Masala Lab may serve some of the most intricate breakfast dishes in town, with nuanced layers of flavor and texture. This Indian American breakfast cafe from Deepak Saxena of Desi PDX pours coffee into colorful mugs, sipped by customers while they wait for bowls of coconut milk tikka mole shrimp and grits and creamy, farm greens “saagshuka” with baked eggs. Wash it all down with the house chai, served hot or iced.

Now boasting an equally delicious dinner menu since August of last year, Sweedeedee is humming along in its homey fashion, with the help of chef Sam Smith. The restaurant’s brunch menu includes heavy-hitter favorites like caramelized-sugar-encrusted French toast with berry jam; a plate of eggs with creamy black beans, potatoes, and pickled onions; and a breakfast sandwich teeming with pillowy mounds of cantal-cheese-fortified scrambled eggs. Next to these sweet or savory mains, diners can add fresh, seasonal all-day add-ons like tender beet salads with Fiore Sardo cheese or Borlotti beans with carrot-cabbage slaw and fennel. Leaving without dessert would be criminal.

This Alberta restaurant splits its breakfast menu between Mexican and American diner standbys, all well-executed. Mole rojo enchiladas come with eggs, chilaquiles arrive with house-made fried corn tortillas, and fluffy omelets are joined by fajita-style chicken or green-chile-braised brisket. The restaurant also has a lengthy kid’s menu with pancakes and French toast.

Seeking to recreate the down-home, comfort biscuit they knew from childhoods in North Carolina, Pine State Biscuits founders and owners Walt Alexander, Kevin Atchley, and Brian Snyder first introduced their take on this Southern staple in 2006. Since then, it’s expanded to four different locations around town, with one outpost in Reno, Nevada. Portlanders craving a Southern comfort food breakfast can stop in any location for towering biscuit sandwiches overflowing with fillings, cozy biscuits and gravy, blueberry cornmeal pancakes, and baked goods, including the restaurant’s spin on a Pop Tart. Out of the biscuit sandwich options, the Reggie Deluxe stands supreme, stuffed with fried chicken, bacon strips, cheese, and topped with an egg and gravy. Pair it with sides like hush puppies or classic hash browns, and wash it all down with diner-style coffee from Coava Roasters or a breakfast cocktail.

For years, Australian-born coffee roaster and cafe Proud Mary has served eye-catching breakfasts that Portlanders love to Instagram. The pandemic birthed a new era of Proud Mary, one that’s more adaptable to any type of morning. Pre-work meals can involve leisurely breakfasts of ricotta hotcakes with decadent toppings like cardamom and beet syrup, a quick post-workout green smoothie with some overnight oats for later, or pre-ordered sausage roll and flat white to-go. Visitors can order takeout via the website.

Eclectic from start to finish, Cameo Cafe serves a mashup of American and Korean flavors in a diner space with quintessentially funky Portland decor. Cameo is still offering its omelets and hash browns, waffles, pancakes, or other American classics, but those in the know head straight for the bindae-tteok, a massive Korean pancake of veggies, beans, and ground rice, served with bacon and eggs. Cameo Cafe is open for takeout and onsite dining.

Recently named Best New Bakery in Eater Portland’s 2022 Eater Awards, it’s a well-established fact that this warm and welcoming Northeast Portland restaurant is knocking it out of the park in the baked goods department. While many a morning could be whiled away in the sunny dining room, munching on fluffy bombolini bursting with rich seasonal fruit filling, or crunching into crackling pastries along with an espresso, the actual breakfast menu is a standout as well, from savory porridge with a poached egg to fluffy frittatas. Featuring house-baked bread, the creamy whipped ricotta toast features pools of marmalade or jam nestled between the cloud-like ricotta folds, sprinkled with bee pollen and a hint of lemon.

This Beaumont charmer of a breakfast cafe delivers the goods: Benedicts topped with everything from cured ham to braised pork shoulder, jammy shakshuka, and an egg-and-cheese on a house buttermilk biscuit. Plus, those looking to live it up mid-week will find a selection of boozy brunch beverages like classic bloody marys.

Bernstein’s Bagels likely makes the city’s best bagel — chewy but not too dense, dotted with little bubbles to indicate the right level of snap. They come with bagel-sized layers of eclectic schmears, like ones swirled with brown sugar, honey, and cinnamon-macerated raisins; alternatively, those looking for something even heartier can opt for breakfast sandwiches with eggs and prosciutto, ordered for carry-out. It’s best to arrive early, however; these days, Bernstein’s sells out more often than not.

Inside the Glisan convenience store J&T’s Market, Adrian Flores tops cheeseburgers with bacon and eggs, piles plates with huevos rancheros, and ladles bowls of birria de chivo as early as 7 a.m. On the weekends, menudo lands at picnic tables outside the store, sipped alongside horchata and, in some cases, energy drinks from the fridges inside. But for mid-week workers, the selection of breakfast burritos is a real draw, filled with everything from chorizo and potatoes to ham, sausage, and bacon.

Yes, many consider Screen Door a tourist magnet, but since the restaurant opened a new location in the Pearl, brunch has become more frequent, more consistent, and with nowhere near the wait. The classics — buttermilk fried chicken and sweet potato waffles, praline bacon, griddled brioche French toast with rum-flamed caramelized bananas — are all strong options here, especially when paired with a pickled-okra-topped bloody mary or a cold brew spiked with Crater Lake hazelnut vodka and Kahlua.

From pastries prepared with traditional Japanese ingredients to perfectly symmetrical katsu sandwiches, house-baked bread is the common denominator at this chic Japanese sandwich shop and patisserie in downtown Portland. While the classic katsu sandwiches — filled with juicy breaded pork loin, chicken, fish, or eggplant — can make for a savory breakfast or brunch meal, breakfast sandwiches of sliced milk bread, egg, bacon, American cheese, and herbed aioli or a riff on avocado toast with yuzu, sesame, and radish provide more traditional options. Drip coffee and steamed milk drinks like lattes are made with Good Coffee beans, served alongside matcha lattes and Japanese teas.

Think of the Daily Feast as a more polished — but not unnecessarily fussy — take on a classic diner: The pancakes are thick and fluffy, the biscuits and gravy come with house-made biscuits, and the corned beef hash comes with horseradish dijon sauce. The breakfast burritos are particularly nice, stuffed with roasted poblanos, hash browns, and plenty of scrambled eggs. These are just some of the options on the all-day, everyday brunch menu, also available for dine-in or takeout.

This no-fuss breakfast cafe opened in the ’80s, but it feels like one of those places that’s been around forever. Here, complimentary scones and jam land at your table before a $6 stack of apple pancakes, or an asparagus-prosciutto scramble, or a classic diner-style plate with eggs, potatoes, and toast. The coffee is hot and served in a glass mug, the specials board is frequently updated, and the regulars are likely sitting at the counter.

New Mexican cuisine can be hard to find outside its native state, but this Southeast Morrison cafe keeps Southwestern transplants and local Portlanders satiated with its menu of New Mexican breakfast and lunch classics. The breakfast burrito — stuffed with eggs, potatoes, and pinto beans — comes smothered in a choice of New Mexican red or green chile; pros know to order it “Christmas” for both. Here, huevos rancheros arrive on top of crispy corn tortillas with cheddar cheese, pinto beans, potatoes, and red, green, or Christmas chile. Migas, stuffed sopaipillas, tacos, and New Mexican-style diner breakfasts of eggs and sides round out the breakfast offerings.

This food cart-turned-restaurant has been a Hawthorne mainstay for years, and with other locations in Pioneer Courthouse Square and the Prost food cart pod, these sandwiches show no signs of stopping. The “Sriracha Mix-A-Lot” — a fried egg with seared ham, avocado, Havarti, tomato, and sriracha — is a typical crowd-pleaser, as well as the classic “Yolko Ono,” a fried egg with pesto, Parmesan, sausage patty, and a secret “Magic Egg Dust” spice blend. Sandwiches can be made vegetarian or gluten-free, with tons of add-on options from hash browns to the shop’s Holy Aioli. Boozy standbys like mimosas are available, as well.

Matt’s BBQ Tacos is known for its smoked meat tacos, served in pillowy, Austin-style flour tortillas. But the migas taco — scrambled eggs with cheddar, pico de gallo, guacamole, and tortilla chips — might be the move for breakfast. The chopped brisket breakfast taco, with potatoes and cheddar, is no slouch, either. And diners can now add on some satisfyingly crunchy hash browns to their breakfast order, as well. With Matt’s new location within the Hinterland pod, visitors can pair their tacos with cocktails from the bar, designed to complement the cart’s food.

This Scandinavian breakfast cafe is a Portland gem, with locations everywhere from Hood River to Southwest Oleson; however, it’s hard to beat the original cafe, where folks wait for a table with cups of cardamom coffee or breakfast cocktails made with Scandinavian aquavit for a regionally-appropriate breakfast tipple. Brunch should start with the cheerful little ebelskivers — spherical, fluffy pancake balls topped in powdered sugar, followed by pans of lost eggs or lefse.

When it comes to dazzling, luxe morning meals, this Creston-Kenilworth cafe delivers. Breakfast burritos are not just stuffed with chorizo, roasted garlic potatoes, and scrambled eggs, but also house-made salsa macha, salsa verde, and cilantro-lime crema. Benedicts can come with Dungeness crab or house-cured lox, and the restaurant’s bowl of cheddar grits comes with lobster, bacon-shallot jam, and Calabrian chile oil. Those intimidated can stick to a stellar breakfast sandwich, like the Dame with gochujang and Mama Lil’s aioli.