The Best Breakfasts Around Boston

While some of the spots also do weekend brunch, these restaurants were chosen with weekday breakfast in mind — the doors open early, service is prompt, and the hearty breakfast fare is top-notch.

Sofra Bakery & Cafe

The daytime sibling to citywide Mediterranean favorites Oleana and Sarma, Sofra is the place to go for sweet-and-savory Lebanese, Turkish, and Greek fare just after sunrise. And now, thanks to its bigger location in Allston, there’s more elbow room to spread out and enjoy proper breakfast time instead of just grabbing something to go.

The shakshuka is excellent, as is the Turkish-style breakfast with soft-boiled egg, feta, and veggies, and the asure, a flavorful pudding made with chickpeas, milk, rose water, and apple butter.

Bōm Dough

This Brazilian cafe specializes in pão de queijo, a flavorful cheese bread that’s naturally gluten-free.

Enjoy a gooey breakfast sandwich between two pieces packed with bacon, egg, cheese, and your choice of barbecue mayonnaise or habanero fig sauce. Or enjoy round snack-sized versions of the pão de queijo, which can be stuffed with guava or dulce de leche and smeared with butters like garlic crunch or salted cinnamon.

Matcha is another staple here. Try the beloved iced strawberry matcha or the New England-inspired maple matcha.

Theo’s Cozy Corner Restaurant

It’s a cozy corner restaurant with big breakfast flavors.

Theo’s opens bright and early at 6 a.m., serving up globe-trotting bites, such as English breakfasts, eggs Benedict with Canadian bacon, and Irish corned beef. Since Theo’s offers Italian and Brazilian fare for lunch and dinner, it’s no surprise that you can find Italian sausage and picanha, or Brazilian steak, to pair with eggs for your morning meal.

Brookline Lunch

The name is a bit of a misnomer: Brookline Lunch serves breakfast and brunch all day in Cambridge (on Brookline Street, to be fair; and sure, there’s lunch too). Dating all the way back to 1937, this old-timey spot has become especially popular in recent years for its pancakes, especially the baklava pancakes, which were originally meant to be a special but jumped to the regular menu.

The rest of the breakfast menu is full of eggs: omelets, Benedicts, and such. It’s cash only.

Cafe Weekend

This charming Allston cafe sports the motto of “Make Everyday Feel Like the Weekend,” and they achieve that goal with flying colors.

The croffle, a cross between a croissant and a waffle, is a must with a cup of coffee. From there, options abound with egg omelets, breakfast sandwiches, and a Nutella banana brioche French toast.

Great Taste Bakery & Restaurant

From the sausage rolls to the molten egg yolk buns, Great Taste knows how to produce an unbeatable breakfast spread in Chinatown.

It’s hard to go wrong on the menu, but be sure to nab the fried turnip cakes, custard rolls, and any of the sweet or savory buns. Early birds, take note: the breakfast offerings of French toast, sliced beef sandwiches, and ham and egg sandwiches start at 6:30 every morning.

The Friendly Toast

The Friendly Toast is a reliably weird and wonderful place to hang out for breakfast. The restaurant originated in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and has since brought its scrambled egg rolls, hash brown bowls, and doughnut breakfast sandwiches to six locations in Massachusetts, including this decade-old Back Bay spot.

Kupel’s Bakery

A good bagel is one of the best possible breakfast options, and Kupel’s Bakery near Coolidge Corner has perfected the art.

This kosher bakery makes more than 20 different bagel flavors every day. Load one up with a flavored schmear like jalapeño, strawberry, green olive, or lox, or request a made-to-order sandwich named after a Boston neighborhood. The Coolidge Corner includes the best-selling chive cream cheese with smoked salmon and tomato on an onion-salt bagel, whereas the Harvard mixes honey walnut cream cheese and jelly on a bagel of your choice.

Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe

Sure, “sandwich” is right there in the name, but don’t let that fool you into thinking Charlie’s is just a lunch destination.

Swing by to start your day with crisp-edged stacks of griddle cakes topped with your choice of goodies like walnuts, bananas, and cranberries. The generous banana bread French toast is a must-try, too. If savory is more your style, find plenty of omelets and breakfast sandwiches on the menu.

Martin’s Coffee Shop

This old-school greasy spoon has been feeding Brookliners since 1918.

Start with a mug of coffee and then make a game plan. In one direction: stuff-your-own sweet or savory French toast with options ranging from Nutella, ricotta cheese, and strawberries to plates with eggs, sausages, and corned beef hash.

In another direction: a full Irish breakfast complete with black and white pudding and baked beans. All roads lead to happiness.

Dudley Cafe

Dudley Cafe has been a go-to spot for morning coffee and breakfast sandwiches in Nubian Square for nearly a decade. Sandwich and bowl names pay homage to local history, like the Roxbury Deluxe breakfast sandwich featuring egg, spinach, bacon, cheddar, and jam on an English muffin, and Ayanna’s Bowl, a savory nod to Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

Community is also at the core of this cafe, where they showcase local artists and hire staffers from the nearby Madison Park Technical High School.

The Joint

The breakfast menu at the Joint is full of the usual suspects — pancakes, waffles, huevos rancheros — but the restaurant shines in the execution.

Sure, it’s pancakes, but these are fluffy, buttermilk beauties with just a touch of crispiness around the edges. The fist-sized, golden-brown Belgian waffles, served alone or topped with fried chicken, are a crowd-pleaser too.

Blue Mountain Jamaican Restaurant

Blue Mountain is one of the city’s top destinations for classic Jamaican breakfast fare, including ackee, saltfish, and callaloo, a flavorful mix of stewed greens. Pair any order with banana porridge and a couple of flaky patties to round out the meal.

Rubato

This stylish, welcoming Hong Kong-style cafe has just about everything one needs for a satisfying start to the day. Dip crunchy youtiao, or fried dough, into housemade soy milk and grab a spam-and-egg bolo bao for a quick, delicious meal.

For savory breakfast fans, the bowl of rice rolls with cubes of tender brisket hits the spot.