Expensive – Overnight oats. Both the brand and the act of making them because with the amount of ingredients most recipes have, it’s cost prohibitive depending on your budget (but could be done for cheaper if you make some substitutions).
My favorite cheap breakfast is sausage gravy and biscuits from a local diner. They also make good French toast, and I love their chocolate chip pancakes .
Expensive: specialty items in a nice restaurant. Usually involves things that take longer to prepare and more ingredients. Like one time I had roasted potatoes with a seasoned kale/mushroom/squash hash with poached eggs in a hotel restaurant. Or maybe really good french toast or waffles with fresh berries and fancy sauces and an omelet with fillings and stuff. Price varies but at a swish place, breakfast can easily be $30-50, or even more.
Just because I don’t see it mentioned yet, and it was a meme a while back. Avocado toast lands on both ends of the spectrum.
Avocados tend to be cheap if you live near where they grow, and expensive if you don’t. It’s also popular as a “healthy” option at fancy brunch places.
You can probably spend between $5-$20 on avocado toast depending on where in the country you are and how fancy a restaurant.
I could make one myself for probably $1.50, but it could be quite a bit more than that in other parts of the country.
This one depends on a lot of variables. Around me at the same restaurant I can eat a full breakfast with coffee or tea (two eggs, bacon or sausage, choice of bread, choice of side i.e. grits/hash browns/fruit) for around $15, or have lobster benedict and a mimosa for $32, but the average is about $12-16 or so for a sit down meal at a regular place. A ‘fancy’ place will charge you $35 – $50 for that same food in these parts but thankfully there aren’t many spots like that.
Cheap: An average breakfast diner where you can usually get an “eggs and bacon” type breakfast. You’d be surprised by how cheap a sit-down breakfast diner can be if you’re willing to keep it pretty basic.
Average-ish: Fast food breakfast combo meals if you feel like splurging. (Often depends on what you choose and which fast food chain you get your breakfast from, though. Look around for deals.)
Expensive: Basically any place where you can get properly made eggs Benedict.
Most breakfast items in America are rather inexpensive to make. So I define an expensive breakfast as something that is way overpriced. As far as actual price goes, that’s going to depend more on the local economy more than anything.
The expensive places also usually offer a greater variety of fruits, berries, more exotic fruits. The cheap places offer apples, oranges and bananas, maybe a melon chopped up.
Eating out, anything considered “brunch.” It would likely include some kind of meat, eggs, a baked good, fruit, coffee, and juice or day-drinking beverage (mimosas or bloody Marys).
At home coffee and oatmeal would be cheap. Eggs I guess would still not be too bad, with or without toast. Ironically avocado toast for one person is pretty cheap if you make it at home.
Are we talking strictly ordering out or including home made, and it’s a matter of scale/options? Obviously the price increases as you add more components, and people will often mix and match depending on how hungry they are.
Cheapest: Cup of Coffee or an Energy Drink. Optional granola bar, bagel, or English muffin.
Lower end: Same as above, but add a bowl of cereal or oatmeal, toaster pastries, etc. with maybe some orange juice on the side. Hash browns at fast food places and diners or from the freezer aisle (I don’t personally know many people who make them from scratch at home)
Average and up: Same as above, but add strips of bacon, a couple fried eggs, fresh fruit either on the side or in the cereal/oatmeal. Pancakes and Waffles start appearing in this tier, maybe some Nutella if you’re feeling special.
Higher end: Special occasions and higher end brunch restaurants. All of the above, plus bottomless mimosas, brunch cocktails, Eggs Benedict, Steak and Skillet Potatoes, Quiche or Omelettes with more expensive ingredients, Avocado toast, charcuterie, etc.
Cheap breakfast is homemade, expensive breakfast is basically anything you get from almost any diner or restaurant. Unless you get breakfast from fast food, most breakfast joints in my state the bare minimum is going to be $12-15 up to $20-25 for a full breakfast. A breakfast made at home is usually no more than $2-4 per person.
At home, carbs would include cereal, oatmeal, maybe malt-o-meal, pancakes, waffles, yogurt, or a piece of fruit. Proteins would be bacon, eggs, slices of ham, or a protein bar.
I assume you mean in the context of eating out somewhere?
At home I could eat oatmeal or farina and a poachrd egg with fruit for about a dollar.
Common grab and go items like a breakfast taco (scrambled eggs mixed with bacon or some other meat and wrapped in a tortilla) or a biscuit and egg sandwich, or a berry yogurt parfait I wouldn’t pay more than $5 for.
The classic sit down breakfast of eggs, bacon, and pancakes or toast at a place like IHOP is around $12. Anything much beyond that I’d consider expensive, in the sense that you’re going to get the same thing anywhere else you go, a much higher cost would be steeply marked up for no reason.
The price. Almost all breakfast includes some sort of egg, meat and bread.
The variety is more based on how you’re receiving it. Either it’s coming through the window of your car or you’re sitting down its being brought to you by hand.
That’s the difference between an $8 breakfast I have $25 breakfast.
Massachusetts: A very common breakfast on the run is an egg sandwich (maybe bagel or english muffin with egg cheese). Cheap – you order it at our local super market’s grill for 1.99 (Market Basket). More expensive you go to a little independent book store. 7.75 Expensive – you get it at Logan airport and it’s 11.25.
Cheap, dunkin donuts coffee and breakfast sandwich
Expensive: the brunch buffet at nice hotel in the region which includes omlette station, shrimp cocktail, carving station, waffle or crepe station, numerous hot entrees, salad bar, bacon, sausage, potatoes, eggs, pancakes, pastries and dessert bar.
If there’s a Greek joint nearby (in Detroit, a Coney Island), they usually have cheap, filling breakfasts made predictably well. Also morning specials both weekday and weekend.
They fill up the place and get by on volume/tables turned quickly. If it ain’t full of local plates in the morning, it’s bad in some way.
That’s what I’m willing to pay for. $7-8 plus beverages (usually have coffee at home so drink water).
EDIT: I would rather tip the server more than pay for overpriced coffee/tea/soda. Beer is a different story
Cheap: donut or bagel and coffee – cheap, easy and usually filling. My backup is a simple eggs, bacon, toast and hash browns meal at a local diner.
Expensive: waffles, pancakes, Eggs Benedict, usually something with hollandaise, seafood, handmade something, etc. the kinds of things involving presentation.
The four most expensive breakfasts I order are: Eggs Benedict with big fat smoked pork belly, a crab cake and amazing hollandaise sauce.
A smoked salmon quiche with a dressed salad and handmade bread
A ricotta and crème stuffed French toast, with about a dozen different ingredients
A “cheap” American breakfast for me would be not to go out at all; stay in, bowl of cereal (cold or hot), or maybe a pastry like a Danish or a doughnut, some milk (I don’t really do coffee, but some do), maybe a fruit. A rung up would be to cook some eggs, pancakes or waffles (but still staying in).
Are you asking prices or food or where to get it? Cheap breakfast price is about $10 these days. My husband and I had breakfast in Vegas at some French restaurant that was super wonderful and it was about $40 each. That was expensive.
Cheap breakfast can be purchased at IHop or Dennys or a taco truck. Expensive breakfast can be purchased at fancy restaurants or hotels.
Cheap breakfast is pastries and fruit and coffee or eggs and pancakes. Expensive breakfast is steak and eggs with cappuccino or fancy coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice, special bread and French toast.
Coffee & a bagel or muffin in NYC is about $7 and that’s cheap. Hotel breakfast with coffee, juice, eggs, bacon toast will be $50 or more plus tip. A diner breakfast somewhere in the middle, depending on how much you eat.
Cheap: varies by location. Egg McMuffin. Or a bagel. Or just a bowl of cereal, oatmeal or grits. Some folks get by on a coffee and a muffin.
American Standard: two eggs (any style, made to order) with choice of bacon or sausage, fried potatoes, and toast.
Expensive: steak and eggs, outfitted as above with home fries and toast and maybe even a slice of melon
We often do big breakfasts but not necessarily “expensive.” In a truly fancy breakfast joint, the American standard breakfast would be one of the cheaper options and they’d have a creative menu of items that aren’t quintessentially American.
Like a lot of people have mentioned, many breakfast foods could appear in both cheap and expensive breakfast meals, such as bacon, eggs, sausage, toast, pancakes, waffles, French toast. I’ll point out that some items will probably only be in expensive breakfast meals/brunch meals (not counting breakfast at home which is always cheaper than getting the same thing in a restaurant).
Any kind of alcohol such as Bloody Mary’s (a cocktail of tomato juice and usually vodka) or mimosa (champagne and orange juice). Any type of eggs Benedict (poached eggs with hollandaise sauce). I’ve had raw oysters and lobster at a high end brunch before, so I would rank that as only in the expensive category. And I’d probably say any kind of raw or fresh fish because of its short shelf life. Smoked fish such as smoked salmon has a longer shelf life and could fall into the moderate price breakfast in some places, but probably not usually in the cheap breakfast.
Cheap is like a 4$ breakfast sandwich from dunkin, or the eggs you make at home, or cereal at home, etc. expensive is any sit down restaurant breakfast with varying degrees of quality.
Fancy is for brunch type places, which I guess people consider breakfast? Mimosas and eggs Benedict are awesome, but that’s really something I’d call a brunch and not breakfast.
Depends where you live. Here in NJ I think the price is roughly under $12 or $14 for cheap breakfast that is cooked to order. Fast Food is probably under $7. I used to get the Early Riser’s Special for like $4.99 around ~2016 and it included:
EARLY RISER’S SPECIAL
Short Stack of Buttermilk Pancakes or French Toast & Two Eggs with Ham, Bacon, Sausage or Taylor Ham
Currently going for $12.50. Just passing the cheap threshold. It also previously included both Pancakes and French Toast
Cheap is convenience store burrito & coffee (don’t lie you’ve done it when you’re desperate). Expensive is fancy brunch with flowery hats and mimosas. You can alternate expensive with a late breakfast burrito, salsa n chips and margaritas.
Cheap is any combination of eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns, toast, pancakes or waffles made at home.
Expensive is any combination of eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns, toast, pancakes or waffles you buy at restaurant or diner.
When I was in Las Vegas about 2 years ago I found small place that advertised a $5 breakfast. I think it was 2 eggs, 1 sausage link, 1 bacon slice, 1 slice of toast all on a paper plate with plastic forks/spoons. Solid for $5.
Cheap: coffee
Expensive: lobster omelette with bottomless greyhounds made with freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, Potatoes O’Brien, a Belgian waffle with fresh berries, and great coffee.
A cheap American breakfast is something like Waffle House. $15 per person absolute maximum and that’s for a gigantic breakfast with litterally everything. They stick to the basics, eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, etc. I actually disagree with others saying IHOP is in the same tier. Waffle House and Huddle House could both be the same, but I think IHOP is a tier up just because they’re cleaner and have some more expensive options on the menu, though it’s not what they specialize in.
An expensive American breakfast is brunch more often than not. Lots of alcohol, and good food made from quality fresh ingredients. Quiches, crepes, fresh fruit, maybe a pancake or waffle bar. There’s not really a chain that does it, but often nicer hotels or restaurants will offer a weekend brunch. Generally $50+ per person.
I thinks it’s more of a question of “where” than “what”, steak and eggs or biscuits might be cheap as he’ll at a roadside dinner, but $30 at the trendy brunch spot downtown
That is a massive gap. I’ve had a $1 egg on a tortilla and been trapped in a place that tried to call gold leaf and cavier on a quarter of a waffle edible.
I once went to a Champagne Sunday brunch at a 5 star Hotel/resort that was almost $200 per person. Waffle House or any fast food establishment is the cheapest.
Where I live, $3.25 for a small coffee and a glazed donut.
For a lunch buffet at a nice restaurant, $50 (but that includes eggs benedict, sushi, omelette bar, roasted meats, etc…). Champagne not included.
Under about $10-15 or so is the utilitarian choice – maybe a breakfast sandwich and a coffee somewhere.
The $15-25 range is the middle ground where you can expect a more substantial hot meal like an omelette or pancakes and bacon, but short order diner-style meals, nothing too fancy. This is where table service begins and you need to factor in a tip.
Above $25 is when things are getting chi-chi. You may be at a trendy modern cafe with espresso-based coffee, freshly made juices, and dishes that are more elaborate or have specialty ingredients: açaí bowls, eggs Benedict, smoked salmon, avocado toast, shakshuka, etc.
These ranges are going to vary widely based on what parts of the country you visit, so take them with a grain of salt.
Cheap: oatmeal.
Expensive: Yogurt with fruit and granola, açaí bowls
I will say, I was shitting all over açaí bowls until I tried them. My wife gets them often, and I’ll sometimes get one when she does. They’re extraordinarily expensive, but you can pack them full of protein (powder, add peanut butter, granola, etc.)
Dining out cheap would be a biscuit with sausage egg and cheese and maybe coffee for around $8 in this area. Expensive would be made to order French toast, hash browns, sausage, two eggs and an Orange juice. About $15 around here.
Cheap is egg on a roll sandwich at the bodega. Expensive is Sunday brunch out where you have foods like avocado toast, fancy French toast, salmon plate, bottomless mimosas, bloody Marys or other breakfast alcohol, fancy coffees.
Eggs Benedict. That’s like a twice a year thing for me. And I’m going out to get it, because I can’t make Hollandaise for shit. Also, I’ve cooked thousands of dishes, but never poached an egg. The whole thing seems like a pain in the ass. So, better to get it at a brunch place.
Also, brunch places usually have really good breakfast potatoes. I can get close, but never quite exactly how a restaurant does them.
Or, if you’re operating from what media shows, the ludicrous spreads TV/movie moms have. First off, ain’t nobody got time for that on a weekday morning. Second, that’s enough food for like 20 people. Third, that would be hideously expensive on a regular basis. That’s hosting a big holiday with lots of family. That’s not a regular breakfast.
Regular breakfast growing up was a bowl of Cheerios. Plain, the other kinds weren’t invented yet. And my mom did not buy sweetened cereal. We had: plain Cheerios, Shredded Wheat (plain, not frosted), puffed rice, puffed wheat, or grape nuts. When Crispix came out, mom added that to the rotation. But never ever any sugared cereal..
My comfort cheap food growing up was an English muffin with melted American cheese
I’ve been to three bougie brunches in my life. I very much dislike breakfast food, but a salmon crostini with a lemon caper cream cheese. I’m not going to say no.
Cheap is the little hole in the wall southern diner or fast food with an app coupon for a $2 breakfast biscuit.
Expensive is almost anything else, but I envision crab cake Benedict with asparagus and coffee with Bailey’s. I haven’t done that in probably nearing 10 Years though.
For a fancy breakfast I’ve had eggs Benedict with hollandaise sauce and smoked salmon plus a Bloody Mary with like 6 grilled jumbo shrimp on it haha. 😂
Also shrimp and grits is a good brunch.
A basic breakfast is a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit or something from a fast food place
Coffee. Yes, many people consider their cup of coffee breakfast.
Toast with a bit of jam/jelly/butter/nut spread.
Cereal with milk.
Unlike cheap options, there is no cap on expense for breakfast. People will make it bigger, fancier, or more exclusive to justify the price tag.
The most expensive breakfast I’ve seen in real life was some kind of fancy hash thing with salmon that totalled like $82.
The most expensive breakfast I’ve been treated to was about $50. It was a breakfast buffet with hashbrowns, eggs, toast, biscuits and gravy, waffle bar, omlet bar, a bunch of meats and fresh fruit. And a single mimosa. Yum.
The most expensive breakfast I have purchased for myself was a really really fucking good eggs benedict that was served with a crab cake and a side of applesauce. Really tasty. $26.
If I go out for breakfast, I expect to spend $8-22 bucks, generally. Usually the lower end of that. Well, used to be. I haven’t gone out much recently and dear God inflation has been rediculous.
Making a “cheap” breakfast at home is about $2/person. Making a “Good” breakfast at home is maybe $4-5/person. Making an “expensive” one would be like $15/person, and it would be over the top.
Comments
Cheap: Eggs
Expensive: Eggs
Cheap is a 24 hour diner or a roadside diner, or somewhere like IHOP or Waffle House
Expensive is a bougie brunch place
Pancakes or waffles, eggs (in any form), sausage or bacon, juice, coffee. Bagels, toast, the works.
Cheap: coffee (only), oatmeal (only).
Expensive: bacon, eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, pancakes, toast/ jelly, coffee, orange juice (all).
I mean…you can make eggs and bacon at home for a couple bucks
Or you could hit like a mcdonalds drivethru and pay $12 or whatever it is now per person
Or you can go out and potentially pay >$50/person depending on what you order
Really just depends how much you’re trying to spend
$8.95 is the point where “cheap breakfast” stops.
Expensive > $20, cheap < $5. Exact same foods, just different quality.
Expensive: steak and eggs or lobster eggs Benedict. At a high end restaurant this could be 40-75 dollars plus drink cost and tip.
Cheap: oatmeal with nuts or perhaps fruit, dairy, spices or sweetener. Cost is likely less than 75 cents at home or maybe 5 bucks at a restaurant.
While I kind of get what you are going for, reality is that this is completely subjective.
One may think $10.00 is too much to spend, where another that could be way below average.
Especially if you are speaking restaurant vs home cooked.
Cheap – plain oatmeal
Expensive – Overnight oats. Both the brand and the act of making them because with the amount of ingredients most recipes have, it’s cost prohibitive depending on your budget (but could be done for cheaper if you make some substitutions).
I think it would just depend on how it was priced, depending on the area.
I wouldn’t pay more than $4 for a taco and even then, it better be steak.
Steak and eggs breakfast. With Momosias
The most expensive breakfast you can get seems to be the lousy buffets at downtown hotels. $25 for lukewarm slop.
Cheap – bagel & coffee
Mid – diner, eggs/waffles/sausage/etc
Expensive – big boozy brunch
Cheap: “I’ll wait for lunch”
Expensive: bottomless mimosas, eggs benedict, avocado toast.
This is a cheap American breakfast: https://www.orderbrownskillet.com/
This is an expensive American breakfast: https://i.imgur.com/jVNgDHa.png
Expensive: steak and eggs at a typical American ‘family’ restaurant or diner
Cheap: even better steak and eggs at a Mexican restaurant
Cheap- $7
Expensive- $40
Are we talking restauraunts or home cooking? Are just asking what price a whole meal should be?
Eggs, toast/pancakes, and sausage/bacon with maybe some fruit is a common enough “full” breakfast from home. Some people buy that at a diner too.
Cheap 2 for $5 egg McMuffin with app
Expensive $7 egg McMuffin without the app
My favorite cheap breakfast is sausage gravy and biscuits from a local diner. They also make good French toast, and I love their chocolate chip pancakes .
Cheap: oatmeal or toast at home.
Expensive: specialty items in a nice restaurant. Usually involves things that take longer to prepare and more ingredients. Like one time I had roasted potatoes with a seasoned kale/mushroom/squash hash with poached eggs in a hotel restaurant. Or maybe really good french toast or waffles with fresh berries and fancy sauces and an omelet with fillings and stuff. Price varies but at a swish place, breakfast can easily be $30-50, or even more.
Expensive is steak and eggs with hash browns.
Cheap is a bowl of box cereal like Cheerios or Frosted Flakes with milk
Just because I don’t see it mentioned yet, and it was a meme a while back. Avocado toast lands on both ends of the spectrum.
Avocados tend to be cheap if you live near where they grow, and expensive if you don’t. It’s also popular as a “healthy” option at fancy brunch places.
You can probably spend between $5-$20 on avocado toast depending on where in the country you are and how fancy a restaurant.
I could make one myself for probably $1.50, but it could be quite a bit more than that in other parts of the country.
Cheapest: cereal, oatmeal, banana, muffin, etc
Cheap: to-go breakfast sandwich
Expensive: anything sit-down that requires service and a tip
an expensive breakfast might have little small quail eggs because dainty = $$$
This one depends on a lot of variables. Around me at the same restaurant I can eat a full breakfast with coffee or tea (two eggs, bacon or sausage, choice of bread, choice of side i.e. grits/hash browns/fruit) for around $15, or have lobster benedict and a mimosa for $32, but the average is about $12-16 or so for a sit down meal at a regular place. A ‘fancy’ place will charge you $35 – $50 for that same food in these parts but thankfully there aren’t many spots like that.
Cheap: An average breakfast diner where you can usually get an “eggs and bacon” type breakfast. You’d be surprised by how cheap a sit-down breakfast diner can be if you’re willing to keep it pretty basic.
Average-ish: Fast food breakfast combo meals if you feel like splurging. (Often depends on what you choose and which fast food chain you get your breakfast from, though. Look around for deals.)
Expensive: Basically any place where you can get properly made eggs Benedict.
Most breakfast items in America are rather inexpensive to make. So I define an expensive breakfast as something that is way overpriced. As far as actual price goes, that’s going to depend more on the local economy more than anything.
The expensive places also usually offer a greater variety of fruits, berries, more exotic fruits. The cheap places offer apples, oranges and bananas, maybe a melon chopped up.
Home:
Cheap- Cereal, Milk or Pancakes
Medium- Eggs, Pork, Toast, Apple
Juice
Expensive- Steak, Avocado, Eggs, Fresh Salsa, Orange Juice
Restaurant:
Cheap- Eggs, Pork, Toast, Soda
Medium- Omelette, Hashbrowns, Orange Juice
Expensive- Crab Cake Benedict, Dressed Greens/Salad, Mimosa/Bellini (Orange Juice/Peach Puree & Sparkling Wine) or Bloody Mary (vodka/gin, tomato juice, seasoning & garnishes)
Eating out, anything considered “brunch.” It would likely include some kind of meat, eggs, a baked good, fruit, coffee, and juice or day-drinking beverage (mimosas or bloody Marys).
At home coffee and oatmeal would be cheap. Eggs I guess would still not be too bad, with or without toast. Ironically avocado toast for one person is pretty cheap if you make it at home.
We have a diner we go to for breakfast, eggs, meat, toast, milk and coffee all for 25.00
Are we talking strictly ordering out or including home made, and it’s a matter of scale/options? Obviously the price increases as you add more components, and people will often mix and match depending on how hungry they are.
Cheapest: Cup of Coffee or an Energy Drink. Optional granola bar, bagel, or English muffin.
Lower end: Same as above, but add a bowl of cereal or oatmeal, toaster pastries, etc. with maybe some orange juice on the side. Hash browns at fast food places and diners or from the freezer aisle (I don’t personally know many people who make them from scratch at home)
Average and up: Same as above, but add strips of bacon, a couple fried eggs, fresh fruit either on the side or in the cereal/oatmeal. Pancakes and Waffles start appearing in this tier, maybe some Nutella if you’re feeling special.
Higher end: Special occasions and higher end brunch restaurants. All of the above, plus bottomless mimosas, brunch cocktails, Eggs Benedict, Steak and Skillet Potatoes, Quiche or Omelettes with more expensive ingredients, Avocado toast, charcuterie, etc.
My wife bought a McDonald’s steak egg and cheese bagel meal this morning and it was a few cents over $10. So McDonald’s is not cheap eating.
Under 10 a plate is a cheap breakfast… over 12 is pricey for breakfast. (For a restaurant)
Steak and eggs with a bloody mary expensive. Sausage biscuit combo with small coffee from mcdonalds cheap
Cheap breakfast is homemade, expensive breakfast is basically anything you get from almost any diner or restaurant. Unless you get breakfast from fast food, most breakfast joints in my state the bare minimum is going to be $12-15 up to $20-25 for a full breakfast. A breakfast made at home is usually no more than $2-4 per person.
At home, carbs would include cereal, oatmeal, maybe malt-o-meal, pancakes, waffles, yogurt, or a piece of fruit. Proteins would be bacon, eggs, slices of ham, or a protein bar.
Expensive American Breakfast: brunch. Assume if something is labeled brunch, you’re going to pay 25% more AT LEAST, for less food and a garnish.
Cheap American Breakfast: breakfast burritos, they’re typically petty cheap and filling… unless you get it during brunch.
I assume you mean in the context of eating out somewhere?
At home I could eat oatmeal or farina and a poachrd egg with fruit for about a dollar.
Common grab and go items like a breakfast taco (scrambled eggs mixed with bacon or some other meat and wrapped in a tortilla) or a biscuit and egg sandwich, or a berry yogurt parfait I wouldn’t pay more than $5 for.
The classic sit down breakfast of eggs, bacon, and pancakes or toast at a place like IHOP is around $12. Anything much beyond that I’d consider expensive, in the sense that you’re going to get the same thing anywhere else you go, a much higher cost would be steeply marked up for no reason.
The price. Almost all breakfast includes some sort of egg, meat and bread.
The variety is more based on how you’re receiving it. Either it’s coming through the window of your car or you’re sitting down its being brought to you by hand.
That’s the difference between an $8 breakfast I have $25 breakfast.
We did a crab and asparagus Benedict for like $27 at a country club I worked at..
I’ve seen single serve quaker oatmeal pouches for under 50 cents.
Foie Gras and pan seared scallops with Möet mimosa.
Cheap is buttered toast on white bread.
Massachusetts: A very common breakfast on the run is an egg sandwich (maybe bagel or english muffin with egg cheese). Cheap – you order it at our local super market’s grill for 1.99 (Market Basket). More expensive you go to a little independent book store. 7.75 Expensive – you get it at Logan airport and it’s 11.25.
Cheap, dunkin donuts coffee and breakfast sandwich
Expensive: the brunch buffet at nice hotel in the region which includes omlette station, shrimp cocktail, carving station, waffle or crepe station, numerous hot entrees, salad bar, bacon, sausage, potatoes, eggs, pancakes, pastries and dessert bar.
Cheap: sausage egg and cheese croissant from Jack in the Box
Expensive: steak and eggs, with your choice of sides at a good restaurant
If there’s a Greek joint nearby (in Detroit, a Coney Island), they usually have cheap, filling breakfasts made predictably well. Also morning specials both weekday and weekend.
They fill up the place and get by on volume/tables turned quickly. If it ain’t full of local plates in the morning, it’s bad in some way.
That’s what I’m willing to pay for. $7-8 plus beverages (usually have coffee at home so drink water).
EDIT: I would rather tip the server more than pay for overpriced coffee/tea/soda. Beer is a different story
Cheap: Powdered donuts.
Expensive: New Orleans Beignets with a light organic sugar dusting served 3 to a plate for $9.
Cheap: made with margarine.
Fancy: made with butter.
Cheap: donut or bagel and coffee – cheap, easy and usually filling. My backup is a simple eggs, bacon, toast and hash browns meal at a local diner.
Expensive: waffles, pancakes, Eggs Benedict, usually something with hollandaise, seafood, handmade something, etc. the kinds of things involving presentation.
The four most expensive breakfasts I order are: Eggs Benedict with big fat smoked pork belly, a crab cake and amazing hollandaise sauce.
A smoked salmon quiche with a dressed salad and handmade bread
A ricotta and crème stuffed French toast, with about a dozen different ingredients
A wood fired steak with eggs and hollandaise
A “cheap” American breakfast for me would be not to go out at all; stay in, bowl of cereal (cold or hot), or maybe a pastry like a Danish or a doughnut, some milk (I don’t really do coffee, but some do), maybe a fruit. A rung up would be to cook some eggs, pancakes or waffles (but still staying in).
Are you asking prices or food or where to get it? Cheap breakfast price is about $10 these days. My husband and I had breakfast in Vegas at some French restaurant that was super wonderful and it was about $40 each. That was expensive.
Cheap breakfast can be purchased at IHop or Dennys or a taco truck. Expensive breakfast can be purchased at fancy restaurants or hotels.
Cheap breakfast is pastries and fruit and coffee or eggs and pancakes. Expensive breakfast is steak and eggs with cappuccino or fancy coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice, special bread and French toast.
Do you mean cost? Depends on where you live. Where I live anything less than $10 is cheap and more than $15 is expensive .
Steak and eggs is expensive. Plain toast or pancakes is cheap.
I had breakfast in Hawaii a year ago that cost over $100 for three people who ate waffles or eggs.. That was some sticker shock. lol
Waffle House in the South is cheap.
Coffee & a bagel or muffin in NYC is about $7 and that’s cheap. Hotel breakfast with coffee, juice, eggs, bacon toast will be $50 or more plus tip. A diner breakfast somewhere in the middle, depending on how much you eat.
Cheap would be a bowl of cereal with some milk.
Expensive would be a champagne brunch with caviar and the works.
Cheap: varies by location. Egg McMuffin. Or a bagel. Or just a bowl of cereal, oatmeal or grits. Some folks get by on a coffee and a muffin.
American Standard: two eggs (any style, made to order) with choice of bacon or sausage, fried potatoes, and toast.
Expensive: steak and eggs, outfitted as above with home fries and toast and maybe even a slice of melon
We often do big breakfasts but not necessarily “expensive.” In a truly fancy breakfast joint, the American standard breakfast would be one of the cheaper options and they’d have a creative menu of items that aren’t quintessentially American.
There are no cheap breakfasts left after the stupid deficit spending done in the name of Covidiocy.
Cheap is toast you make at home. Expensive is full English at a cafe
They serve the exact same food.
Except the expensive place calls it “brunch” and it’s where all the woooo girls go to start day drinking at 10:30am.
Cheap = Donuts
Expensive = Hot meal (eggs, bacon, etc)
Buttered roll & coffee on the go New York style = cheap
Full spread sit down with 3 egg omelet, bacon, sausage, pancakes, hash browns, danish & bottomless coffee = not cheap
My ear-out breakfast is always the same: BLT and hash browns. Typically about $11. Perfect.
$3/person used to be cheap in NYC. Eggs, toast, home fries, coffee. Now, $50/person with mimosas is pricey. Could go higher for crab Benedict 🦀.
I spent $16 with tip for an omelet this morning. Cheaper coney Island.
Expensive: fancy hotel breakfast, sit down, white table cloth. 25 and up.
Cheap: free breakfast at crappy motel.
Kicker: both have runny eggs of questionable origin. Possibly powdered eggs?
Cheap: $10
Expensive: $150
Cheap: skip breakfast
Expensive: anything with a mimosa
Like a lot of people have mentioned, many breakfast foods could appear in both cheap and expensive breakfast meals, such as bacon, eggs, sausage, toast, pancakes, waffles, French toast. I’ll point out that some items will probably only be in expensive breakfast meals/brunch meals (not counting breakfast at home which is always cheaper than getting the same thing in a restaurant).
Any kind of alcohol such as Bloody Mary’s (a cocktail of tomato juice and usually vodka) or mimosa (champagne and orange juice). Any type of eggs Benedict (poached eggs with hollandaise sauce). I’ve had raw oysters and lobster at a high end brunch before, so I would rank that as only in the expensive category. And I’d probably say any kind of raw or fresh fish because of its short shelf life. Smoked fish such as smoked salmon has a longer shelf life and could fall into the moderate price breakfast in some places, but probably not usually in the cheap breakfast.
buying a breakfast at a diner or stand for less than $10 = cheap (these days)
About $10-20 vs. $25-50
Cheap: pancakes and bacon
Expensive: avocado toast
Cheap is like a 4$ breakfast sandwich from dunkin, or the eggs you make at home, or cereal at home, etc. expensive is any sit down restaurant breakfast with varying degrees of quality.
Fancy is for brunch type places, which I guess people consider breakfast? Mimosas and eggs Benedict are awesome, but that’s really something I’d call a brunch and not breakfast.
Steak and eggs would be expensive. A fancy brunch at a hotel or restaurant. I don’t know what this costs now.
A cheap breakfast would be a donut or two and coffee. Or a piece of toast at home with a drink. Or a bowl of cereal.
Depends where you live. Here in NJ I think the price is roughly under $12 or $14 for cheap breakfast that is cooked to order. Fast Food is probably under $7. I used to get the Early Riser’s Special for like $4.99 around ~2016 and it included:
EARLY RISER’S SPECIAL
Short Stack of Buttermilk Pancakes or French Toast & Two Eggs with Ham, Bacon, Sausage or Taylor Ham
Currently going for $12.50. Just passing the cheap threshold. It also previously included both Pancakes and French Toast
Pancakes would be generally cheaper. Steak and eggs, not so much
Cheap is convenience store burrito & coffee (don’t lie you’ve done it when you’re desperate). Expensive is fancy brunch with flowery hats and mimosas. You can alternate expensive with a late breakfast burrito, salsa n chips and margaritas.
Cheap is coffee and a zyn, expensive is eggs bacon hashbrowns maybe biscuits and gravy or a pancake
breakfast at the Ritz Carlton
cheap? Cheerios one percent milk.
Expensive is a steak egg and cheese bagel from McDonald’s and cheap is the sausage biscuit..
Are mimosas and smoked salmon on the menu? Expensive.
Can you order breakfast by number and the coffee cups are stained all the way through?
Cheap
$100 is expensive for bfast.
$2 is cheap for bfast.
Cheap is any combination of eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns, toast, pancakes or waffles made at home.
Expensive is any combination of eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns, toast, pancakes or waffles you buy at restaurant or diner.
Expensive: Caviar and champagne.
Cheap: Scrambled eggs on toast.
Cheap is $10 at Waffle House. Expensive is $17 elsewhere.
When I was in Las Vegas about 2 years ago I found small place that advertised a $5 breakfast. I think it was 2 eggs, 1 sausage link, 1 bacon slice, 1 slice of toast all on a paper plate with plastic forks/spoons. Solid for $5.
Toast is cheap, expensive is much harder. You can add gold flakes to anything and make it expensive.
Assuming you are eating out…
Cheap: doughnut and coffee $4
Mid: 2 egg, 2 bacon, toast $8
Expensive: anything over $12
Take 25% off and you have 2019 prices.
My biscuits&gravy&eggs was about $17 this morning
Cheap is oatmeal or cereal. Expensive is lox, lobster, or steak.
I think the cost of all restaurant food is expensive, increasingly so. We hardly ever eat out now. Even a hot dog is almost 3 bucks for God sake.
Cheap: coffee
Expensive: lobster omelette with bottomless greyhounds made with freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, Potatoes O’Brien, a Belgian waffle with fresh berries, and great coffee.
A cheap American breakfast is something like Waffle House. $15 per person absolute maximum and that’s for a gigantic breakfast with litterally everything. They stick to the basics, eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, etc. I actually disagree with others saying IHOP is in the same tier. Waffle House and Huddle House could both be the same, but I think IHOP is a tier up just because they’re cleaner and have some more expensive options on the menu, though it’s not what they specialize in.
An expensive American breakfast is brunch more often than not. Lots of alcohol, and good food made from quality fresh ingredients. Quiches, crepes, fresh fruit, maybe a pancake or waffle bar. There’s not really a chain that does it, but often nicer hotels or restaurants will offer a weekend brunch. Generally $50+ per person.
I thinks it’s more of a question of “where” than “what”, steak and eggs or biscuits might be cheap as he’ll at a roadside dinner, but $30 at the trendy brunch spot downtown
Weirdly enough, a cheap breakfast and a pricey breakfast may have the exact same ingredients.
Small mostly intangible details like artisan bacon or free range eggs drive the price up as well as the location and vibe of the restaurant.
Cheap- free breakfast at a hotel you didn’t stay at
Expensive- eggs woodhouse
Cheap- making and eating breakfast at home. Most average breakfast foods are pretty inexpensive.
Expensive- going to any restaurant.
My cheap breakfast at home is probably under $2 usually. Yogurt and berries.
That is a massive gap. I’ve had a $1 egg on a tortilla and been trapped in a place that tried to call gold leaf and cavier on a quarter of a waffle edible.
Cheap “Bowl of steam”
Expensive “Two eggs”
I once went to a Champagne Sunday brunch at a 5 star Hotel/resort that was almost $200 per person. Waffle House or any fast food establishment is the cheapest.
Cheap: 2 eggs on toast.
Expensive: crab benedict or lobster omelet.
Where I live, $3.25 for a small coffee and a glazed donut.
For a lunch buffet at a nice restaurant, $50 (but that includes eggs benedict, sushi, omelette bar, roasted meats, etc…). Champagne not included.
Expensive? Dom Perignon, Quail Eggs, Oysters and A5 Wagyu in a sriracha chive compound butter. Probably around 500$-ish depending on the bottle.
Cheap? 2 for 5$ egg McMuffin on the McDonalds app.
Cheap: a couple of years ago I would have said “eggs” and just leave it at that. But now I think it’s toast and potatoes. Maybe bacon.
Expensive: champagne, fruit, eggs benedict
Under about $10-15 or so is the utilitarian choice – maybe a breakfast sandwich and a coffee somewhere.
The $15-25 range is the middle ground where you can expect a more substantial hot meal like an omelette or pancakes and bacon, but short order diner-style meals, nothing too fancy. This is where table service begins and you need to factor in a tip.
Above $25 is when things are getting chi-chi. You may be at a trendy modern cafe with espresso-based coffee, freshly made juices, and dishes that are more elaborate or have specialty ingredients: açaí bowls, eggs Benedict, smoked salmon, avocado toast, shakshuka, etc.
These ranges are going to vary widely based on what parts of the country you visit, so take them with a grain of salt.
Cheap: oatmeal.
Expensive: Yogurt with fruit and granola, açaí bowls
I will say, I was shitting all over açaí bowls until I tried them. My wife gets them often, and I’ll sometimes get one when she does. They’re extraordinarily expensive, but you can pack them full of protein (powder, add peanut butter, granola, etc.)
Dining out cheap would be a biscuit with sausage egg and cheese and maybe coffee for around $8 in this area. Expensive would be made to order French toast, hash browns, sausage, two eggs and an Orange juice. About $15 around here.
Cheap is egg on a roll sandwich at the bodega. Expensive is Sunday brunch out where you have foods like avocado toast, fancy French toast, salmon plate, bottomless mimosas, bloody Marys or other breakfast alcohol, fancy coffees.
Cheap: biscuits and gravy
Expensive: crab benedict
Cheap – Generic cereal
Expensive- anywhere you gotta park, walk in, and be served!
Waffle House is cheap and delicious. Fast food is now expensive
Obviously the avocado toast is why people can’t afford homes
Eggs Benedict. That’s like a twice a year thing for me. And I’m going out to get it, because I can’t make Hollandaise for shit. Also, I’ve cooked thousands of dishes, but never poached an egg. The whole thing seems like a pain in the ass. So, better to get it at a brunch place.
Also, brunch places usually have really good breakfast potatoes. I can get close, but never quite exactly how a restaurant does them.
Or, if you’re operating from what media shows, the ludicrous spreads TV/movie moms have. First off, ain’t nobody got time for that on a weekday morning. Second, that’s enough food for like 20 people. Third, that would be hideously expensive on a regular basis. That’s hosting a big holiday with lots of family. That’s not a regular breakfast.
Regular breakfast growing up was a bowl of Cheerios. Plain, the other kinds weren’t invented yet. And my mom did not buy sweetened cereal. We had: plain Cheerios, Shredded Wheat (plain, not frosted), puffed rice, puffed wheat, or grape nuts. When Crispix came out, mom added that to the rotation. But never ever any sugared cereal..
Cheap: black coffee.
Steak & eggs, cereal
My comfort cheap food growing up was an English muffin with melted American cheese
I’ve been to three bougie brunches in my life. I very much dislike breakfast food, but a salmon crostini with a lemon caper cream cheese. I’m not going to say no.
Cheap is the little hole in the wall southern diner or fast food with an app coupon for a $2 breakfast biscuit.
Expensive is almost anything else, but I envision crab cake Benedict with asparagus and coffee with Bailey’s. I haven’t done that in probably nearing 10 Years though.
Breakfast sucks normally skip it and go straight to lunch
Cheap: a diner. Expensive: a restaurant
For a fancy breakfast I’ve had eggs Benedict with hollandaise sauce and smoked salmon plus a Bloody Mary with like 6 grilled jumbo shrimp on it haha. 😂
Also shrimp and grits is a good brunch.
A basic breakfast is a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit or something from a fast food place
Depends on your location. Average price in NYC or L.A. is expensive in a Billings, Montana.
In my city, $4.99 is a super deal. $35-$45 is brunch with mimosas or champagne.
It’s all about location, location, location.
there’s expensive and cheap versions of everything here.
At our nearby breakfast/lunch sit-down restaurant (Silicon Valley).
Least expensive breakfast: two eggs, potatoes, toast $13
Most expensive breakfast: two eggs, potatoes, toast, with rib-eye steak $24
Cheap options:
Unlike cheap options, there is no cap on expense for breakfast. People will make it bigger, fancier, or more exclusive to justify the price tag.
The most expensive breakfast I’ve seen in real life was some kind of fancy hash thing with salmon that totalled like $82.
The most expensive breakfast I’ve been treated to was about $50. It was a breakfast buffet with hashbrowns, eggs, toast, biscuits and gravy, waffle bar, omlet bar, a bunch of meats and fresh fruit. And a single mimosa. Yum.
The most expensive breakfast I have purchased for myself was a really really fucking good eggs benedict that was served with a crab cake and a side of applesauce. Really tasty. $26.
If I go out for breakfast, I expect to spend $8-22 bucks, generally. Usually the lower end of that. Well, used to be. I haven’t gone out much recently and dear God inflation has been rediculous.
Making a “cheap” breakfast at home is about $2/person. Making a “Good” breakfast at home is maybe $4-5/person. Making an “expensive” one would be like $15/person, and it would be over the top.
Cheap:Bowl of Shredded Wheat
Expensive : breakfast at Brennan’s NOLA with Bananas Foster
Cheap: Store brand cereal
Expensive: Full hot brunch buffet
Eggs Benedict (expensive) and Egg McMuffin (cheap), ironically the McMuffin is based on Benedict