Forget the Buffet—Hotel Breakfast is Having a Gourmet Makeover
For many restaurants and food-focused hotels, breakfast is no longer an afterthought. From tasting menus to multi-course gourmet options, the most important meal of the day is also becoming the most delicious.
Salmon and dill tartlet with a mussel, chilli and herb reduction; traditional Swedish gubbröra (anchovies, eggs and potato) with fermented peas and vendace roe (‘Nordic caviar’): all dishes that feel perfectly suited to a smart tasting menu. The twist? That tasting menu is being dished up at 8.30am, at one of a growing number of top restaurants to serve multi-course breakfasts that rival evening offerings for complexity, craft and ingredient quality.
At Äng, in Tvååker, Sweden, the breakfast tasting menu runs to eight or nine courses — roughly half the length of the restaurant’s dinner tasting menu. It spans classic Nordic breakfast items like crispbreads, koji-fermented barley porridge and egg dishes, as well as the more surprising, caviar-laden offerings — all accompanied by a non-alcoholic juice pairing. While it can be booked as a standalone experience, many diners also have dinner at the Michelin-starred restaurant, staying the night at Ästad Vingård, the neighbouring vineyard, in between. “If you’re visiting Äng for the fine-dining experience, we believe breakfast should feel like a natural continuation of that journey,” says chef and co-owner Filip Gemzell.
Many high-end hotels are also looking beyond the buffet and basic cooked options to create more memorable gastronomic moments. Boutique hotel Casa Maria Luigia in Modena, Italy, was founded by rambunctious Italian chef Massimo Bottura and his wife Lara Gilmore and holds three Michelin keys. Its multi-course breakfast with roots in local farming traditions is specifically inspired by Bottura’s childhood Christmas mornings; a 72-hour, slow cooked frittata with caramelised onions is made by following Bottura’s grandmother’s recipe to the letter. Among the other indulgences are gnocco fritto (puffy fried dough) with local Cotechino sausage, and almond cake with zabaglione (a light custard), and many dishes cooked outside in a wood-fired oven.
For Gilmore, the breakfast is all about making guests feel at home — a natural extension of their hospitality. “We’re trying to make them feel like they’ve landed in a very specific and special place: the Emilian countryside,” she says. “They’re family dishes, and we serve them to guests we’re treating as family.”
She dislikes the term ‘breakfast tasting menu’, however. The phrase, she says “carries a certain formality, a certain distance; our breakfast is the opposite of that.”
Four More Venues Where Breakfast is a Main Event
Hotel Casa Cacao, Girona, Spain
This boutique hotel from Girona’s favourite gastronomic sons, the Roca brothers, serves a multi-course breakfast on its terrace, which includes porridge, local cured meats, artisan cheeses and huevo villaroy (a deep-fried, bechamel-coated egg) with seasonal vegetables. There’s also a ‘sweet tower’ — which currently includes apple crumble with calvados gelée, chocolate xuixo (a local pastry) and a cup of 70% cacao hot chocolate — and an excellent chocolate shop downstairs for souvenirs.
Grand Hotel Principe di Piemonte, Tuscany, Italy
Chef Giuseppe Mancino has crafted a breakfast experience so extensive at this luxury hotel on the Tuscan coast that it was named Italy’s best breakfast in 2024 by 50 Top Italy. Take a seat and let the team guide you through a multi-course experience that could include anything from sushi to crêpes Suzette, prepared tableside, or stick with the enormous buffet. Along with the usual breakfast suspects, there’s huge array of options from around the globe, including ramen, an entire Middle Eastern section and a chocolate Ferris wheel.
SingleThread, California, US
This three-Michelin-starred farm-to-table restaurant with rooms in California wine country is deeply Zen. At breakfast, for example, they bring all the courses at once so as not to continually disturb your morning peace, spreading them out before you, banquet-style. There are two breakfast experiences to choose from, the most popular being the Japanese breakfast that combines local products with the flavours of Japan. Dishes include miso-marinated local black cod or salmon, rice with farm vegetables, miso soup, simmered tofu and Japanese-style sweets. Alternatively, try the Sonoma Breakfast focused on local, farm-fresh ingredients.
Blue Box Café by Chef Natsuko Shoji, Tokyo, Japan
The multi-course morning meal at Blue Box Cafés — located in branches of a certain iconic jewellery brand — is called (what else) Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The offering changes depending on where you are in the world; there are locations in London, New York, Dubai and Tokyo, and, at the latter, acclaimed chef Natsuko Shoji thrills diners with her take on the format. The menu includes soup made with Hidaka kelp dashi and aromatic vegetables, salmon with sudachi (green citrus fruit) and lemon, and scrambled eggs inspired by traditional Japanese dashi-rolled omelettes.
