Early Eats: The Best Breakfasts in Silicon Valley

Not crazy about 90% of their menu, but their coffee cake is out of control good. The slice is huge, and full of blueberries. It has a crumb topping, and even though I know the dark secret of crumb topping (butter+sugar) I still put butter on the crumb cake.

Fluffy, delicious pancakes. Thick gravy and buttery biscuits. Delicious link sausage. Southern Kitchen is consistently delicious. It may be one of the least healthy breakfasts ever, but any place that considers “pancakes” a bread choice to go with your omelet is a fine place indeed.

I don’t normally go for egg dishes for breakfast, but at Los Gatos Cafe I make an exception. Their claim to fame is their souffle style omelets, but I’m really more of a scramble guy. Make sure you pick something that comes with a bakery item. They have a blueberry orange muffin that will put all other muffins past and present to shame. Fair warning, this is a cash only establishment. Also, don’t worry about the massive crowd they always have gathered in the front. I have never seen a restaurant turn patrons over this quickly.

Mostly a lunch and dinner place, they do a fantastic weekend brunch. I’m partial to their smoked salmon scramble, which has green onions and cream cheese. They also make a mean stack of pancakes. The best part about the Sonomo Chicken Coop experience is the margarita machine churning out frosty booze like it’s a Slurpy machine. Good times.

They only do brunch on Sunday, but it is worth the drive out. Spicy Bloody Marys, Jambalaya scrambles, thick Cinnamon French Toast with a side of Andouille sausage. My mouth is watering just thinking about this place. Of course, you’ll want to save room for the Begnettes: fluffy, puffy donuts sweetened only with powdered sugar.

I want to like this place. I really do. Their bacon is FANTASTIC, and they have like, a million pancakes. My big problem is their famous apple pancake. On paper, it sounds delicious. You read it on the menu and it sounds like a gigantic apple fritter covered in powdered sugar and syrup. How can you go wrong? Well, when it gets to you (and it takes close to 20 minutes to make) it looks and tastes like an apple omelet. No fun at all. They have great silver dollar pancakes, though.

Flames is one of the only places in the valley where I can find even a half decent Chicken Fried Steak. It’s a rare occasion when I’m in the mood for deep fried beef for breakfast, but when the craving hits, I have no other choice.

They do a Sunday brunch that is pretty good. It’s in Santana Row, so it’s more expensive than most, but still really good. I love their bacon. It’s super thick, and not very crispy. One of the few places that makes a breakfast burrito that I enjoy, which is odd since this is an Irish pub.

They make an especially good strawberry french toast. I don’t normally like whipped cream, but something magical happens when you whipped cream with syrup. I can’t explain it. I don’t think anyone can explain it. Delicious. One time, the waiter offered us and another table a shot of tequila. This was breakfast, I remind you. I don’t recall if I took him up on his offer, which probably means that I did indeed take him up on his offer.

Come for the pancakes, stay for additional pancakes. If you like chocolate chip waffles (and who doesn’t?) you’ll like the Chocolate Divine, which adds shaved Ghirardelli chocolate to the already chocolate heavy equation. For those of you looking to eat something healthy, they have a great yogurt sundae, that mixes yogurt, granola, fresh fruit and raisins. It’s kind of hard to make a choice like that next to the Chocolate Divine, and for that I have an enormous amount of respect for my girlfriend.