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Best Breakfast Spots in SLO County
Updated: 2 days ago
Breakfast is our favorite showing-day meal for a practical reason: it happens before the day gets away from us. It is also, we have come to believe, the most honest meal in any town. Dinner restaurants can be built for visitors. Breakfast places are built for the people who live there, and the crowd at eight on a Tuesday tells you exactly who those people are.
These are the best breakfast spots in SLO County, organized by town. We have tried to pick places that have been around long enough to be part of the local fabric, which means some of the newest spots are not here yet. Give them time.
HIGUERA STREET · RAILROAD DISTRICT
San Luis Obispo
Louisa's Place on Higuera Street is the counter-and-booth breakfast institution downtown, with big plates and a crowd of regulars who predate most of the city's current restaurants. It is where we take clients who want to see the un-polished side of SLO.
Sally Loo's Wholesome Cafe, near the train station in the Railroad District, is the other pole: a bright, creative cafe with excellent coffee, baked goods, and a breakfast menu that draws a line on weekends. The neighborhood around it has become one of our favorite corners of the city, and we describe it in our neighborhood-by-neighborhood guide to San Luis Obispo.
Big Sky Cafe does a proper sit-down brunch on Broad Street, and it is the choice when you have out-of-town family and want a table for six.
MORRO BAY · LOS OSOS · CAYUCOS · CAMBRIA
The North Coast
Morro Bay and Los Osos
Frankie & Lola's Front Street Cafe at the south end of the Morro Bay Embarcadero is the harbor's breakfast headquarters. Expect a wait on a sunny weekend and a walk along the water afterward.
In Los Osos, Celia's Garden Cafe is the neighborhood spot, tucked into a quiet corner of a town that keeps its best things quiet. It fits the character we describe in Los Osos and Baywood: the coast's best kept secret.
Bayside Cafe, at the marina in Morro Bay State Park, splits the difference between the two towns and comes with a view of the back bay.
Cayucos
Hidden Kitchen is the reason people drive to Cayucos for breakfast. Blue corn waffles, a menu that leans healthy and inventive, and a line that forms early on weekends. Grab it to go and eat on the beach a block away. Cayucos also has Brown Butter Cookie Company, which is not breakfast, but nobody has ever left town without stopping.
Cambria
Linn's Restaurant in Cambria's East Village is the classic, known for olallieberry pie but just as good for a morning meal. The town's cafes along Main Street are worth wandering as well. Cambria's morning fog tends to burn off later than elsewhere, which makes a long breakfast feel like the right call, as we explain in living in Cambria.
PISMO · SHELL BEACH · ARROYO GRANDE · AVILA
The Five Cities, Avila, and Nipomo
Pismo Beach and Shell Beach
Penny's All American Cafe in Pismo is a locals' diner a few blocks from the beach, generous and old-fashioned in the right ways. Zorro's Cafe & Cantina in Shell Beach is the other south-county favorite, with a lively room, a cantina side, and a breakfast menu that has earned a loyal following well beyond Shell Beach. Honeymoon Cafe on the main drag in Pismo is the coffee-and-pastry stop.
Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach
Francisco's Country Kitchen in Arroyo Grande is the big-plate, family-run diner that has fed the town for years. Cafe Andreini in the Village of Arroyo Grande is more coffee shop than restaurant, but its morning crowd is the Village's social center, and we mention it again in our guide to the best coffee in SLO County.
Avila Beach and Nipomo
In Avila, Joe Momma's Coffee is the morning gathering place on the promenade, with pastries and a view of the pier. In Nipomo, the breakfast scene is more scattered, but the small cafes along Tefft Street and near the mesa serve a loyal crowd.
DOWNTOWN PASO · TEMPLETON
North County: Paso Robles, Templeton, and Atascadero
Joe's Place in downtown Paso Robles is the diner the town was built around, a few blocks from the park and packed with ranchers, winemakers, and everyone in between. Panolivo offers a French bakery-cafe breakfast near the park for something lighter.
In Templeton, Kitchenette has become the North County's destination breakfast, with a farm-driven menu and a following that drives in from Paso and Atascadero. It is a good example of how Templeton has quietly become more than a bedroom community, which we discuss in living in Templeton.
Atascadero's downtown has a handful of long-running cafes and diners along El Camino Real and near the Sunken Gardens that serve the town well. We will not pretend to have a single favorite there; ask a local and you will get a strong opinion.
REGULARS · A PATIO · LOCAL SOURCING · SPEED
What we look for in a breakfast place
Since we are asked, here is the standard:
Regulars. If the same people are there every morning, the food is honest and the town is stable.
A counter or a patio. Somewhere to sit alone with a coffee and overhear the local news.
Local sourcing where it makes sense. Eggs, produce, and bread from the county are easy to find here, and the best places use them.
Speed. A showing schedule waits for no one, and neither does the fog window on the coast.
The breakfast crowd is the best market research we do. It tells us who lives in a town, what they do, and how they feel about it.
Use this list on your house-hunting trip
If you are relocating to San Luis Obispo County and have a few days here, eat breakfast in a different town every morning. By day three you will have a feel for the county that no map can give you, and you will probably have a favorite. That is the town to look at first. We are happy to organize showings around it, and you can get a head start by browsing homes for sale in the towns on this list.
Talk With Kim & Kristen
We are Kim San Jule and Kristen Gentry, Broker Associates with Real Broker, serving San Luis Obispo County and the Central Coast. Whether you are buying, selling, or simply thinking ahead, we are glad to be a resource.
Kim San Jule · Broker Associate, DRE 01948144 · 805-345-8303 · kimsanjule@gmail.com
Kristen Gentry · Broker Associate, DRE 01968754 · 805-441-4618 · kristengentryslo@gmail.com
Real Broker · Search Central Coast homes for sale
