Much is made about the benefits of a good breakfast. What about the benefits of an interesting or even fascinating breakfast? A meal at these new venues can be an eye-opener.
Kinaree Eatery
Quail Hill Shopping Center
An elaborate mural features historically garbed Thai women, several flying on magic carpets. Flowers hang from the ceiling. American comfort fare and Thai flavors combine on the plate.
Omelets include the Holy Chili Bomb Basil with ground chicken; Thai fried chicken tops a Belgian waffle. Among Benedicts are one with lobster and another with marinated rib-eye. Soufflé Bacon & Egg is the cloud pancake standout. Also popular: Northern Thai specialties such as khao soi, a curry with chicken, beef or soft-shell crab. Pair them with the colorful butterfly yuzu. Finish with Thai tea crème brûlée.
Blk Dot Coffee
The Market Place
VTM Coffee is Blk Dot Coffee’s intensely delicious take on Vietnamese coffee – rich, sweet and bold thanks to slow-drip brewing and the house creamer. Lots of versions are available. Just add breakfast.
Hot Honey Avocado Toast presents bacon, avocado, spicy honey and chili flakes on artisan bread. BEC tops a bagel with bacon, farm-egg frittata, American cheese and chipotle mayo; to the bacon and frittata, the Ultimate Brekkie Bowl adds potatoes, avocado, chipotle mayo and lots more. The Market Place location is one of three in Irvine.
Bluberry Social
Northpark Plaza
The lures are many at this chic, all-day American cafe, among them the plush pink velvet seating. Another: the Griddle Wonderful blueberry lemon ricotta pancake with mixed berries and edible flowers. Make it a Jill’s Combo and add eggs your way, arugula salad and tots. The elaborate Big Breakfast Burrito with soft-scrambled egg and house chorizo, and its veggie counterpart, also star. More refined: the Sunrise Avocado Toast, with sous-vide egg on olive oil-toasted country loaf.
Libations include the espresso tonic and blueberry crumble latte; from the all-day bar come the spicy Bloody Bacon Mary and fresh-squeezed mimosas.
Bag of Cakes
Cypress Village Shopping Center
Pastries, sweet or savory, are a global breakfast favorite. Among a plethora of possibilities at Bag of Cakes, the egg-salad sea-salt bread, bacon-cheddar scone and croissants seem particularly well suited. The bakery-cafe also offers scores of coffee drinks, matcha drinks and teas.
Owner Yoonhee Kim studied at the Culinary Institute of America in New York and with a French chef in her native Korea before settling in Irvine. “We use only five ingredients,” Kim says. “Flour, butter, eggs, sugar and yeast. Other bakeries might use 30, many artificial. We want everything to be real and made right here.”
Gram Cafe & Pancakes
Culver Plaza
Wiggly and jiggly, airy and chubby Japanese-style souffle pancakes are the unforgettable offering here, the original stack of three as well as flavored versions such as matcha crème brûlée. The Osaka, Japan-based Gram Cafe has grown to 60 locations across Asia and Australia. Irvine is the third in the U.S.
Elaborate, savory flat-pancake meals variously feature smoked salmon or a wagyu burger. French toast renditions – on house-made Danish bread – include mixed berries or Japanese Monte Cristo.
Each small batch of the souffle pancakes can take 30 minutes to rise to perfection. Order appetizers, perhaps fried vegetables or chicken karaage, and it feels like no wait at all.
