sunny-side-up egg to entree salads, sandwiches, fried chicken pot pie, and “untraditional sides” including sweet potatoes with bacon, goat cheese, and burnt honey.

Live Dixieland jazz and the cuisine of noted chef David Walzog are among the attractions at this bright, airy, appropriately lakeside restaurant at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel and casino. An array of self-service oysters on the half-shell, bigeye tuna poke, and Alaskan king crab legs, among other things, starts the brunch service here. Made-to-order fare to follow ranges from lemon ricotta pancakes and crab cake Benedict to blackened swordfish with citrus peppers and chargrilled flat iron steak with fries.

Named by Open Table as one of the 100 best restaurants in America for a celebratory dinner, this elegant establishment does a great job with brunch, too. Each table gets a roasted seafood tower to begin, followed by ricotta-truffle agnolotti pasta. After that, diners help themselves to an extravagant brunch buffet, boasting everything from made-to-order omelettes to a filet mignon station.

Niu means “nest” in Catalan, and the name seems appropriate for this cozy restaurant full of rustic wood — said by its website to be located “in the heart of downtown Miami. Or somewhere between Dalí’s moustache and Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia.” There’s an undeniable Mediterranean flavor to the brunch offerings, which include a codfish and green onion omelette; eggs with truffle potato foam, jamón ibérico, and black truffles; and Catalan-style rice with seafood.

You know you’re in the South when the brunch menu includes pickled shrimp with saltine crackers, sausage balls with bread and butter pickles, cornmeal pancakes with cucumber cream cheese and trout roe, and a fried oyster Benedict with smoked ham and hot sauce. The narrow, high-ceilinged dining room is flooded with light at brunch time.

Capital Hotel chef Joël Antunes was known for his own highly regarded restaurants in Atlanta, London, and other cities before coming to Little Rock. He changes his menus, including the one for brunch, frequently. Right now, in addition to things like pancakes, a frittata, and eggs Benedict, he offers such items as shrimp and grits, blackened ribeye with crawfish coleslaw and cheese grits, and a “Capital Soul Plate” including mixed greens simmered with thick-cut bacon, orange soda, and hot sauce; smoked gouda mac and cheese with portobellos; and truffled chicken tenders.

Co-owned by the women who run Marlowe, The Cavalier, and two other noted area restaurants, this big, casual place serves high-end bistro fare. Sunday mornings, that translates to blueberry fritters with blueberry compote and crème anglaise; bacon and baby leek scramble with applewood-smoked bacon; crispy polenta cakes with mushrooms, poached eggs, and truffle salsa verde; and smoked corn beef hash with pepper relish, fried egg, and chili hollandaise — among many other choices.

Stylish chef Ethiopian-born, Swedish raised chef-restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson lives near this Harlem hotspot and has been an animating presence in the community. His menus are mainly Southern, with a personal twist. For brunch, he offers such fare as deviled eggs with black-eyed pea mayo, fried capers, and onion jam; a Yep! Chicken & Waffle combining a fried chicken leg and a butterscotch waffle with hot maple-chili sauce and pickles; C & C Salad with shaved cauliflower, corn, watermelon, bacon, peanuts, and berbere (Ethiopian spice mix) vinaigrette; and Mama’s Breakfast Pie with Korean bbq oxtail, creamy potatoes, and baked eggs.

The brunch menu at this handsome, popular restaurant is a study in international breakfast and lunch fare: Belgian waffle, Austrian pancakes, French omelette (with goat cheese), shakshouka (from Israel), pupusas (from El Salvador), kimchi fried rice with beef short rib, Mexican chilaquiles or chorizo sopes. There are also things like granola with farmer’s market fruit, brioche French toast with Vermont maple syrup, and a breakfast sandwich of pork belly sausage, American cheese, and fried egg. The amazing thing is that it’s all very good.

This plush, opulent dining room at the Royal Sonesta Hotel serves modern Cajun and Creole cuisine as imagined by well-known chefs John Folse and Rick Tramonto. Brunch, accompanied by live jazz, features things like “Death by Gumbo,” a gumbo with roasted quail, andouille sausage, and oysters; beer-battered crab beignets; a shrimp and egg crêpe with tomatoes, fontina, and grilled corn chow-chow; and a Breakfast R’evolution, combining a foie gras and corn muffin, sugar-cured ham, poached eggs, and black truffle hollandaise.

Part of Chicago’s popular Boka Restaurant Group, and occupying a dazzling dining room on the site of the 1920s-era Cedar Hotel, Somerset checks a lot of boxes with its extensive brunch menu. Gooey butter coffee cake, passion fruit pop tart, everything bagel with lox, ham and cheddar omelette? Sure. But also smoked beet tartare with cumin yogurt and goat gouda; roasted turkey sandwich with bacon, lettuce, and sundried tomato aïoli; and fried chicken with French toast and sriracha honey.

This warmly lit two-level restaurant is Southern all the way. Fried green tomatoes, pan-fried chicken livers with country ham, pimento cheese with pickles and benne seed crackers, she-crab soup, fried chicken with collard greens (or with a malted buttermilk waffle), smoked brisket Benedict with Creole mustard hollandaise and pickled jalapeños, Charleston gold rice porridge with stewed okra, turnips, spinach, and poached eggs… This is weekend morning comfort food at its best.

Top Chef contestant Ed Lee, who came to prominence cooking in Louisville, now has two branches of a Southern-style restaurant dubbed Succotash, one in Washington, D.C., and this one in the multi-part National Harbor complex, just down the Potomac from the nation’s capital. Succotash’s brunch was voted as one of the 100 best in America by Open Table. The menu includes include pecan sticky buns, peel’n’eat shrimp, shrimp and grits, biscuits and gravy, and a pimento cheese burger with slab bacon jam — and side dishes include watermelon with fried peanuts, bourbon-pickled jalapeños, and succotash curry. Lee might have been born in Brooklyn to Korean parents, but his Southern credentials are never in doubt.

Brunch Hawaiian style, with a focus on pork (as the restaurant’s name might suggest), means dishes like SP Eggs Benedict, with grilled taro English muffins, kalua pork, and poached eggs with two hollandaise sauces — truffle and guava; an omelette with smoked gouda, applewood-smoked bacon, and caramelized bourbon onions; macadamia-nut-crusted fried chicken with a chocolate-chip-and-applewood-bacon crispy waffle with coconut glaze; and a flatbread pizza with 12-hour slow-roasted pork, garlic oil, bourbon onions, braised mushrooms, Fresno chiles, and mozzarella, jack, and parmesan cheese.