Let's face it, the best breakfast burrito is usually the one closest to you. But with so many great options around LA, you owe it to yourself to seek out something exceptional from time to time. From cheddar-stuffed behemoths with extra salsa on the side to versions filled with as much chorizo as you'd find in a butcher shop, here's where to eat the best breakfast burritos across the city.
THE SPOTS
Humberto “The Chori-Man” Raygoza mostly sells his famed chorizos and meats to restaurants, but he also has a shop on a residential street in San Pedro where you can order a truly fantastic breakfast burrito made with any of the four different varieties of chorizo. While they're all good, we especially like the poblano chili-heavy Tolucan Green with pork.
This order-at-the-window spot in Chinatown makes two breakfast burritos that deserve your attention. If you’re in the mood for meat (and a lot of it), the “Hey Porky’s” is packed with roasted pork shoulder, scrambled eggs, black beans, queso Oaxaca, and a slightly spicy salsa verde. The “Atwater,” on the other hand, comes with squash, shiitake mushrooms, roasted peppers, scrambled eggs, swiss cheese, and salsa for some needed acidity. Both are excellent, it just depends if you’re looking for something lighter or you want to go home and lie down.
All Day Baby is one of our favorite places in Silver Lake to have a walk-in brunch that includes an excellent breakfast sandwich, gorgeous golden biscuits, and a burrito that weighs as much as a newborn baby. All Day Baby isn't trying to reinvent the breakfast burrito wheel here—their version is filled with staples like smoky longaniza, refried beans, fried eggs, and salsa roja. That simplicity is the best part. We’d happily eat this any morning/early afternoon/late afternoon of the week.
Macheen, which pops up on weekdays at Boyle Heights’ Milpa Grille, serves a birria breakfast burrito stuffed with crispy tater tots and cotija cheese. If that combination of words isn’t enough to get your mind racing, we might have to reexamine our friendship. Their crunchy, saucy burrito can also be made with excellent crispy pork belly or longanisa, but we almost always order the rich, braised beef option dripping spicy broth all over the scrambled eggs inside. If you can't make it to Milpa Grille during the week, Macheen also serves burritos at Smorgasburg on Sundays.
If you don't buy into the miracle of Langer’s pastrami in a breakfast burrito, try Boxx Coffee Roaster’s signature dish and you’ll become a believer. Their version tweaks the standard model with an ideal ratio of avocado puree to arugula to fluffy scrambled eggs—all cohabitating inside a flour tortilla from Sonoratown. The thinly sliced pastrami adds a smokiness that cuts against a sweet fig glaze and spicy banana-chili hot sauce. Get this and an iced espresso on the front patio at this Arts District coffee shop if you don’t plan on taking a nap immediately after breakfast.
Doubting Thomas in Historic Filipinotown is a coffee shop with a poorly kept secret: The Doubtless Burrito. Each one comes stuffed with crispy braised pork shoulder, smoked white cheddar, smashed Yukon potatoes, tomatillo salsa, smoked chili, and runny sunny-side-up eggs. If it sounds like too much of a good thing, you’re wrong. It’s the exact right amount of good things.
Tigres Fuego in Redondo Beach serves the same incredible burritos as their sister spot, Baran’s 2239. But at Tigres Fuego, you don't have to pre-order yours days ahead of time. Our favorite version of this hype-worthy breakfast comes with chorizo, well-seasoned eggs, crunchy tater tots, melted cheese, and salsa verde trying to bust its way through the seams of the tortilla. The burrito is nice and hefty, but still compact enough to hold in one hand as you walk down the block to find a beachfront bench. Tigres only offers these perfect breakfast burritos Friday through Sunday. Come early because they occasionally sell out.
If you prefer beans over potatoes in a breakfast burrito, Lily’s should be number one on your personal list in LA. This tiny Malibu spot serves burritos the size of kittens, stuffed with refried beans, bacon, fluffy scrambled eggs, and cheese. Ask for all three salsas on the side, and make sure you call your order in ahead of time so you don’t have to wait.
We rarely prioritize subtlety in breakfast burritos, but at Great White in Venice, it’s the tiny details that set their tater tot, egg, and bacon-based burrito apart. Chipotle aioli adds creaminess to the whole thing, and roasted scallions and chives lift the dish to an herby next level.
Cofax is, at its core, a coffee shop. But the Fairfax spot also serves two incredible breakfast burritos. We have a hard time choosing between the chorizo and the vegetable versions, both of which have chopped-up, smoked potatoes. So get one of each, or just come back tomorrow. Also, remember to grab a jar of salsa to-go while you’re there.
What you find at Lowkey Burritos, a weekly pop-up in Long Beach, is different from anything else in town. These burritos are definitely big, but what sets them apart is the high-quality, grass-fed marinated tri-tip, or thick-cut bacon alongside eggs, grilled vegetables, and hash browns. Oh, and each burrito comes with a crispy layer of griddled cheese and jalapeño on the outside.
Corner Cottage is an old-school spot in Burbank serving no-nonsense breakfast burritos involving eggs, hash browns, cheese, and your choice of meat (we usually go for bacon and sausage). But what makes them so good is the salsa—it’s pepper-heavy, fresh-tasting, and very spicy. Ask for it inside the burrito, and then for more on the side, because you can never have too much.
Sundays By Wake & Late is a bonafide DTLA breakfast burrito specialist. We typically order the steak burrito, which comes with medium-rare sirloin, avocado, pickled jalapeños, fluffy scrambled eggs, and more tater tots than a middle school lunch plate (this is a good thing). Their house hot sauce on the side is also excellent.
The breakfast burrito at Cafe Los Feliz is the only good thing about this extremely popular (i.e., crowded) brunch spot. The place is very on-brand for Los Feliz—long lines, décor that hasn’t changed since the early 2000s, servers who are mentally juggling 5000 different things at any given time—but wow, is that breakfast burrito a work of beauty. The standard one that comes with eggs, bacon, melted cheddar jack and chipotle sauce is great, but it’s the special (spot it on a handwritten sign next to the register) you want. Wrapped inside is soujuk, a spicy, dry-cured Armenian sausage that lends a nice kick and extra heft to the burrito.
The first thing you should know about El Burrito House, a small storefront in the city of Bell, is that they make their own pillowy flour tortillas. These wrap all kinds of burritos here, breakfast and otherwise, but in the morning we zero in on their chile verde breakfast burrito, made with chunks of potatoes, well-cooked eggs, gooey streaks of cheese, and spicy stewed pork. Think of it as a whole combo plate bundled up to go. As with all good homestyle food, it takes a while to prepare, so if you’re in a rush, call in your order first.
The hulking Dispatch Hall Burrito at Isaac’s Cafe in Wilmington is named for its apparent popularity with workers at the longshoreman staff hall just across the street. And frankly, it’s hard to imagine a better breakfast if you’re moving around thousands of pounds of freight at the Port of LA each day. This burrito is filled with fluffy rice and stewed beans, soft and cheesy scrambled eggs, crisp bacon, and they don't skimp on the avocado. They’ll even let you substitute in carne asada if that’s your thing. We suggest asking for an extra cup of their salsa verde, which is sharp and tangy from raw tomatillos.
The neatly wrapped Hot Pocket of a breakfast burrito served at Kumquat Coffee contains all the important elements: Chunks of seasoned potato? Check. Soft scrambled eggs? That’s right. Gooey cheese that gets into every bite? Indeed. But it’s the addition of caramelized garlic confit that sets the breakfast burrito at this Highland Park coffee shop apart. The garlic flavor isn’t too pungent to eat in the morning, but it does heighten the other elements around it—we especially like it paired with their juicy turkey sausage (you can also order it with bacon for crunch). These burritos typically take about 15 minutes to prepare, so place a pickup order ahead of time via their website.
The move at Piroshki Bakery in North Hollywood is to order their "French-Russian 3-Cheese Breakfast Burrito," a handheld art object involving american cheese, cheddar, and melted feta then rolled up with your choice of protein (seasoned ground beef, bacon, ham, or pepperoni), plus potatoes and chives. We’re not exactly sure what makes this burrito French-Russian—the seasoning in the ground beef, the spicy sauce on the side?—but we do love that the whole package gets air-fried.
Run by the same people are Guerrilla Tacos around the corner, Guerrilla Cafecito is a tiny cafe in the Arts District open 8-11am daily. The GTLA Burrito is fantastic—there’s tender sirloin steak accompanied by avocado, chile de arbol salsa, and super-crispy hash browns. It’s all wrapped in a burrito coated in melted jack cheese. Don’t leave without one of their basketball-sized milk-and-lemon donuts, either.
