This low-key classic on the Main is in a league of its own. It has all the details that make up a perfect diner experience: free-flowing coffee, fantastic service, eggs cooked exactly as you request, and a huge menu with tons of options. If you’re there with a friend, do yourselves a favour and share a Festin — they come with so much food that it’s totally reasonable to split one between two people. Hot tip: the oft-overlooked French toast is dreamy.

In Vietnam, fragrant and savoury pho is typically consumed as breakfast. It’s a perfect hangover food, and Pho Bac 97 in Chinatown is a great place to start a new approach to breakfast.

Duluth is one of the Plateau’s most charming streets, largely thanks to Chez Jose. This sunny and colourful Portuguese restaurant is casual, unendingly friendly, and perfect for breakfast. The churrasco chicken sandwich is the most famous menu item, for good reason, but their omelettes are also well-loved. Many menu options can be made into a combo with a smoothie.

Grab a coffee and the bakery’s namesake French treat: the crispy, buttery, flaky kouign-amann. But don’t make it a late breakfast, since they run out almost every day. Lesser-known but equally delicious breakfast options on the very small menu include croque-monsieurs, quiches, and fruit tarts.

In a rush? Grab a cafe bombon and a cachito to go. Located at St Catherine and St Laurent, this Venezuelan pastry shop does quick and affordable breakfast. Its eponymous horn-shaped pastries are filled with anything from chorizo to ham and cheese to guava or chocolate — get one sweet, one savoury to mix it up.

This Latin goods store has two locations (the other is on St-Laurent in the Plateau), and both have excellent hot food selections that can help shake up any egg-heavy breakfast habits The tacos are excellent, and are unbeatably priced, with four or five (depending on location) for under $10. Not feeling tacos? Quesadillas, empanadas, arepas, pupusas are also surprisingly good breakfast options.

Turkish café vibes reign at Replika, where you can get a plate of feta scrambled eggs, a grilled cheese, yogurt and granola, or one of their housemade simits, all of which clock in under $10. Bring your book or a laptop: it’s also a great place to get some post-breakfast work done.

Like live music with your breakfast? This cozy and community-oriented Mile End staple is for you. Their grilled cheeses are great, as is the French toast that comes with fresh fruit.