The 22 Best Hotel Breakfasts on Earth
According to our editors, these are the most standout spreads for jump-starting your day on vacation.
There’s something magical about waking up in a new city or country and starting the day with an unforgettable—and ideally unfamiliar—breakfast. Whether buffet-style and casual with a cornucopia of local dishes to choose from or served à la carte on gleaming china by bowtied waiters, the best hotel breakfasts elevate the entire travel experience. Our far-reaching network of staff and contributors knows that better than anyone, so we asked them to share their most memorable morning meals at hotels around the globe. Next time you’re planning a trip to Istanbul, Dublin, Hong Kong, or elsewhere, let this list light the way to breakfasts that are well worth plodding downstairs for.
Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid – Madrid, Spain
If you’re lucky enough to stay at Madrid’s most historic luxury hotel, which in 2021 underwent a $115 million renovation, you’ll be pampered at all hours—including breakfast. Served in an all-white dining room beneath twinkling antique chandeliers, the dishes on offer satisfy any morning hankering, be it for eggs Benedict, chicken congee, tortilla española, or an all-out “Royal Breakfast” complete with osetra caviar and Moët et Chandon Brut Impérial Champagne. —Benjamin Kemper, Senior Editor
Hotel Arbaso – San Sebastián, Spain
Every morning at dawn, while hotel guests are sound asleep, a Basque farmer named Jexux drops off the morning’s supply of eggs, gathered at his nearby caserío (traditional farmhouse). Like everything on the breakfast menu, the eggs are prepared à la carte and served by cheery waiters who flit around the white-tablecloth dining room. I always come back to the huevos Narru, accompanied by Ibérico pork head cheese and hollandaise. Homemade brownies, almond cake, and a range of lighter options (avocado toast, local Goenaga yogurt, etc.) are also on offer. —B.K.
Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong – Hong Kong, China
When photographer and SAVEUR contributor Heami Lee was on assignment in Hong Kong, she became smitten with this luxury hotel chain’s breakfast menu. With American, continental, and Hong Kong-inspired dishes to choose from, there was never a dull moment in the culinary department. After all, who wouldn’t want to jump-start their day with a steaming basket of hand-pleated dim sum or a bowl of bouncy wok-fried noodles? —B.K.
Rooms Hotel Batumi – Batumi, Georgia
The most buzzed-about hotel in Georgia, in the Black Sea resort of Batumi, has one of the country’s most memorable breakfast spreads. In the high-ceilinged, industrial-chic restaurant, outfitted with blond wood booths, swivel diner stools, and a wood-fire oven, choose from a smorgasbord of khachapuri, fresh salads and vegetables, seasonal fruit, smoked fish, and made-to-order coffee. Insider tip: Chatty waitstaff are quick to offer in-the-know recommendations on where to have your next meal. —B.K.
Hotel Pacai – Vilnius, Lithuania
This stately property in the fairy-tale Old Town is a smoked meat mecca: There are ribbons of salty ham and a multitude of traditional Baltic-style sausages, all redolent of black pepper and alder wood. Those cold cuts, heaped onto buttered Lithuanian black bread and topped with pickles and grainy mustard, made for a palate-jolting breakfast I won’t soon forget. —B.K.
The Shelbourne – Dublin, Ireland
Room service is one of life’s greatest pleasures, especially if you’re staying at The Shelbourne and sitting down to a full Irish breakfast in a plush hotel robe. All the classic fry-up components are expertly prepared at this 200-year-old Dublin hotel and delivered on a handsome silver tray: eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon, sausages, and both black and white pudding. Accompanied by toast with plenty of that famed Irish butter and washed down with a cup of strong black tea, it’s a hearty, satisfying way to start the morning—just the fuel you need as you look out the window at St. Stephen’s Green, the lush, leafy Victorian park across the street, and get ready for another idyllic day in Dublin. —Frances Kim, Digital Director
The St. Regis Chicago – Chicago, Illinois
Japanese breakfasts are hard to come by at U.S. hotels these days, so I was thrilled to encounter such a well-executed one at the St. Regis Chicago’s Miru restaurant. Dubbed the Tokyo Breakfast, the colorful, well-balanced spread includes succulent grilled salmon, fluffy rice sprinkled with furikake, miso soup, nori, tsukemono (Japanese pickles), and for the pièce de résistance, a poached egg perched atop a bed of dashi-soaked ikura. The move is to slide the wobbly egg and glistening salmon roe on top of your rice, break the yolk, and go to town. Despite the abundance of flavors and textures on the table, the meal still manages to feel light and restorative. While I was tempted by the other Japanese-inflected dishes on the menu (think steak and eggs with shisho chimichurri and buttermilk pancakes with whipped yuzu ricotta), it’s the Tokyo Breakfast I could eat every day—or at the very least, on every visit to Chicago. –F.K.
21c Museum Hotel St. Louis – St. Louis, Missouri
The 21c Museum Hotels might be best known for their extensive contemporary art collection, but I’m pleased to report that the St. Louis location is a feast for the eyes and the taste buds, thanks to their Spain-meets-Midwest restaurant, Idol Wolf. While restaurants often treat brunch as an afterthought, executive chef Matthew Daughaday puts the same care into the menu in the morning that he does at night, staying true to traditional tapas such as pan con tomate and tortilla española while introducing new favorites like a dynamite smash burger loaded with Spanish blue cheese, fig jam, and smoked paprika aïoli. Since Idol Wolf is only open for brunch on the weekends—and often packed with locals and visitors alike—rest assured that there’s another excellent breakfast option on the same floor of the hotel: Good Press Café, where you can get smoothies or pastries on the go or linger over soft scrambled eggs with feta and mojo verde or French toast with apple butter and cider caramel. –F.K.
Enchantment Resort – Sedona, Arizona
Talk about breakfast with a view! It doesn’t get more stunning than starting your day dining at Che Ah Chi, which feels like it’s carved into Sedona’s Boynton Canyon itself. Try to snag an outdoor table or a seat by the window so you can really take in the magnificent vistas of the red rock formations. Once you pick your jaw up off the floor, order the huevos rancheros with chorizo, Oaxaca cheese, black beans, and avocado, or the croissant breakfast sandwich with bacon, eggs, and prickly pear-jalapeño jam. All the dishes on the menu highlight local Arizona ingredients and are generously portioned, so you’ll have plenty of energy to explore the towering buttes and dramatic cliffs surrounding you after your meal. –F.K.
The Fifth Avenue Hotel – Manhattan, New York
Breakfast at Manhattan’s opulent Fifth Avenue Hotel is served at Café Carmellini, and much like its downtown sister restaurant, Lafayette Grand Café & Bakery, Café Carmellini’s grand open dining room is ideal for celebratory brunches and posh weekday work meetups alike. The à la carte menu features elevated takes on crowd-pleasing classics—think brioche French toast, salmon Benedict with caviar, and steel-cut oatmeal with stewed cherries and Sicilian pistachios—and the over-the-top breakfast trolley, kitted out with housemade pastries, viennoiseries, cultured butter, and preserves, is a particular delight. —Kat Craddock, Editor-in-Chief/CEO
Rixos Tersane Istanbul – Istanbul, Turkey
The Turks are famous for their elaborate breakfasts, but the buffet at this waterfront Istanbul property takes the morning meal to another level of opulence. Stations devoted to regional confections such as lokum and Georgian churchkhela, fresh and dried fruit, hot egg dishes like menemen and omelets, Turkish cheeses and charcuterie, honeycomb, olives, sushi, and pastries make tough work for the indecisive. In my fog of jet lag, I kept things simple, piling a plate with kaymak (Turkish clotted cream), local breads, and the biggest, jammiest medjool dates I’ve ever seen. —K.C.
Château de Théoule – Théoule-sur-Mer, France
Last summer, I spent a few nights in this seaside charmer on the French Riviera’s Port de Théoule sur Mer. The elegant Bar du Château and several of the boutique hotel’s rooms are situated in a stone 17th-century soap factory, while the newer portion houses a hammam and Mareluna, the Château’s Mediterranean fine dining concept helmed by Ducasse-trained Italian chef Francesco Fezza. While you don’t want to miss Fezza’s exceptional bread program and artful cheese service, this time of year I crave only the quietly luxurious breakfast: dainty warm croissants, fresh fruit, and coffee—served along the bar’s sunny terrace overlooking the sea. —K.C.
The Chanler at Cliff Walk – Newport, Rhode Island
After putting the finishing touches on SAVEUR’s first relaunch issue at our printer in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, I went straight to this recently renovated historic Newport property to catch up with my cousin Justine over sweets and champagne from matching canopied princess beds. When morning rolled around, we shuffled up to the hotel’s main building for breakfast and watched a snowstorm tumble into the Atlantic from inside Cara, the hotel’s stately cliffside restaurant. Cara’s dinner service is exclusively a six-course blind tasting from chef Jacob Jasinski, but breakfast is a more relaxed affair peppered with local and seasonal specialties like Kenyon’s Grist Mill Johnny cakes, house-cured salmon, black currant mimosas, cheese rösti, and winter crêpes. While the Chanler is typically booked solid in the warmer months, I’ll certainly be back this season for another quiet winter stay. —K.C.
Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi – Hanoi, Vietnam
I recently stayed at this landmark Hanoi hotel built in 1901, and breakfast was one of the many highlights. It’s served in Le Club Bar, an open, inviting space with dark wood and Indochine details. While both the Western breakfast classics and Chinese dim sum were well-executed, I was really there for the Vietnamese breakfast. It was my first time encountering a pho and banh cuon station—I was mesmerized by the fresh rice roll batter being poured into a flat skillet and the air filled with wafts of star anise and charred onion from the simmering pho broth as I chose my protein and accompaniments for each dish. I also enjoyed two other Viet specialties, banh da lon (pandan and mung bean cakes) and banh it (sticky rice dumplings with savory beans and meat), the colorful array of freshly cut tropical fruits, and, of course, Hanoi’s famous egg coffee. —Kate Berry, Contributing Editor
Passalacqua – Lake Como, Italy
At this 18th-century hotel on the shores of Lake Como, breakfast is served in the sumptuous main villa. While you can order à la carte, the lavish buffet beckons with not one but two whole rooms: The first boasts a large marble island brimming with pastries, muesli, granola, and fresh and poached fruits, plus a counter lined with smoked and tinned fish, and salads of all stripes. The second offers every type of cheese and charcuterie you can imagine and is complete with a cook standing by for your egg order. Whether you choose to dine on the terrace overlooking the lake or in one of the many jewel-box dining rooms (I can attest that they’re all magical in their own ways), you’ll be treated to beautiful white linens and Ginori 1735 china. Every table gets its own three-tiered dessert stand laden with tiramisù, cream puffs, and other Italian pastries (on more Ginori, too!). Best of all, the service is A+—I’ve been back for two seasons, and the server remembered me! —Kate Berry, Contributing Editor
The Post Oak Hotel at Uptown Houston – Houston, Texas
When in Texas, go for any dish that includes housemade tortillas. Happily, the migas at Bloom & Bee—in the luxurious Post Oak Hotel where we hosted our most recent issue launch party—did not disappoint. This is well-balanced Tex-Mex at its best: eggs scrambled with tortilla chips and diced green chiles, garnished with cojita cheese and pickled red onions, and served with a side of warm flour tortillas. On my last morning in Houston, I loved assembling my own breakfast tacos, topping each bite with generous spoonfuls of black bean and corn salsa. —Jessica Carbone, Books Editor
The Hoxton, Williamsburg – Brooklyn, New York
Step below grade at The Hoxton in Williamsburg for a gorgeous morning start at K’Far, inspired by chef Mike Solomonov’s namesake hometown in Israel. This all-day café offers an alfresco atmosphere year-round. As the type of person who needs to ease into mornings, I found K’Far’s calming greenhouse-like solarium—with stacking glass doors open to the energy of the neighborhood above—a perfect pacesetter. Choosing between a chavita (omelet) with Tunisian-spiced mushrooms or shakshuka with crispy fried onions is my ideal daybreak decision. I went with the latter and savored every last bit of charred-tomato goodness with fluffy pita—and highly recommend you do the same. —Stephanie Pancratz, Managing Director, Editorial Operations
Downtown L.A. Proper Hotel – Los Angeles, California
Caldo Verde, Downtown L.A. Proper Hotel’s flagship restaurant, led by the James Beard Award-winning duo chef Suzanne Goin and restaurateur Caroline Styne, is Californian cuisine at its finest. For breakfast, I opted for the piri-piri avocado toast, which comes topped with burrata, cherry tomatoes, and radishes on grilled pumpernickel bread, and I added a soft-boiled egg for good measure. It was perfect and plenty filling as is, but I have no regrets about ordering a side of grilled blueberry boule with lemon butter—and you shouldn’t, either. —Toni-Ann Gardiner, Brand Partnerships Lead
Le Meurice – Paris, France
The oeufs bénédictine (eggs Benedict) at Le Meurice in Paris almost made me weep. Poached to runny perfection and bundled in a pink blanket of wet-cured jambon de Paris—sourced from one of the last purveyors in the city—they were presented at my table on toasted pain de mie blanc, and only then the waiter smothered them with lemony hollandaise à la minute from a tiny copper saucepan. I can’t ever go back to plain old sunny side up. —Shane Mitchell, Editor-at-Large
The Beaumont Mayfair – London, England
The Colony Grill at The Beaumont is where I sit down to London’s classiest and full(ish) English breakfast (no beans, sorry). But the silky Mangalitza black pudding more than compensates, paired with fried Arlington White eggs, sausage, tomato, and mushrooms. And the eye-opening Pick-Me-Up D.R. Harris & Co. cocktail bitters slipped into a blend of orange and carrot juices is the best way to start a jet-lagged day. —S.M
Post House – Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
At Post House in the Old Village neighborhood of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, where the live oaks are draped with Spanish moss and pathways lead out to piers on the water, breakfast is a European-style plate of meats and cheeses, fluffy croissants, glistening fruits, and a hard-boiled egg served in its shell. On the weekends, it’s all delivered to your room in a red gingham-lined basket, for ultimate enjoyment swaddled in a cozy duvet. Whether you enjoy the spread in bed or in Post House’s cozy, light-flooded dining room, it’s the ideal sustenance for a leisurely day in Charleston. —Ellen Fort, Contributing Editor
Paradero Todos Santos – Todos Santos, Mexico
It may sound weird, but the French toast at Paradero—an oasis of organic agriculture and wellness in Todos Santos, Mexico—is literally the best I’ve ever eaten in my life. —Thomas Payne, Visuals Director
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