Remem­ber how when you were grow­ing up you were always told that break­fast was the most import­ant meal of the day? Well it seems like these cafes agree. Wheth­er you’re up and about and plan­ning a big day, or you’ve man­aged to drag your­self out of bed some time in the after­noon, a plate full of good­ness from one of these places is prob­ably exactly what you need.

The Welly solu­tion to a hangover is:

Time to get out of bed and get to these places, after the jump…

A. Sweet Mother’s Kitchen


Mother­’s has sweet beignets or toasted bacon & egg po’ boys to help start your day the N’Awl­ins way. For some­thing more sub­stan­tial, chilli beef beans on toast is a hangover cure par excel­lence, and if you just can­’t go past eggs at brunch­time, then the “Egg­sa­d­illa” or clas­sic hue­vos ranch­er­os will sat­is­fy your crav­ings for yolky good­ness. But the one thing that gets ex-pat Tex­ans queuing up in Cour­tenay Place is the break­fast burrito: eggs, beans and cheese all wrapped up in a tor­tilla and smothered with salsa and guacamole.

B. Scopa

Scrambled eggs can often be a tad bland, but Scopa gives them a kick in the pants to become Abruzzo scrambled eggs. Eggs are good, but eggs with basil, black olives, chopped toma­toes and chili are very, very good. Or how about some­thing as ple­bei­an as saus­ages and beans, the main­stay of greasy spoon caffs every­where? Scopa trans­forms this dish by using rich, spicy Itali­an saus­ages instead of the usu­al mys­tery meat. And the beans aren’t just plonked out of a Wat­ties can: they’re giant, tender Florentine beans, cooked slowly in a rich tomato and herb sauce.

C. Matterhorn


The Ho’ does an abso­lutely amaz­ing break­fast that can be summed up in two words: chee­sey hash­browns. Ima­gine the cream­i­est mash pota­toes mixed with cheese and then dolloped into hot oil and fried until crispy but still liquid inside, oh yeah, I’m totally there.

If fried ain’t your thing then don’t worry you can the “Lovely bit of Fish”, won­der­ful eggs, or even a Bloody Mary – or per­haps a Flamin­ing Mega Maitai. And in winter the fire is just so damn cozy you’ll feel like turn­ing up in your jim-jams.

D. Roxy Cafe

When most people hear of Roxy cafe they think: “Where?”. Roxy has occu­pied the space vacated by the Purple Onion and the short-lived Argen­tinean cafe for a while now and, just quietly, the food is pretty good.

The Big Break­fast (the only type to be ordered after a night of dubi­ous activ­it­ies) con­tains the usu­al: eggs; toast; saus­ages; bacon; tomato and hash­browns. But like Scopa they choose dif­fer­ent items for these staple entries. The Saus­ages are pork and fen­nel from Island Bay. The hash­browns are homemade. The weak­est part is the toast, and the occa­sion­ally very slow ser­vice.

WINNER!!!
E. Epic

Epic, oh Epic! For how many years now have you been squir­rel­ing away in your little corner of the world, there behind the weird wall relief on the Pearse build­ing, there on your major inter­sec­tion, there with­in handy reach of New Bodega, Le Moulin, the Pros­ti­tute Col­lect­ive, the needle-exchange, the Sunday mar­ket and hun­dreds of hungry, needy first-year fresh­ers; there, with your café-art of vari­able qual­ity, your huge com­fy benches, your bal­cony bathed in deli­cious sun, turn­ing out the biggest, juici­est break­fasts, the fant­ast­ic cof­fees, the omelettes which defy descrip­tion, the implaus­ible cho­ri­zo, the fruit com­potes and your gar­gan­tu­an savoury muffins? Oh Epic, we could write a freakin’ book. And don’t get us star­ted on your two-fer-one break­fasts on Tues­days, and your absurdly attract­ive staff. Oh Epic… won’t you be ours?

View these break­fasts on Zoom­in using the “best­break­fast” tag.