The 12 best places for breakfast and brunch in Frankfurt

From acai bowls to breakfast tacos, French toast to American-style pancakes, this restaurant serves a wide array of international veggie classics. Healthy (and mostly vegan) choices include a ‘fitness bowl’ with beetroot hummus, avocado, chickpeas, black beans and cauliflower. The founders, Dennis Burkhardt and Ana Maria Myers del Alamo lived in New York, Berlin and London before settling in Frankfurt and opening up near the Alte Oper. Their simple objective? To provide a ‘damn tasty breakfast’. Tick.

Price: Mid-range

A family-run neighbourhood joint in the Nordend district, Glauburg boasts cosy furnishings, attentive service and an array of moreish morning delights. It’s also one of the few places in Frankfurt where you can tuck into a sumptuous (and organic) Sunday brunch buffet from 10 am to 3 pm. For breakfast, expect a range of bread, croissants, fruit salad, muesli and a colourful assortment of sausages and cheese. On weekdays, try the breakfast étagère, which offers a little bit of everything, all organic and regionally sourced.

Price: Mid-range

The smell speaks alluring volumes: Mehlwassersalz bake their own sourdough bread. This isn’t surprising, given the name translates to ‘flourwatersalt’ – all the owners reckon you need to bake a decent bread. The menu (served from 10 am to 4 pm) boasts classics such as grilled sourdough with avocado and poached eggs, porridge and buttermilk pancakes, plus a handful of vegetarian Stullen (open-faced sandwiches). The brioches and croissants are outstanding. Want to get your art fix? It’s located in Frankfurt’s excellent MMK Museum for Modern Art.

Price: Mid-range

Founded way back in 1995, Metropol has very much stayed true to its roots: they still write their menus by hand, bake the cakes themselves and, yes, only accept cash. Located in a touristy part of town right next to the cathedral, this endearingly laid-back spot serves things like fresh madeleines, scrambled eggs and ham from ‘once happy’ pigs until 4 pm. Too much choice? The ‘surprise breakfast’ will sort you out.

Price: Budget

More than a quarter-century-old, this Frankfurt institution serves delicacies ranging from bircher muesli and bresaola rolls to a handful of ‘farmer’s omelettes’. The breakfast menu – available until 6 pm – tends towards the classically German (think sausage, cheese, scrambled eggs, pancakes). It’s not all that quiet here, so this one’s better for casual meetings than business brunches. Handily, it’s right next to the house where Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born.

Price: Budget

Tucked inside the Lindley Lindenberg hotel in the up-and-coming Ostend district, Leuchtendroter is the unpretentious sister venue to Seven Swans, a Michelin-starred vegetarian restaurant. A lot more affordable and with its own bakery on site, this spot offers a small but refined menu of things like blue-white clover bread with butter, homemade cheeses and local honey, plus a range of classic omelettes, porridge and pancakes. A decent selection of art and design magazines are on hand to keep you entertained.

Price: Mid-range

If you fancy waffles, look no further than Margarete – they’re the highlight of this restaurant’s luxuriant Sunday brunch. This relaxed spot in the old town serves both buffet favourites (boiled eggs, potato wedges, sausages, cheese, sausages, smoked salmon, yoghurt, muesli) and freshly prepared egg dishes and specials including zander, Tafelspitz and ratatouille. Make a reservation well in advance – the space fills up pretty fast. A breakfast menu is available from Monday to Saturday.

Price: Mid-range

With high ceilings, wooden furnishings and old-school coffee dispensers, this no-frills café in the Bockenheim district appeals to young families and students alike. The ‘big breakfast’ more than lives up to the name – for a decent price, you’ll get cheese, hams, salami, chorizo, homemade herb curd, eggs and some veg.

Price: Budget

The view from Mainkai’s terrace over the Main river comes with a catch – you’re exposed to the bustle of one of Frankfurt’s busiest streets. That means it may be calmer to enjoy breakfast inside this cosy café which offers something for all palates and appetites. We like ‘the Gourmet’ with a bread roll, smoked salmon and fried eggs and ‘the Jogger’ with gouda and poultry cold cuts. They also serve classic egg dishes, muesli and Mediterranean treats like halloumi and sujuk sausage. Breakfast is served on weekends from 9 am to 9 pm.

Price: Budget

Badia Ouahi opened her eponymous venue after moving to Frankfurt and working in catering for some of the city’s best galleries. Fittingly, the airy Badias café is part of the Schirn contemporary art museum, right next to the city’s ‘New Old Town’. For brunch (Sundays, 10 am-4 pm), Ouahi – from a Moroccan Berber family – serves a mix of North African, Israeli and German cuisine, with variations on hummus, shakshuka and Tel Aviv Port Sa’id salad, as well as buttermilk pancakes and eggs benedict. Starting early? Don’t miss the delicious mimosas and bellinis.

Price: Mid-range

Set up by a cab driver, a technician and an unemployed actor, Café Kante in Nordend hasn’t changed much in its 20 years of existence. The clientele feels like one big community – some die-hard fans even teamed up to produce a book celebrating the café’s recent birthday – and the owners greet guests like they are old pals. The breakfasts are basic but decent and include things like bread rolls and sausages. Kante is also a good place to try ‘eggs a glass’, which consists of, well, two lightly boiled eggs in a glass – a German breakfast classic.

Price: Budget