10 Breakfast Chains Serving The Best Bacon

It's always a glorious day when the topic is bacon. Thin, thick, or center-cut, it doesn't matter — when it's cooked well, this wonderful treat from the meat gods is something that shouldn't be taken for granted. Whether it be on its own or sprinkled atop another dish, a bite containing bacon has the potential to elevate your entire meal — or even your whole day. On the flip-side, biting into a limp, overly greasy slice can override your entire dining experience, and cast a dark cloud over the whole ordeal.

So today, it's time to celebrate the best of the best, and give credit to the breakfast chains out there that have recognized the importance of getting this beloved hunk of meat right. The list below contains a nice mix of old breakfast chain classics, as well as exciting up-and-comers that are taking full advantage of people's desire for an excellent meal to start their day. Sure, you can find ways to add more flavor to your bacon at home, but why not let the pros handle it? After all, there's a reason bacon tastes so much better at restaurants — especially at these breakfast establishments.

What started as a family business venture has since become a Midwestern darling. Even as the Egg Harbor Cafe continues expanding into states like Georgia and Colorado, it's in its home state of Illinois where you'll find the most locations. But whatever you happen to be when you wander through its doors, bacon lovers are in for a treat. Egg Harbor Cafe's secret to success isn't just the quality of its bacon — it's the variation as well.

If a maple bourbon bacon offering isn't enough to get your mouth watering, then how about a cherrywood variation? Or maybe applewood bacon fits your flavor profile a bit better? Whichever kind you decide to go with, multiple reviews claim that you're in for a treat. And despite its Midwestern roots, it seems like Egg Harbor isn't afraid to experiment by giving its bacon a kick, as the Cafe rolled out Habanero bacon in 2024 as a limited time offering.

Egg Harbor Cafe further shows its willingness to not only utilize its bacon in other dishes, but its penchant for puns with the prized pork piece as well. Bacon shows up in the restaurant's Bacado Omelet (an omelet featuring bacon and avocado), and the Bacamato Grill (a breakfast sandwich containing bacon, eggs, tomato and cheese). In addition, it also shows up in various salads, sandwiches, and is a featured star on the Cafe's robust gluten-free menu.

When a restaurant thinks so highly of one of their dishes that it refers to it as Million Dollar Bacon, it's a bold claim. Fortunately though, this offering from First Watch is worth every penny.

Made with brown sugar, black pepper, cayenne, and some syrup for good measure, an order with four of these pieces of pork gold is a worthwhile investment. At least it was according to one Yelper, who wrote, "It was sticky, sweet, spicy, and cooked to perfection!" A word of warning though before you dive in — you might want to make sure your affairs are in order, as one Tripadvisor reviewer claimed, "Their Million Dollar Bacon is to die for." Bacon appears in other offerings of course, like the restaurant's Double Bacon Parmesan Hash, but with First Watch even sharing ways to turn its Million Dollar Bacon into Million Dollar Pancakes, do you really need to order anything else?

According to the restaurant, their chefs aren't just turning any old pork cuts into magic. First Watch claims that it emphasizes getting its pork from farms that utilize group housing for their pigs. This means that the farms must house their pregnant sows in an environment where they have plenty of space to lie down and move around unimpeded. Its desire to provide their customers with quality ingredients is part of the untold truth of First Watch that's allowed it to become one of the country's fastest growing chains.

Let's face it, sometimes you don't simply need to start your day off with bacon — you need to get it going with a LOT of bacon. On those mornings when you wake up on the bacon side of the bed, ordering the Big Bacon Breakfast from Black Bear Diner might be the way to go. This diner knows not to skimp on their pork, serving up its thick-cut, hickory-smoked bacon in big, generously portioned strips. Aside from praising the taste, the two words constantly popping up in reviews about the bacon are 'thick' and 'crispy,' so you're not likely to find any limp and barely cooked pieces on your plate at Black Bear.

Unlike Egg Harbor Cafe and First Watch, Black Bear Diner is open all day, giving you the opportunity to get the restaurant's glorious bacon in your breakfast, lunch, AND dinner. After chowing down on a traditional breakfast plate full of hearty strips of bacon, you can follow that up with a B.L.T. or a bacon cheeseburger for lunch, and bring it home with a bowl of Bacon Mac' and Cheese for dinner. Whatever meal you come in for, be sure to come hungry, as part of the untold truth of the diner is that one of the goals of the Black Bear founders was to deliver a good meal with "bear-sized portions."

Try to contain your shock, because despite it being a place known for wild things constantly going down, Waffle House knows what it's doing when it comes to bacon. Yes, it's not exactly a destination restaurant, and the term 'no-frills' gets thrown around in nearly every description for it, but it's prolific for a reason. And that reason happens to be that after you stumble through its doors for a traditional breakfast offering, you more often than not leave satisfied. One Yelper succinctly summed up the Waffle House experience by writing, "The food is not gourmet, but it is good, fast and everything is cooked to order."

The House with the iconic yellow sign partners with Smithfield Foods out of Virginia for its bacon, claiming that "It delivers a perfect balance of crispy texture, smoky aroma, and salty-satisfying crunch." Based on the reviews, it seems that keeping your expectations in check and your order simple are two of the rules that everyone should know for eating at a Waffle House. The menu isn't exactly offering anything that reinvents the breakfast wheel, but the happiest reviews seem to come when customers embrace the experience and let that Smithfield bacon shine. The aspect that is perhaps the most enticing part of the bacon might just be the price point. Three pieces of smoky pork cooked to your preferred crispiness will only run you between $3.00 and $4.20 depending on where you live.

Another classic breakfast chain that's aged like a fine pair of over-easy eggs is Perkins, which has been slinging pancakes since it first opened its doors in 1958. But Perkins hasn't been surviving all these years just because of its pancakes, waffles, and other goodies from its bakery. According to various reviews, its Applewood smoked bacon has been just as clutch, playing an integral part in many of Perkins's delightfully named dishes. They bring a savory taste to the Fabulous Five (one egg, two bacon strips and two pancakes), the Magnificent Seven (TWO eggs, two bacon strips, and THREE pancakes), and the Tremendous Twelve (THREE eggs, FOUR pieces of bacon, FOUR pancakes, and hash browns or breakfast potatoes for good measure).

If you're getting the sense that it's another example of a restaurant excelling at keeping things simple behind fun and punny names, then congrats, and have a Triple Egg Dare Ya plate on us. Perkins is also another all-day establishment serving lunch and dinner as well, so its bacon makes an appearance in various burgers, as well as taking a starring role for the Big Bacon BLT. The mistake-free BLT is a result of Perkins giving the people what they wanted when it busted out Baconfest in 2022. Though the BLT has since made its way onto the regular menu, seasonal items celebrating the almighty bacon include triumphs such as the Maple Bacon Pancake Platter and the Bacon & Broccoli Breakfast Skillet.

After paying homage to the old favorites, it's time to get back to celebrating another newer kid on the block. Founded in 2010, The Toasted Yolk has quickly made a name for itself in the breakfast and brunch world, even earning itself a spot as one of the top 15 full-service restaurant franchises on the Franchise 500's 2024 ranking. Playing a key role in its success is its bacon, and numerous reviews are quick to point out that the restaurant has its crispiness game down pat. One Yelper remarked about how much of an accomplishment that actually is, writing, "This is probably the only place that has ever gotten my crispy bacon request exactly right!"

The Toasted Yolk is a bit more upscale than a Waffle House or Perkins, and with that comes a higher price tag. As co-founder and CEO Chris Milton admitted in 2022, "We're not the cheapest game in town and don't intend to be." With those raised prices come raised expectations — a high bar that many reviews claim the chain meets. One Tripadvisor user started off their review with "Oh my goodness, what a great way to start the day!" — and of course, the bacon got a shout-out as well.

Though it was sadly part of a limited time menu, be sure to keep an eye out for a comeback of the chain's Bacon Jam Burger, which had one Yelper summing up their review by writing, "#wtf #lifechanging."

It takes a brave restaurant to look at a perfectly good piece of bacon and say, 'Let's do something different with this.' But that's exactly what the creative culinary minds at Snooze: An A.M. Eatery did with their Bacon but Different Dish. Snooze takes three slices of its signature bacon and rubs it down with brown sugar before topping it with cayenne and chili flakes, finally finishing it off with a drizzling of house-made sriracha maple syrup. One Yelper amongst a sea of fans of the dish summed it up succinctly by writing, "The bacon was sweet with a little spice, The maple syrup glazed on the bacon and red pepper flakes took it to the next level."

But the secret to bacon-y success at Snooze is also the pork itself. The chain sources all its bacon from fellow Colorado-based supplier Tender Belly, a company whose mission is simply to "Bring happiness to hearts and bellies by crafting the most #CrazyTasty pork on planet earth." Thanks to their responsibly raised pork practices and their partnership with Snooze, both companies are achieving their goal of providing customers with an all-time bacon experience.

Snooze utilizes its bacon in other dishes, including the Protein BLT Bowl (with eggs and avocado among its other healthy ingredients), and as a bacon-espresso jam on its Habanero Pork Belly Benny. And for any traditionalists out there, a simple bacon and eggs dish is also an option.

It's time to once again kick it old-school, and it's hard to get any more classic than focusing on a place called The Original Pancake House. Serving up pancakes out of Portland since 1953, the chain has been spreading breakfast joy for decades by making sure it puts out quality ingredients on its dishes. Responding to a comment that OPH served the best bacon in Austin, one Redditor who claimed to work at the location wrote, "I'm vegetarian but can attest that we had lots of intense powwows over getting the bacon supplier just right."

As the name would suggest, various pancakes are the stars of the menu, though among the vast amount of choices is the bacon pancake option as well. The thick, center-cut bacon can also show up in an omelette or waffle, or you can cut right to the chase of your meat craving and order the Bacon Lovers dish, complete with three eggs and six slices of porky goodness. Reviews are constantly highlighting the thickness of the bacon, but this isn't a case of size over substance. As one Yelper bluntly put it, "The bacon is the best you'll ever eat."

Fans of 'Man V. Food' may only be aware of the Broken Yolk Café thanks to Adam Richman conquering its Iron Man Challenge, but thanks to that exposure, more and more people have gotten to know it by its food. After all, it was placed on FSR's top emerging chains list in 2019 for a good reason — and part of that reason is its bacon. Though Broken Yolk is more known for its extensive benedict options, their Applewood-smoked bacon can more than hold its own.

However, you can also just get the best of both worlds by combining the two with the Golden State Benedict, which adds grilled tomato, avocado, poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, and a drizzle or sriracha to your bacon experience. As one Yelper claimed, "Their Golden State Benedict is one of the best bennies I've ever had, hands down." You'll find some variation of that high praise for just about any review mentioning the Golden State dish, but unfortunately for that particular benedict, the bacon isn't interested in keeping it exclusive. You'll find the bacon providing an assist for a variety of breakfast sandwiches and burgers across the menu, as well as giving the establishment's Bloody Mary a salty garnish. It may not be the most over-the-top Bloody Mary in the country, but it will definitely get the job done.

When a dish inspires as many copycat recipes as the Pig-Candy Bacon Bites from Ruby Slipper does, it's safe to say that it's got some fans out there. Praise for the restaurant's Applewood-smoked bacon bites with a candy glaze is an exercise in finding the right superlatives, with praise running the gamut from "dangerously delicious" to one reviewer writing, "The pig-candy bacon sounds weird but trust me, it will change your life." And if you can't trust strangers on the internet in this crazy world, just who CAN you trust? 

Though it's known as Ruby Slipper around its native New Orleans, it may be going under the moniker of Ruby Sunshine in an area closer to you. But despite the name variation, rest assured that the deliciousness remains the same. Proudly wearing its Cajun inspired cuisine on its sleeve, the chain's Applewood-smoked bacon also appears in dishes like the Bananas Foster French Toast, as well as headlining Ruby's Bloody Mary offering. Even hidden among numerous five star reviews, is a diner who only offered the restaurant one star on account of a long wait time — but even in the midst of a negative review, the phrase "The best Bloody Mary my husband has had in years" stands out.