The best brunch in Los Angeles worth crossing town for

Los Angeles brunch is not one thing. It is a shakshuka steaming on a patio in Atwater Village, a stack of pancakes with a line spilling onto the sidewalk, a Bloody Mary in a converted firehouse in Silver Lake. The city does this meal well, and the spots worth knowing are spread across neighborhoods that each have their own personality. Here is where locals keep coming back.

Atwater Village has quietly become one of the better brunch corridors in the city, and Canelé · 3219 Glendale Blvd is the French standby at the center of it. The pastries it is named for, those small Bordeaux-style cakes with a lacquered crust and a custardy interior, are the thing to order first. The brunch menu runs toward eggs Benedict, seasonal salads, and the kind of French-California plates that feel considered without feeling fussy. The bread is baked in-house. It is the sort of spot that rewards going more than once.

A few blocks down the same stretch, Dune · 3143 Glendale Blvd takes a different direction. The shakshuka on weekends is the move, eggs poached in spiced tomato, the kind of dish that makes you slow down. Falafel, hummus, grain bowls, lavash flatbread, and soft-boiled egg preparations round out a menu that leans Middle Eastern and does it with confidence. The space is small and the food is worth the wait if there is one.

Also in Atwater Village, Bea Bea's · 3116 Glendale Blvd is the pancake institution on this list. Seasonal and specialty flavors, French toast, eggs Benedict, biscuits and gravy, breakfast burritos. The line can move out the door on weekends and people stand in it willingly, which tells you what you need to know. Come hungry and without a hard out.

Hop the 2 freeway into Eagle Rock and Auntie Em's Kitchen · 4616 Eagle Rock Blvd is the neighborhood's weekend brunch anchor. Buttermilk pancakes, eggs Benedict, French toast, seasonal vegetable scrambles, and house-baked pastries and cakes. It has the warm, lived-in feeling of a place that has been doing this long enough to have regulars who would be genuinely upset if it closed. That loyalty is earned.

In Highland Park, Highly Likely · 5526 N Figueroa St is the vegetable-forward option that does not feel like a compromise. Avocado toast, ricotta toast with fruit, shakshuka, grain bowls, house-made granola with yogurt, seasonal breakfast plates built around produce. The room is bright and the food is the kind of thing you feel good about eating. It fits the block and the neighborhood fits it back.

And then there is Edendale · 2838 Rowena Ave in Silver Lake, which occupies a historic fire station building and wears it well. The outdoor patio is one of the better places to spend a Sunday morning in this city. The brunch menu is seasonal, the craft cocktails are serious, and the room has enough history in its bones that it does not need to try too hard. It is a neighborhood restaurant in the best sense, meaning it belongs to the people who live nearby and welcomes everyone else.

If you are making a day of it, Atwater Village alone could hold you for hours between Canelé, Dune, and Bea Bea's. But the reward for ranging further is real. Eagle Rock and Highland Park each have a distinct pace, and Silver Lake's Edendale is worth crossing town for on a slow Sunday. Pick one neighborhood, plan loosely, and let the morning go long.

Keep exploring the neighborhoods: Best Bars in Atwater Village · Best Bars in Eagle Rock · Best Restaurants in Highland Park · Best Bars in Silver Lake