BEST BREAKFAST DISHES IN OMAHA
My Personal Mount Rushmore
Your first meal often sets the tone for the day. A great breakfast can brighten your mood, squash mid-morning hunger pains before they arrive, and determine your outlook for the following hours.
Fortunately, Omaha has a lot of great breakfast restaurants to help get you started on the right foot. And I want to help you find the best of the best.
This is all, of course, highly subjective, and breakfast is a divisive topic. But I think if you start your day with any of these meals, you’re going to put yourself in a great frame of mind to tackle the day (and make your tastebuds happy, too). Without further ado, here’s my Mount Rushmore of Omaha breakfast dishes (with honorable mentions, of course). This list won’t include breakfast sandwiches; that category gets a list all its own.
***Note: Just one dish per restaurant is included on this list. I wanted to showcase many restaurants rather than shower all praise on a few elite joints.***
Banana Pancakes (Saddle Creek Breakfast Club)
You could pretty much close your eyes and point to any item on Saddle Creek Breakfast Club‘s menu and it would be worthy of inclusion on this list. Chef/owner Chase Thompsen combines his incredible talent along with the genuine thought and care that’s typically reserved for plated dinners to create stunning A.M. dishes.
Among his best work is this take on the humble breakfast classic. SCBC’s pancakes as fluffy as clouds and carry a welcome yet not overwhelming sweetness. But what sends it over the top is the nutty, airy peanut butter whip, so light it nearly lifts off the plate. Toss in some banana slices, toasted peanuts, and a drizzle of local honey and you have a composed, balanced breakfast masterpiece.
Bacon, Jam, & Cheddar Pancakes (Lemon Tree Cafe)
The pancakes at Lemon Tree Cafe are worth a visit alone. Buttery, fluffy, and roughly the size of Neptune, these delicious discs are perfect when served with a side of bacon.
Or better yet… what if bacon were just a part of the dish?
That’s what Lemon Tree Cafe does, cooking the bacon, along with chunks of ham and a hefty amount of cheddar cheese, inside the pancake itself, then finishing it with a liberal amount of hot honey. The result are flapjacks that have a perfect balance of sweet and salty, not to mention the texture from the crispy meats.
Chicken & Pancakes (Dirty Birds)
Dirty Birds is well known for its fried chicken, so it’s no surprise that this restaurant knocks the poultry out of the park. The Sweet Tea Brined Tenders are juicy and moist on the interior with a delicious savory batter.
But this dish proves Dirty Birds is no one trick pony; they can do more than chicken. The thick, dense pancakes are perfect for absorbing and retaining the delicious sarsaparilla syrup, which carries a slight root beer tinge. To cut through all that sweetness, Dirty Birds stuffs its flapjacks with tart raspberries and large chunks of rich, buttery brie cheese.
The balance of sweet and savory in this dish is tough to match and proves Dirty Birds cooking excellence.
The Combo (Lisa's Radial Cafe)
Lisa’s Radial Cafe is Omaha’s classic greasy spoon diner, and this dish exemplifies what makes the restaurant special. There’s nothing fancy here, but it’s all cooked so well: two manhole-sized pancakes—airy, yet crisp on the outside, and not overly sweet—are paired with crispy bacon and a perfectly cooked egg (whichever way you like it).
Pro tip: add a side of the brilliant hash browns, which are as good as you’ll find in Omaha.
Honorable Mention Omaha Breakfast Dishes
Churro French Toast
Regular french toast is fine and all, but Good Lookin’ takes things to the next level in this delicious sugar bomb. Thick slices of bread are crusted with finely crushed cornflakes and cinnamon sugar, giving them a crunchy, sweet exterior. They practically erupt butter when you bite into them.
The dish is so sweet you don’t need extra sugar, but a Nutella spread, syrup, and caramel whip allow you to customize each bite.
Scramble Toast
The soft, butter-soaked scrambled eggs in this dish are perfect on their own. But Know Good Eats doesn’t stop there—it loads those perfect eggs onto a grilled slice of bread with a tangy goat cheese spread, sun-dried tomatoes, and peppery dressed arugula.
The dish may seem simple, but I cannot stress how rich and creamy these eggs are. They’re the star, and the way the other elements of the dish complement them is brilliant.
Standard Quesadilla
Breakfast sandwiches and burritos are everywhere, but why is no one else stuffing eggs and bacon into quesadillas? Sunnyside takes the plunge by inserting its fluffy scrambed eggs and crispy bacon into a tortilla, loading it with cheese, and finishing it on the flattop.
The result is the perfect answer for breakfast on the go. The cheese pulls are ridiculous, and all the breakfast elements play really well together, just in a cheesier form.
Hash Holes
It’s not often that you one orders an appetizer with breakfast, but these are worth making an exception for. Or you could easily eat enough of these deep-fried balls of goodness to constitute an entree if needed. A mixture of sharp cheddar and rich, nutty gouda adds a gooey creaminess, which balances out the savory shredded potatoes and crisp, salty bacon. These succulent orbs are a master class in deep frying. They’re crisp on the outside, producing an audible crunch upon biting, and keep oiling from affecting the precious insides during the frying process. The dipping sauces (southwest ranch and queso) aren’t necessary but are also impossible to resist returning to.
This list covers just a brief sampling of Omaha’s great breakfast options, and I haven’t tried them all (who could?!). So hit me with your favorites! Comment below, tweet at me @danhoppen, or message me on Instagram @dan_hoppen.