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Nine Great Breakfast Spots

San Antonio Travel Guide + Rankings | U.S. News Travel San Antonio is one of the best places to come for family vacations. U.S. News and World Report’s travel site ranks the city in the #2 spot. San Diego is #1.

Let’s get one thing straight: It’s not all about the tacos. But without them, breakfast in San Antonio wouldn’t be, well, breakfast.

At least that’s the case at many of the city’s morning hot spots, like Torres Taco Haven. Here, floppy house-made flour tortillas embrace fillings such as rusty-red chorizo and egg, egg with country sausage, and egg with fried potatoes, perfect for lacing with incendiary sauces, either red or green. Breakfast plates expand the repertoire here with machadaco (dried beef jerky) con huevo and the dish of sautéed tortilla chips with egg, melted cheese and salsa ranchera that the locals call chilaquiles.

Bountiful breakfast tacos also abound at Tito’s in hip and happening Southtown; there are 35 on the menu, including the Taco Loco with potato, bacon and a lusty chile de molcajete sauce. The same can be served in plate form with egg, refried beans and additional potatoes mixed with chorizo – the preferred accompaniment to most plates, including the classic huevos rancheros.

At legendary Mi Tierra in Market Square, the brave can tuck into menudo, the cure-all tripe soup, or a plate of barbacoa, the so-called “Mexican barbecue.” (Sample first, ask questions later.) Mi Tierra can also make you an omelet with beef jerky or trot out a comforting and hearty plate of steak and eggs topped with ranchera sauce. But whatever you do, be sure to pause at the bakery counter; here you’ll find an array of pan dulce, or sweet breads, unlike any other. Give in.

Ever-popular El Mirador, on the fringe of the King William historic district, is lauded for its Saturday soups, and they can certainly make for a satisfying breakfast. But during the week, when locals gather to gab, the breakfast tacos include rustic carne guisada, and the plates have names such as Doña Maria’s Favorite (scrambled eggs with spicy sausage and jalapeños). In a nod to more traditional American tastes, El Mirador also offers pancakes. Just be sure to have them with steaming Mexican chocolate.

Serious pancake lovers will want to walk a few extra blocks to the historic Guenther House on the bank of the San Antonio River in the shadow of the equally venerable Pioneer Flour Mills. The museum offers a fascinating peek into the lives of locals in the late19th century, and the restaurant satisfies the continuing need to be sustained with puffy pancakes, crusty waffles, lofty biscuits doused in sausage gravy and sticky buns of the just-one-more sort.

The ample German breakfast tradition continues at Schilo’s Delicatessen, a downtown fixture since 1917. The presence of potato pancakes gives Schilo’s special appeal. Have them simply adorned with applesauce or partnered with ham, bacon, sausage or egg. The Papa Fritz Breakfast, named for the restaurant’s founder, pulls out all the stops with eggs, bratwurst, hash browns or grits, biscuits or muffins, and a beverage.

Yep, pancakes are pervasive here and if you’d like yours with a view of the San Antonio River, get on over to Zuni Grill in the shade of sheltering cypresses. There’s a weekend breakfast buffet, cinnamon buttermilk pancakes are always available, and the house-smoked salmon served with a bagel and the works will surely satisfy.

Early to embrace natural ingredients, the Twin Sisters Bakery & Café has two locations, one downtown and another in Alamo Heights. Fresh fruit cups, whole-wheat breakfast tacos (available with egg whites), pancakes made from stone-ground organic whole wheat, an organic oatmeal special and, in a riff on the Mexican tradition, tofu ranchero with fresh pico de gallo salsa are all available.

TheGreenVeggie Newer to the healthy table – but no less enthusiastic – is Green Vegetarian Cuisine & Coffee. Sweet potato pancakes head a list of several variants, there’s a tofu scrambler, and the breakfast tacos favor potato and tofu fillings. But an otherwise committed carnivore would be none the wiser with the free-range avocado Eggs Benedict with chipotle hollandaise. You wouldn’t want us to serve standard hollandaise, now would you?

S.A.V.E.

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