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 serves coffee in colorful mugs, sipped by customers while they wait for dishes like coconut milk tikka mole shrimp and grits or creamy, farm greens “saagshuka” with baked eggs. Wash it all down with the house chai, served hot or iced.

This homey all-day cafe’s breakfast menu includes heavy-hitter favorites like corn cakes with cultured butter, Spanish tortilla with the subtle smoky heat of romesco, and Calabrian chile butter-bolstered roasted vegetable porridge. Next to these sweet or savory mains, diners can add seasonal add-ons like tender beet salads with Aleppo pepper and sesame or pear-custard tarts with hazelnut frangipane. The wine list is always stellar, for those who want to get the party started early.

Alberta is absolutely packed with breakfast spots, but this Mexican restaurant right on the main drag has become a neighborhood hidden gem for its chilaquiles and chorizo omelets. The star of the menu is likely the mole enchiladas, filled with cheese and a choice of filling and finished with two fried eggs. Kids can choose from things like mini breakfast burritos and French toast, and those looking for American breakfast standards will find plenty of pancakes and omelets.

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 whipped yuzu cheesecake filling or poached pears, a quick post-workout green smoothie, or a pre-ordered sausage roll and flat white to-go. The breakfast hash — a crispy hash brown cake with bagna cauda and thick pieces of unctuous pork belly — is as good as ever.

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 bindaetteok, a massive Korean pancake of veggies, beans, and ground rice, served with bacon and eggs.

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. The restaurant’s second location is in a Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard building with a breakfast legacy — the former Cup & Saucer space.

This North Vancouver food cart might not look like much from the outside, but chef Chaz O’Neill is slinging some of the city’s strongest breakfast sandwiches from within this converted trailer. The sandwiches begin with house-made English muffins, layered with things like beautifully fluffy Stiebrs Farms eggs, sausage, and bacon; the Solar Sando is a particularly fun alternative, however, a play on corned beef and cabbage with a cabbage egg cake and corned beef hash. For something sweeter, the French toast here evokes images of school-morning breakfasts, with orange zest and cornflakes.

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. 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.

As its name suggests, grits and gravy are the stars of this Southern-inspired diner opened by Mumbo Gumbo owner Brandon Stevens. Grits here are buttered and creamy or fried and glazed with molasses, while gravy comes in a few varieties — sausage, red eye, country, and smothered onion — for slathering over buttermilk biscuits, chicken fried steaks, or chicken fried pork chops. Like any solid breakfast spot, bottomless coffee is available, but bottomless sweet tea is a refreshing alternative.

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 is gussied up with horseradish dijon sauce. The breakfast burritos are particularly nice, stuffed with roasted poblanos, hash browns, and plenty of scrambled eggs.

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 choice of protein, avocado, Havarti, tomato, and sriracha — is a typical crowd-pleaser, as well as the classic “Yolko Ono,” a fried egg with house-made pesto and a sausage patty. 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.

La Osita, the breakfast cart with some of the city’s best breakfast burritos and tacos, is still going strong. The chorizo-stuffed Osita breakfast burrito with a hearty dose of pico de gallo is a smart choice, but it’s hard to beat the “brunch taco,” with thick slabs of Applewood bacon and tangy pickled onions with fried eggs. La Osita also serves a variety of coffee drinks and smoothies.

When it comes to dazzling, luxurious 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 hickory-smoked ham, and the restaurant’s bowl of cheddar grits comes with blackened shrimp, 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.