The Best Breakfast Spots in NYC
Sixteen places to eat a real weekday breakfast in New York, from a 1925 soda fountain and a 24-hour Williamsburg diner to Chinatown roast pork buns and mangú in Washington Heights.
The best breakfast in New York is still the old-school kind: smoked fish and eggs at Barney Greengrass, a grilled corn muffin at the counter of Lexington Candy Shop, a roast pork bun from Mei Lai Wah eaten on Mott Street at 9am. This is a list of sixteen places to eat a proper weekday breakfast, not brunch, across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, with the opening hours for each and what to order when you get there.
Brunch has its own guide (see the best brunch in NYC), and we kept this list clear of it on purpose. Breakfast is a different meal. It happens before work, usually alone or with one other person, often at a counter, and it should cost less than lunch. The places below open early, feed you fast and have been doing it for a long time. Hours are current as of this fall; small counters change them, so check before a special trip.
At a glance.
- 02Lexington Candy ShopA 1925 soda fountain with all day breakfast at the counter
- 07BuvetteSteamed eggs and a croque madame in a tiny French gastrotheque
- 12Mei Lai WahBaked roast pork buns from a Chinatown bakery founded in 1968
- 15MaleconA proper Dominican breakfast of mangú in Washington Heights
- Where
- Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens
- When
- Many spots open by 7am; two are open 24 hours
Classic counters and diners
"The Sturgeon King" has been on Amsterdam Avenue in one form or another since 1908, and the dining room still looks like nobody has touched it since the Lindsay administration. Order the sturgeon scrambled with eggs and onions, or a smoked fish platter with a bagel, and eat slowly. It is not cheap, and it is worth every dollar. Our Jewish delis guide has the rest of the family.
Hours: restaurant Tuesday to Friday 8:30am to 4pm, weekends 8:30am to 5pm; the shop opens at 8am; closed Mondays. Go for: sturgeon, eggs and onions. Know before you go: weekday mornings are calm; weekend lines are long.
A soda fountain luncheonette founded in 1925 that marked its 100th year in 2025, and the closest thing left in Manhattan to the breakfast counters of the last century. Breakfast is served all day at the counter: eggs, pancakes, toast, and a hand-mixed egg cream or lime rickey if you are that kind of person at 8am. Sit at the counter, not a booth. More nearby in our Upper East Side guide.
Hours: Monday to Friday 7am to 6pm, Saturday 8am to 6pm, Sunday 8am to 4pm. Go for: eggs over easy and coffee at the counter. Know before you go: it fills with families on weekends; weekdays at 7am are perfect.
A narrow kosher dairy counter that has served Second Avenue since 1938, with a menu the restaurant itself says has remained virtually unchanged. Breakfast here means matzo brei, blintzes, or eggs with thick slices of buttered challah, eaten on one of a handful of stools. It is one of the cheapest good breakfasts in Manhattan. See also our cheap eats guide.
Hours: Sunday and Tuesday to Thursday 7am to 11pm, Friday and Saturday 7am to 11:30pm; closed Mondays. Go for: matzo brei and challah toast. Know before you go: very few seats; go early or take it to go.
The chrome diner on the corner of Metropolitan and Union has been there since 1928. It went bankrupt in 2023 and reopened in September 2024 under Louis Skibar, the operator behind Coppelia, and it has been a neighborhood institution again ever since. The new menu leans Mexican in the best way: chilaquiles verdes, short rib hash, and a Texas fried toast. It is open 24 hours, which means breakfast whenever you define morning. Our late-night food guide has more.
Hours: open 24 hours, seven days. Go for: chilaquiles verdes with a fried egg. Know before you go: it is a scene on weekend nights; weekday mornings are quiet.
A true Brooklyn luncheonette on the edge of the Pratt campus, open from 6am every day and closed only on Christmas. Egg sandwiches, French toast and two eggs any style are the whole point, served fast, at prices well below anything else in the neighborhood. It is cash only, with an ATM inside. The Fort Greene guide has what to do after.
Hours: daily 6am to 6pm; closed Christmas. Go for: a bacon, egg and cheese on a roll. Know before you go: cash only.
A classic Queens Greek-American diner opened in 1965 and run by the Dellaportas family since 1996, with a menu the size of a phone book and hours built for shift workers. The diner opens at 5am. Its online menu lists two eggs any style at $7.69 and pancakes at $10.15, which is roughly what breakfast should cost. Our Astoria guide has the rest of the neighborhood.
Hours: daily 5am to 2am. Go for: two eggs, home fries and rye toast. Know before you go: it is open until 2am, so it doubles as the neighborhood's late-night stop.
Dining rooms worth an early alarm
Jody Williams's tiny French gastrotheque opened on Grove Street in 2011 and still does the most charming breakfast in the West Village. It opens at 8am every day. The eggs are steamed with the espresso machine's wand, which makes them impossibly soft, and the croque madame is the savory move. Go on a weekday at 8, before the line forms. More in our West Village guide.
Hours: daily 8am to midnight. Go for: steamed eggs with prosciutto and a croissant. Know before you go: it is small; weekdays early are the play.
The Carlyle's dining room is where you take someone to breakfast when you want the morning to feel like an occasion. Service starts at 6:30am on weekdays, the room is hung with more than 200 works by local artists, and an illustrator in residence sketches the room during service. It is expensive and quiet and deeply New York, in the Bemelmans sense. For the bar after dark, see our hotel bars guide.
Hours: breakfast Monday to Friday 6:30 to 11am, Saturday 6:30 to 10:30am, Sunday 8 to 10:30am. Go for: eggs and coffee at a banquette. Know before you go: reserve ahead; this is a power-breakfast room.
The Wythe Hotel's brasserie, opened in December 2019, is one of the few restaurants in Brooklyn that takes a weekday breakfast seriously. Breakfast starts at 7am, served in the same big, brassy room that gets packed for dinner. Order the classic French breakfast things (eggs, pastries, good coffee) and enjoy a room that is almost empty at 8am on a Tuesday.
Hours: breakfast Monday to Friday 7 to 11am, Saturday and Sunday 7 to 10am. Go for: a quiet breakfast meeting in Williamsburg. Know before you go: weekend breakfast ends at 10am, when brunch takes over.
The Viennese café on the ground floor of the Neue Galerie reopens on October 1, 2026, after being closed through the summer while the museum was under construction. It is breakfast in a Vienna coffeehouse: wood paneling, marble tables, newspapers, whipped cream on everything. Breakfast is walk-in only, and it is the civilized way to start a day of museums. See our museums guide for what to see after.
Hours: from October 1, 2026: Monday 9am to 6pm, Wednesday to Sunday 9am to 9pm; closed Tuesdays. Go for: a Viennese breakfast and a melange. Know before you go: breakfast is walk-in only; arrive at 9.
Bakeries and the morning bun
Opened in May 2023 by the team behind Rolo's in Ridgewood, Radio has become the most talked-about bakery in Brooklyn, and mornings are the only time to go. Doors open at 7:30am daily, and the savory morning items sell out first. There are no preorders, no catering and no wholesale, so the only way to get it is to show up. More in our bakeries guide.
Hours: daily 7:30am to 3:30pm or until sold out. Go for: whatever savory item is in the case when you get there. Know before you go: by 10am on a weekend, the good stuff is gone.
The Chinatown bakery founded in 1968 on Bayard Street, now on Mott, is famous for one thing: baked roast pork buns, glossy and sweet and filled with barbecued pork, a perfect breakfast for a couple of dollars. It opens at 8:30am daily. Buy two, eat one on the sidewalk, and save the other for 11am. Our Chinatown guide has more.
Hours: daily 8:30am to 8pm. Go for: two baked roast pork buns. Know before you go: the morning line moves fast; know your order.
A family-run Chinatown coffee shop open daily from 7am, known for its sponge cakes: tall, eggy, barely sweet, in original, matcha and chocolate chip. Paired with a Hong Kong-style milk tea, it is one of the cheapest good breakfasts in the city.
Hours: daily 7am to 7:30pm. Go for: an original sponge cake and a hot milk tea. Know before you go: it is tiny; plan to take it to go.
Sybil's Bakery & Restaurant
The anchor of Little Guyana on Liberty Avenue, and one of the great Caribbean bakeries in the city. It opens at 6:30am every day. Breakfast is tennis rolls, pine tarts and patties, with pastries starting at $2 on the bakery's own site. Take the A train out and make a morning of it.
Hours: Sunday to Thursday 6:30am to 10pm, Friday and Saturday 6:30am to 11:30pm. Go for: a tennis roll with cheese and a pine tart. Know before you go: the Hillside Avenue location in Jamaica is the one to use if you are coming by the F.
Latin American breakfast
A Dominican restaurant open since 1987 and the place in Washington Heights to eat a proper breakfast of mangú (mashed green plantains) with salami, fried eggs and fried cheese. It opens at 9am daily. It is filling in a way that makes lunch optional. There is a second location at 764 Amsterdam Ave on the Upper West Side. See our Washington Heights guide for more.
Hours: Sunday to Thursday 9am to 11pm, Friday and Saturday 9am to midnight. Go for: mangú with the three hits (salami, eggs, fried cheese). Know before you go: the café con leche is essential.
A 24-hour deli on Avenue B that has earned a cult following for its sandwiches, including a very good bacon, egg and cheese and the pho sandwich, which is exactly what it sounds like. It is a bodega egg sandwich worth crossing the neighborhood for, any hour of the day. Our East Village guide has more.
Hours: open 24 hours. Go for: a bacon, egg and cheese on a roll. Know before you go: order at the counter and expect a short wait at peak hours.
How to use this list
Match the breakfast to the morning. For the classic New York experience, it is Barney Greengrass or Lexington Candy Shop. For a quick cheap one before work, B&H Dairy, Mike's, Mei Lai Wah or a sandwich from Sunny & Annie's. For a breakfast meeting, Dowling's or Le Crocodile. For a bakery run, get to Radio before 9. And for anyone who thinks breakfast happens at 3am, Kellogg's never closes.
A few places we wanted to include did not make it because we could not confirm their current hours, and Hector's Cafe & Diner in the Meatpacking District, a longtime early-morning standby, closed in July 2025. If you are looking for bagels specifically, see our bagel guide.
Questions, answered.
- What is the best breakfast in NYC?
- For a classic New York breakfast, Barney Greengrass on the Upper West Side (smoked fish and eggs) and Lexington Candy Shop on the Upper East Side (a 1925 soda fountain) are the two we would send anyone to first. For a diner that never closes, Kellogg's in Williamsburg is open 24 hours.
- What NYC restaurants open early for breakfast?
- Mike's Coffee Shop in Fort Greene opens at 6am daily, Dowling's at The Carlyle serves from 6:30am on weekdays, Sybil's in Richmond Hill opens at 6:30am, and Lexington Candy Shop and B&H Dairy open at 7am.
- Where can I get breakfast 24 hours in NYC?
- Kellogg's Diner in Williamsburg is open 24 hours, seven days a week. In Astoria, the Bel Aire Diner opens at 5am and runs until 2am.
- What is the difference between breakfast and brunch in NYC?
- Brunch is the weekend event, with reservations and cocktails. Breakfast is the weekday meal, usually before 10am, at a counter. This list is about breakfast; for the weekend version see our best brunch in NYC guide.
- Is Barney Greengrass open on Mondays?
- No. The restaurant is open Tuesday to Friday 8:30am to 4pm and weekends 8:30am to 5pm, and closed Mondays.
Next up
The Best Bakeries in New York CityEighteen bakeries worth the line, the train ride and the sugar crash, from Greenpoint croissants and Bahraini morning buns to Bensonhurst cannoli and Bronx sfogliatelle.Read it Get the Shout Sheet.
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