Minnesota's Most Extreme Breakfast Challenge That Only A Few Have Conquered

Six eggs. Six strips of bacon. Four sausage patties. Two slices of ham. A pile of hash browns, four slices of toast, and one 16-inch pancake. Hungry? If you can handle it, that's the Barbarian Breakfast from the Nicollet Diner in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It costs $55.95, but if you can get through the entire meal in under 60 minutes, the restaurant will give it to you for free, plus you get a T-shirt to commemorate your gastronomic victory. Not bad! But not easy, either.

Curious what a Barbarian Breakfast weighs? You're looking at 15 pounds of food. The pancake alone weighs 7 pounds. Over a thousand people have attempted to conquer the Barbarian, but only a handful have succeeded. The earliest references to the Barbarian appear online in 2019. Since that time, a number of professional eaters have tried their hand, and their stomachs, at taking it down. A few regular folks have given it a try as well, and the restaurant has a wall of fame that shows off everyone who's succeeded. Some of them are also featured on the diner's social media.

Food Challenges, a site that catalogs and ranks food challenges around the world, gives the Barbarian Breakfast a three out of five difficulty rating. That means, by its standards, this is of average difficulty. You have to wonder what whoever runs the site considers extremely difficult, if a 15-pound breakfast challenge is just average to them.

The price of the Barbarian challenge has gone up considerably over the last few years, which is to be expected. Some earlier videos show menus with a challenge that cost only $36. If you're planning to head to Minneapolis yourself to take on the challenge, do yourself a favor and call ahead just to confirm. Even a barbarian is susceptible to inflation.

The challenge is alive and well in 2025, but the restaurant does warn that it requires extra prep time to make the dish. Be prepared for a bit of a wait, which is only fair for this much food. Also worth noting is that the exact weight of the challenge is up for debate. Some recent videos say it's about 8 pounds in total.

If the food isn't enough of a draw, the 24-hour diner also features a cocktail bar and a cabaret theater. You'd be hard-pressed to find many diners that can claim to bring all that to the table. Even if you don't want to try your hand at a breakfast big enough for four people, the Nicollet Diner clearly has a lot more to offer, including diner classics like burgers and milkshakes. Give it a spin the next time you're in the Twin Cities and see for yourself.